Online education revolution in Korea

By Sah Dong-seok

Every time a new government is in place, presidents typically offer parents assurances of broad-based education reform, which often fails to materialize. President Park Geun-hye is no exception. When she received a briefing from the Education Ministry in late March, she expressed the need for creative education, saying “the beginning of welfare is education.’’ This time, too, few seem to believe that her endeavor will be realized during her five-year tenure.

This is because debates on education boil down to a university entrance exam ― an education black hole that sucks in all other outstanding issues. The early admission system introduced in the late 1990s was a direct outcome of some of the promised reforms. The previous Lee Myung-bak administration also introduced the admissions officer system under the pretext of narrowing the polarizing trend in education and selecting successful candidates by assessing creativity and potential.

Yet it’s questionable whether all these newly introduced admission systems have satisfied parents. Rather, there is lingering doubt on whether they have contributed ― in one form or another ― to alleviating inequality in education resulting from the gap between the rich and the poor. And the reality is that more low-income families have descended to the “edu poor’’ under the financial weight of private education for their children.

In contrast, overseas education scenes are changing at a fast pace. A case in point is the rapid spread of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, which have come under the spotlight as tools of an online education revolution. While the MOOC revolution kicked into high gear early last year in the United States amid keen attention, Korean universities remain aloof within the global whirlwind of higher education.

Some of Korean universities are now content with offering some lectures online for free under the so-called open education resources (OER) movement. There are also 16 cyber universities across the nation but they are a far cry from MOOCs in that they remain closed to outsiders. Considering that there is no future for a nation lagging behind in education, we may be in a quite worrisome state.

Coursera, a leading MOOC platform co-founded by two Stanford computer scientists in January last year, has nearly 3 million students in 328 courses from 62 universities around the world including Princeton, Brown, Columbia and other elite universities. Institutions of higher learning from China, Japan and Taiwan are participating in the initiative but not a single Korean university is in it.

While traditional online courses charge tuition, carry credit and limit enrollment to ensure interaction with instructors, the MOOC is usually free, credit-less and massive, according to a description of the MOOC by the New York Times. Anyone with an Internet connection can enroll and feedback is possible. Teaching assistants may monitor discussion boards and there could be homework and exams.

The greatest advantage of the MOOC is to make it possible for anyone to attend lectures given by the world’s renowned scholars from top universities almost free of charge; Coursera and Udacity, another for-profit MOOC, make both ends meet by charging fees on those who want certificates after completing the class. Isn’t it revolutionary if one can enjoy the effect of going abroad for studies without doing so ― at much lower costs? This must be a much-needed education platform, especially for poor students in poor countries.

As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said, we may see the day when anyone can use the MOOC to “create his or her own college degree by taking the best online courses from the best professors from around the world.’’

Given its revolutionary potential, some critics forecast that only 200 out of 4,500 universities in the U.S. may survive amid the rapid spread of MOOCs. And some American companies are reportedly moving to hire those who complete these online courses with good grades. Anant Agarwal, president of edX, a nonprofit MOOC co-built by MIT and Harvard, even predicts that “students will one day arrive on campus with MOOC credits the way they do now with Advanced Placement.’’

Of course, there are problems in these online courses. Only a small percentage of students complete the coursework and most of them are still from the middle and upper classes. And it can’t be denied that the real value of education comes through face-to-face debate and discussion between teachers and students before, during and after class.

Nonetheless, the MOOC and other revolutionary education tools raises fundamental questions on what students can earn from on-campus experiences at a time when all things are on Google. Will it pay if students take pains to go to college under the tuition burden of nearly 10 million won a year?

Education authorities will embark on changing the college entrance system soon in such a direction as to simplify admission rules as President Park pledged during her election campaign. But the time is long past for the nation to resolve all our deep-seated education problems by making cosmetic changes.

What’s needed now is to revolutionize our education system and the MOOC can be a viable option. The Education Ministry should act right away to create the Korean version of the revolutionary e-learning platform. This will provide a clue for Park to lead the nation out of the education “arms race.’’

The writer is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times. Contact him at sahds@ktimes.co.kr.