ICT in Korea

8/22/2019 ICT in Korea

1/24

Dae Joon Hwang | Hye-Kyung Yang | Hyeonjin Kim

E-Learningin the Republic of Korea


2/24

UNESCO I f If T E

A:Dae Joon Hwang (Proessor, Sungkyunkwan University, [email protected])

Hye-Kyung Yang (Principal Researcher, Korea Education Research InormationService, [email protected])

Hyeonjin Kim (Assistant Proessor, Korea National University o Education,[email protected])

Opinions expressed in this book are those o the authors and do not necessarilyrefect the views o UNESCO.

Published by the UNESCO Institute or Inormation echnologies in Education

8 Kedrova St., Bldg. ,

Moscow, 9, Russian Federation

el.: + 99 999

Fax: + 99 9

E-mail: [email protected]

iite.unesco.org

UNESCO Institute or Inormation echnologies in Education,

ISBN 98--9--Printed in the Russian Federation


3/24

Foreword

When, today, one wishes to capture the essence o the planets socio-

economic state o play, the expression Global Knowledge Society

seems to nd universal avour. It best renders, even cross-culturally,

the sense o a phenomenon that has permeated the language and

culture o everyone rom the Hong Kong trans-national banker to the

German ber-optics researcher, rom the Sakha (Yakutia) nomadic

reindeer herder to the Samoan re dancer.

o the extent that an individual, whether he/she lives in a subsistence

or R&D/Service-driven economy, has access to any orm o print

or electronic media, this person is a user o, and contributor to, thecreation, accumulation, storage, retrieval, analysis, and application

o knowledge. Indeed, all macro-economic orces share one thing in

common which is the generation o knowledge.

From the oregoing, two conclusions commend themselves. First,

the lowest common denominator o the entire matrix is education

and particularlybasic education (i.e. literacy and numeracy). Andsecond, i education is the primary driving regenerative orce, IC

plays a role o equivalent importance inasmuch as it is the vehicle

o choice by means o which knowledge is not only shared around

the globe but is also returned in the orm o user eed-back. Put

simply, IC helps proessional educators to re-examine some

o their initial assumptions about relevance, equity, and cost-

eectiveness and, where necessary, to make the adjustments neededto enrich the quality o the source rom which it emanated in the

rst place.


4/24

4 E-Learning in the Republic of Korea

Proessionals working in both the public and private sectors

have, or at least the past hal-century, recognized the need or

coherent policies in education and indeed some o UNESCOsmost seminal work has been done in the elds o policy and

nancing in education. Yet it is only recently that they have come

to realize that, by not including the place o IC in education, the

task is only hal done. And the starting point, it is widely agreed,

is the acknowledgment o the inter-connectedness o education

and IC. I education is the whato global knowledge and IC, the

how, then it ollows that, together, they urnish the answer to the

question why.

IC, and IC alone, has the capacity to provide the means by which

the widely-used concept o lielong learning has an operational

meaning. Without it, the notion is little more than a noble aspiration.

Without IC, concepts like equal access to education and education

or allare condemned to the ate o a slogan: however right they may

be, without the means to share the knowledge generated by ormal

and non-ormal educators, they can never be more than an empty

call to promote equity and justice.

It was in recognition o this act that, in the closing years o the

last century, UNESCOs General Conerence created the UNESCO

Institute or Inormation echnologies in Education (IIE). Located

in Moscow, it was tasked rst, with developing and implementing

the Organizations programmes in education and second, with

serving as a centre o excellence and technical expertise in this

eld. It continues today as the only such body in the entire

Organization and as such, plays indeed is expected to play

not only a regional but global role in promoting the application o

IC technology to a ull range o ormal and non-ormal learning

environments.


5/24

Foreword 5

Te IIE contributes to the Organizations eorts to, variously:

bridging the digital divide;

promoting e-environments as a means o reinorcing national

eorts to create knowledge societies;

contributing to policy dialogue;

supporting national and local eorts to harness IC in the service

o education and training;

disseminating research on best practices.

