Learn Anywhere at Any Time
Learn Anywhere at Any Time
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  • 승인 2007.08.13 13:01
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The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that South Korea will have the most aged population in the world by the year 2025. Analysts predict that the number of elderly will reach up to 37.3% by 2050, beating the records of Japan (36.5%), and Italy (34.4%). This means that Korea's older population will be put in the pressure cooker of re-education in order to meet the demands of the global labor market.

One of the institutions that offers education for lifelong learning is Korea Digital University (KDU), one of the first accredited universities to offer online college education with complete degree programs. Not only is it good news for the older population, because KDU also gives a second chance to youngsters who could not continue their higher education due to various circumstances.

Taking a step further, KDU has started to offer free courses for foreigners who seek to learn Korean language and culture. This will be the perfect chance for those families in rural areas who have foreign spouses. PhD Kim Choong- soon, president of Korea Digital University, set aside everything he built up in the States for close to four decades to join the founder of the school in 2001. He was there when KDU rented out some space from affiliated schools like Korea University and the Dong-A Ilbo, a Korean newspaper, to start with seven academic departments and 800 students. Five years have passed since he dedicated his heart to the pursuit of KDU's mission to provide continuing education for lifelong learning, to promote universal access to higher education, and to stand at the forefront of higher education reform in Korea.

In May 2007, KDU completed building an independent, brand new three floor complex in the south of Mountain Gye in alliance with thirteen departments and more than 7,000 multinational students. The reporter met President Kim Choongsoon to conduct an interview in this very building where she could still smell the paint. "Learning is Lifelong," the interview started with a powerful phrase.

Anyone, anytime, and anywhere with Korea Digital University

"Korea is so stingy about giving a second chance. Imagine corns, beans, and rice put in a jar. When you filter it out, the big ones can go out first, but the left ones still have a chance to prove themselves later," President Kim Choong-soon started.

President Kim is well aware of the American educational system since he himself completed undergraduate and graduate school in the States and has taught for close to three decades at UT Martin. Indeed, US students are given at least four chances a year to take the two college entrance exams, the SAT or ACT from their freshman year of high school, and they are allowed to use the best score out of all when they apply for university. That makes at least 16 chances to prove oneself on an exam.

"But Korea seldom provides a second chance," President Kim continued, "no matter how much time, money, and energy the students invested to do their best in learning, the college entrance exam they take once at the end of their senior year decides their fate. However, even highly regarded students could be ill, disrupted by any possible circumstance, or could make a mistake on the very date of exam and do badly on the test. Look at the number of college entrance exam re-takers who are left out for another entire year to restudy for the exam to get into a decent university. In other cases, those students who make it at first sometimes cannot afford the high cost of university tuition. Our conviction is that higher education should be available to Anyone, Anytime, and Anywhere. And we have thus begun a campaign to promote universal access to higher education."

This reporter stayed in the States for nine years. In the states, it is common to see fifty year old men and women attending a state university or community college only to satisfy their interest in learning and to be updated with the subjects or information they were interested in at a young age.

There are not many universities or higher education institutions that are similar to state run universities in Korea. It was President Kim's very first vision to lead the University as a high quality yet low tuition learning institution to start with and he has met his goal. "We do not ask for any requirements to be enrolled in our school. Anyone who seeks an opportunity to learn, or continue learning, can come to our school. We are wide open for anyone who has a passion for learning. But that does not mean that our school is low quality. It is not the students who decide the quality of the school, but it is the learning facilities and the faculty who guide and encourage the students to go so much further. We have very competitive faculty and staff members." The President adds: "Our faculty members endlessly conduct research for better and higher education and all of them are well experienced to find their own methods and beliefs in both teaching and learning. I am very proud of them."

The academic programs at KDU are divided into 13 departments and 27 specialized fields, and are offered as majors, minors, and double-majors. Students can design their specific majors by combining the courses offered by the 13 departments, with approval of the faculty.

The academic departments include the Department of Digital Media Design, Computer and Information Science, Journalism and Mass Communication, Business Administration, Real Estate Economics, Taxation and Accounting, Social Welfare, Adolescent Science, Law, Information and Public Administration, Foreign Languages, Continuing Education, and Arts and Culture. "95% of KDU students hold day-time jobs and are specialists in their own field. Within each academic department students find fellow specialists working in the same social arena, which forms an ideal setting for networking, idea sharing, and forming partnerships," the representative added.

Students can take any courses belonging to each department anywhere the Internet is accessible. They can even download the contents on their MP3s or other portable devices to listen, watch, and learn. The cost per course is 300,000 won (US$325). The university rates its tuition on the basis of credits to aid the students' flexible financial and academic planning.

Are you friend or foe

In spite of the massive potential and factors the university could offer and contribute to a society, the government has not shown any support so far to the university, yet the university has successfully been developing its own qualities and value. A related party spoke on this subject: "It is because of the general population's prejudice- most still hang over on a prejudice that on-line teaching is inferior to off-line teaching."

It is the corporation POSCO that made the first move on sponsorship. With POSCO's sponsoring, immigrant women and their spouses and children can participate in the e-learning Campaign for Multicultural Families at no cost. President Kim lit up his face as he introduced the program: "70,000 women from Southeast Asian countries are married to Korean men. We developed internet Korean language and culture programs to support multicultural families and their members in Korean society. The education program is offered in five different languages: Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and English. At this point, those foreigners who reside in Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do can take advantage of this program for free. But we hope to see good results so that POSCO can continue to sponsor us to give more chances to more people out there."

The content is in animation format, very easy and interesting for anyone to approach in learning. Currently, the KDU students in Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do regions are volunteering to promote and advertise the program and teach the foreign spouses at each regional hall to assist them in becoming familiar with the computer, register, and interactions at the online cafe.

President Kim added: "We are also developing a Vietnamese course on our own, considering that it is ideal for Korean husbands who have Vietnamese spouses to learn the spouses' culture and language for the goodness of family and of the society. This project was developed with no support so it was a gradual process, but we are thrilled to introduce the course next semester. It will be offered for low tuition."

It is about time for tax paying citizens to be active in asking for their rights to take the full advantage of life-long education and online education programs that can improve citizens anywhere at any time. And also it is about time for the government and enterprise to take part in sponsorship to allow KDU to fully serve society. President's Kim's love of education remains in this reporter's heart. "We have been stingy to advertise or promote our school to the public," he continued, "we thought that if we have resources for that, we'd rather use it to hire better faculty or use it to create better content."


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