Years after the coronavirus pandemic ended, a rising variety of universities in Korea are bringing again on-line lectures, prompting critics to warn that the comfort of distant studying could come on the expense of academic high quality.
Compounding the issue, weak tutorial oversight in on-line programs, together with fierce competitors for grades in a difficult job market, has sparked a sequence of mass dishonest scandals at universities throughout the nation.
In keeping with knowledge from the Ministry of Schooling’s Increased Schooling in Korea web site, Thursday, six main universities in Seoul — Seoul Nationwide College, Yonsei College, Korea College, Sogang College, Sungkyunkwan College and Hanyang College — provided a complete of 534 on-line programs within the second semester of 2024.
Yonsei College had probably the most with 321, adopted by Sungkyunkwan College with 56, Seoul Nationwide College with 51, Korea and Hanyang universities with 44 every and Sogang College with 18.
On-line courses expanded quickly in 2020 in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however even after in-person educating resumed within the second semester of 2022, a number of universities continued growing their on-line choices.
Seoul Nationwide College noticed its variety of distant courses rise from three to 51, Yonsei from 34 to 321 and Sogang from one to 18, indicating that on-line studying stays firmly embedded in college curricula.
Universities are more and more increasing on-line programs to chop prices. Giant digital lectures enable many college students to attend concurrently with out the necessity for bodily school rooms.
For professors, on-line courses additionally supply comfort — as soon as recorded, lectures might be reused in later semesters, and even exams are generally carried out remotely, lowering the burden of supervision and administration.
For college students scuffling with grade competitors and job preparation, on-line courses can appear interesting. Attendance can usually get replaced by merely watching lecture movies, whereas assignments and exams are typically monitored much less strictly.
Up to now, the training ministry strictly restricted on-line programs for conventional universities, apart from cyber universities. However these restrictions have now been utterly lifted.
Universities, seeing the monetary advantages of on-line courses that expanded in the course of the pandemic, have been reluctant to scale them again. On the identical time, professors, dealing with much less oversight and administrative work, are accused of permitting blind spots in tutorial administration to persist.
That is additionally identified as a key issue that led latest mass dishonest incidents at Yonsei and Korea universities, which occurred throughout massive on-line programs that carried out their exams just about.
Nonetheless, critics warn that as on-line courses improve, the general high quality of training is certain to say no.
Park Joo-ho, a professor at Hanyang College’s Division of Schooling, identified that it’s time to replicate on whether or not on-line courses really contribute to the essence and function of training.
“When courses are carried out on-line or web-based, the human interplay that drives change and studying disappears,” he stated. “Regardless of how superior the web format turns into, it may possibly by no means totally match the impression of in-person educating.”
Park additionally famous that universities are more and more turning to on-line training as a way to generate income amid rising monetary strain.
“Just lately, not solely in Korea but additionally at many U.S. state universities, on-line grasp’s packages are increasing quickly. However from the basic perspective of training, in-person studying ought to take precedence,” he stated.