I wish to draw your attention to a particularly relevant publication

prepared by a number o well-known Korean policy makers, scientists

and practitioners, all o whom are, in one way or another, skilled in

the application o IC to education in their country, a country that

has made signicant advances in respect to both policy ormation

and e-Learning over the past ew years. In the pages that ollow, thereader will nd a detailed description o the challenges met, lessons

learned, and corrective steps taken in such areas as the planning,

implementation, and monitoring o IC-supported programmes.

It is my view that the eorts o our Korean colleagues pass the test

o excellence in its own right, the test o global relevance, and nally,

the test o responding to the expectations o the participants in theGlobal Knowledge Society. For those reasons, I take great pleasure in

commending this publication to all those who, whether personally

or proessionally, eel compelled to rise to what is arguably one o the

great challenges o the st century.

Dendev Badarch

UNESCO IIE Director a.i.


6/24

Executive Summary

Tis survey o IC innovations in education in the Republic o

Korea (ROK) introduces the IC policies and initiatives, including

the legal ramework, organizational structure, budget, and policy

implementation processes with a special ocus on inrastructure,curriculum, teacher training, global standards and a quality

assurance system, monitoring and evaluation systems, and the global

contribution. Te survey describes the process o policy planning and

implementation, goals, experiences, and lessons, which can serve as

a useul reerence to other UNESCO Member States in their policy

work.

Since 99 the development o ICs within the education system o

the Republic o Korea has been implemented under three national

master plans. Te rst Master Plan (99) was ocused on the

establishment o a world-class IC inrastructure in elementary and

secondary schools. Te objective o the second Master Plan (

) was to enhance the quality o education by allowing open

access to educational content and providing teacher training or theintegration o IC into classroom teaching practices. In addition,

the National Education Inormation System (NEIS) was developed

as a computer network maintained by the Ministry o Education

to acilitate the electronic management o all education-related

administrative tasks. Te third and most recent Master Plan (

) has been ocused on the creation o sustainable learning

environments with u-Learning and uture education through morefexible and secure educational services such as the development o

digital textbooks.


7/24

Executive Summary 7

Te use o IC in education in ROK has been driven by a strong

cooperation among three key players: Ministry o Education, Science,

and echnology (MES), Korea Education and Inormation Service(KERIS), and Metropolitan Provincial O ces o Education

(MPOEs). MES has been coordinating the processes rom policy

planning to implementation. As a government agency, KERIS has been

playing exclusive role in supporting and planning implementation

o the national IC policy. Sixteen MPOEs have been autonomously

implementing the national IC policy at the regional level.

Te establishment o IC inrastructure in schools was aimed to

promote education equity by bridging the digital divide. Te School

Advancement Project, which included the establishment o school

LANs, Internet-connected multimedia labs, provision o PC and

inormation devices or classrooms, and personnel support, had been

implemented according to the three national master plans. Since the

mid-99s national initiatives or supporting IC integration intothe school curriculum have been gathering momentum. Te projects

ranged rom educational content such as supplementary materials

and educational soware or the development o digital textbooks.

Educational content, which almost in ull has been provided and

shared in EDUNE, plays an important role in the curriculum

integration o IC.

Since the late 98s the ROK government has provided teacher

training or both IC literacy and integration purposes. Te ocus o

teacher training, however, has changed over the course o the three

master plans rom computer literacy to curriculum integration. In

addition, the government has built the teacher training ramework

or IC in education to meet the specic needs aced by teachers

throughout their career. Te new teacher roles and adequate ICcompetencies should be taken into consideration or the uture

design o teacher training.


