Universities in Korea show increase of interest in Open Course Ware
It all started with one single university’s attempt to share knowledge. The Open Course Ware (OCW) began to take form when MIT proposed to share their courses online in the pursuit of spreading the opportunity to learn in 2002.
Since then, more than 200 universities around the world have been developing their content in virtual area by sharing their lectures through OCW for the last 10 years. In Korea, Korean Open Course Ware (KOCW) allows universities to voluntarily give out lectures on the web and provide more chances for education. Additionally, there are universities which have established their own OCW Web sites such as SNOW (Sookmyung Network for an Open World) and HOWL (Hanyang Open World for Learning).
In SNOW, there is a student volunteer group named “Knowledge Leader” that supervises SNOW.
“According to students, they could acquire global knowledge through the lectures uploaded on SNOW,” said Ha Hye-sook, an official from the Knowledge and Information Management of SNOW. “It is students’ support that allowed SNOW to reach the present quality for the last three years.”
In an attempt to follow this knowledge-sharing trend, Ewha has been providing its lectures through KOCW since 2009 and plans to launch the school’s own OCW Web site, the Ewha OCW, in 2013.
Ewha believes that the service’s benefits include improving university lectures as well as helping more people other than its own students to learn.
“It is true that the country strongly encourages local universities to join the OCW trend,” Cheon said. “But the more important reason for the service is based on the belief that it would be an efficient way to improve the quality of the lectures.”
The professors also express positive comments about the global OCW trend.
“I believe that knowledge is meant for sharing and it has to be done in more diverse ways,” professor Choi Jae-chun (Life Science) said. “Having more knowledge does not guarantee success. Sharing is the most efficient way to develop together as a whole.”
* Reporter: Ko Min-seok & Chung Che-yoon & Lee Sang-ha
* E-mail: minseok_ko@ewhain.net & thfl353@ewhain.net &banilab5748@ewhain.net