8/24


Te inormation service system in education is comprised o

three main groups: EDUNE (or teaching and learning), EMIS

and NEIS (or administration), and CHLS (or home learning).EDUNE was developed to operate and provide multimedia

materials, instructional lesson plans and evaluation items

according to school level. EMIS ocuses mostly on collecting

annual statistical data rom educational institutions while NEIS

manages and integrates personnel, nancial, and school aairs

within or between institutions, regional o ces and the Ministry

o Education. CHLS provides individual learning materials andonline tutorial support in order to bridge the education divide or

aer school private tutoring. Tese services are aimed to provide

an eective environment, improve productivity and e ciency, and

harness IC in education nation-wide or teaching and learning

and administrative purposes.

As e-Learning technologies become increasingly utilized oreducational courses, issues related to standardization or reusability

and interoperability, assurance o quality, and prevention o

adverse eects become crucial. Tereore, national standards or

e-Learning were developed; a prime example is the enactment o

the Korea Educational Metadata (KEM). Furthermore, in 8 it

was proposed to the Joint echnical Committee (JC) /SC

o the International Organization or Standardization (ISO) andthe International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to integrate

South Korean national standards or e-Learning in international

standards. o enable quality control o e-Learning, the E-Learning

Quality Assurance System (EQAS) was established using such

criteria as content, service and platorm. o promote and ensure a

sae and sound cyberspace in the educational area, MES set up the

Education Cyber Security Center (ECSC) and implemented variouse-saety and e-ethics campaigns, as well as additional training

programmes.


9/24

Executive Summary 9

Monitoring and evaluation systems are vital or the diagnostics

o the current status o the initiatives, evaluation o the outcomes

and planning o the measures or urther improvement. Te overallscheme o monitoring and evaluation o IC policy in education

consists o measuring IC in education or schools, IC literacy tests

or students, as well as an external evaluation o major national IC

projects.

Beyond domestic implementation, the Korean government has

expanded its cooperation with the global community to reduce thedigital divide through IC in education. Representatives o over

countries visit the Republic o Korea every year to benchmark

best practices in this sphere. Te number o requests or consulting

projects or IC in education through ODA grants and EDCF loans

has increased considerably.

IC policy in education within the ROK has been recognized as a

best practice. Te achievements o Korean e-Learning and IC in

education policy are recognized as a result o a solid legal ramework,

systematic implementation mechanism, secured budget and support,

timely capacity building, successul cooperation between public and

private sectors, and an eective monitoring and evaluation system.

On the other hand, there were a air number o lessons that had to

be learned along the way. For the uture, the ROK government is

advised to continuously pay attention to urther investment in IC in

education or sustainable development o e-Learning and innovation

o educational practices.


10/24

Acknowledgements

Te material and data on educational institutes and institutions used

or analysis build on the initiatives and projects in IC in education

and e-Learning taken by MES.

Tis study beneted mostly rom support given by Dr. Se-Yeoung

Chun, KERIS President, through sharing the most current issues and

relevant research materials and results obtained by KERIS.

Dr. YoungSuk Suh and Dr. YongSang Cho devoted their time and

eorts to refect on the scope and contents o the study.

National I Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) contributed towards

multidimensional perspectives and sharing the results appeared in

annual publication o Survey o the e-Learning Industry in Korea

in .

Pieter Swart and Benjamin Campbell voluntarily contributed to

prooreading the text several times.


11/24

Table of Contents

Fw Ex S

Akw

I. Introduction 17

. Objectives

. Scope 8

. Te Current Status o IC Use in Education in the Republic o Korea

. Overview . High Demand or Education Innovation . IC Inrastructure . E-Learning to Reorm Education in the Republic o Korea

II. Policy Planning 25

. Overview . Directions o IC Use in Education . Roles o Organizations . Utilization o IC Inrastructure 9. Government Initiatives to Fully Utilize IC 9

. IC Policy or Quality Education . Te Master Plan I or IC Use in Education . Te Master Plan II or IC Use in Education . Te Master Plan III or IC Use in Education

. Policies or Promotion o E-Learning . Goals o E-Learning

. Mobilization o IC Policy . E-Learning in Higher Education

. Alignment o National Strategy

. Implications 9. Systematic Policy Implementation 9. Analysis o Major Factors in the Success o E-Learning

III. Policy Implementation 65

. Inrastructure . School Advancement Project . Disadvantaged Student Support . Implications 9


12/24


. Curriculum Integration 9. Educational Content . Digital extbooks . Implications

. eacher Capacity Building . eacher Competency Indicators . eacher raining . Implications 8

. Inormation Service Initiatives 8.. Education Inormation Service Framework 8. EDUNE - National Center or eaching and Learning 8

.. Cyber Home Learning System 89.. National Education Inormation System 9. EDUFINE 98. KOCW: OER Initiative in Korea .. Implications

. Development o National E-Learning Standards .. Overview o E-Learning Standardization .. Status o E-Learning Standard

.. E-Learning Quality Assurance System 8. Implications

. Prevention o Adverse Eects . Internet Security . Ethics in IC . Implications

IV. Monitoring and Evaluation 125

. Monitoring and Evaluation Scheme

. Measuring IC in Education

. IC Literacy Assessment 8

. IC Policy Evaluation

. Implications

V. Global Partnership 133

. Overview and Status

. Implications

VI. Conclusions 140

Reerences


13/24

List of Tables 13

List of Tables

able I-. E-Learners in the Republic o Koreaable I-. Te Roles o MES, KERIS, and MPOEs

able II-. Survey o E-Learning Supply Market in the Republico Korea

able II-. Survey o E-Learning Demand Market in the Republico Korea

able II-. Cyber Universities

able II-. Cyber Universities: LLEI

able II-. Goals o E-Learning in Higher Education Institutes

able II-. ypes o Available E-Learning Courses in Higher EducationInstitutes

able II-. Availability o E-Learning Courses

able II-8. Analysis o Student Preerence in E-Learning

able II-9. Expectations or E-Learning in Higher EducationInstitutions

able II-. Major Problems Facing Higher Education Institutions notUsing E-Learning

able II-. Analysis o REI and eachers rained

able II-. Participation o eachers

able III-. Te Number o Students per PC

able III-. ypes o Educational Content or Curriculum Integrationo IC

able III-. Evolution o Educational Content in the Republic o Korea

able III-. Current Status o Digital extbook Development

able III-. A Summary o the IC Skill Standard or eacher

able III-. eacher raining or IC in Education since 988

able III-. Development o Digital Content

able III-8. Education Inormation Acquired and Used throughEDUNE

able III-9. EDUNE Membership


14/24


able III-. Cyber Home Learning System Usage Statistics

able III-. E-Learning in Various Educational Areas

able III-. Status o Korean Industry Standards (8)

able III-. National Standards in Conormity with InternationalStandards

able III-. Educational Institutes covered by ECSC (as o 9)

able IV-. Description o Indicators

able IV-. Core Indicators Used to Assess Feasibility o a Project

List of Figures

Figure I-. Government Initiatives or IC in Education

Figure II-. Legal Frameworks or the Promotion o IC

Figure II-. Summary o the Tree Master Plans or IC Usein Education

Figure II-. Major E-Learning Initiatives by Korean Ministries

Figure III-. IC eacher raining Map

Figure III-. Education Inormation Sharing Framework

Figure III-. Te Conceptual Structure o the Cyber Home LearningSystem

Figure III-. Major Functions o EDUFINE

Figure III-. Paradigmatic Changes in Standards

Figure III-. E-Learning International Standardization System

Figure III-8. Government Initiatives in E-Learning

Figure V-. Digital Divide among Countries


15/24

List of Acronyms 15

List of Acronyms

CAI Computer Assisted InstructionCEN European Committee or Standardization

CER Computer Emergency Response eam

CHLS Cyber Home Learning System

DAC OECD Development Assistance Committee

DOI Digital Opportunity Index

EBS Educational Broadcasting Service

ECSC Education Cyber Security CenterEDCF Economic Development Cooperation Fund

EIU Economist Intelligence Unit

EQAS E-Learning Quality Assurance System

HE Higher Education

HRD Human Resource Development

IDC International Data Corporation

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

ISO International Organization or Standardization

ISS IC Skill Standard or eacher

IU International elecommunication Union

JC Joint echnical Committee

KAS Korean Agency or echnology and Standards

KEM Korea Educational Metadata

KERIS Korea Education and Research Inormation Service

KICE Korea Institute o Curriculum and Education

KNISE Korea National Institute or Special Education

KOCW Korean Open Courseware

KRIVE Korea Research Institute or Vocational Education andraining

LCMS Learning Content Management System

LLEI Lie Long Education Institute

LMS Learning Management System

LSC Learning echnology Standards Committee


16/24


MERLO Multimedia Educational Resource or Learning and Onlineeaching

MES Ministry o Education, Science and echnologyMHW Ministry o Health and Welare

MKE Ministry o Knowledge Economy

MOPAS Ministry o Public Administration and Securities

MOGAHA Ministry o Government Administration and Home Aairs

MOL Ministry o Employment and Labour

MPB Ministry o Planning and Budget

MPOE Metropolitan and Provincial O ces o EducationNEIS National Education Inormation System

NHRD National Human Resource Development

NIA National Inormation Society Agency

NIPA National I Industry Promotion Agency

NSAUE National Scholastic Aptitude est or University Entrance

NS National eacher raining Inormation Service

NURI New University or Regional Innovation

OCW Open Courseware

ODA O cial Development Assistance

OECD Organisation or Economic Co-operation and Development

OER Open Educational Resources

OSS Open Source Soware

PISA Programme or International Student Assessment

REI Remote Education and raining Institutes

RIS Regional Inormation System

ROK Republic o Korea

SIMS School Inormation Management System

I eacher raining Institute


17/24

II

1. ObjectivesUNESCO gives high priority to the use o inormation and

communication technologies (IC) or expanding access to quality

education. Te Dakar Framework or Action states that the potential

o IC should be used to help achieve EFA goals. According to the

Medium-erm Strategy o the UNESCO Institute or Inormation

echnologies in Education (IIE), ICTs can expand access and

enhance the quality o education. However, judicious choices are

essential or avoiding expensive errors that can have the opposite efect

to the one intended. Monitoring progress, understanding results, but

also learning by doing, are all essential to advancement (UNESCO

IIE, ). Te majority o UNESCO Member States recognize IC

as the catalyst or educational reorm and innovation leading to the

increase o knowledge and inormation accessibility, the revision o

curriculum to meet the new demands o uture education, teacher

development, social inclusion, and urther raising the quality o

education.

Te major objective o this study was to analyse inormation on

the reorm o educational system and identiy the best practices

in e-Learning perormed in the Republic o Korea. Te survey

describes the process o policy planning and implementation, goals,

experiences, and lessons, which can serve as a useul reerence to

UNESCO Member States in their education policy work.


18/24


Te goal o the rst eorts in adopting IC in education in Korea

that date back to 98 was to provide classrooms and teachers with

computers as a means to renovate school acilities and teachingmethods or primary and secondary school students. Te use o

IC in education has evolved rom merely improving the school

environment to making education globally competitive through

continuous innovation o the educational system and simultaneous

nurturing o teacher capacity.

Te enactment o the E-learning Industry Development Law in led to the development o a promising learning environment,

a knowledge business, whose revenue amounted to USD . billion

in 9, and promotion o smart education to be made available to

the ubiquitous society. E-learning contributed to the innovation o

training methods or teachers, employees, and government o cials.

It has assumed an important role in the nurturing o human resources

across various sectors o Korean society.

Te study pays special attention to why and how IC use in

education and e-Learning have helped to innovate education and

training in Korea and the ways it ollowed in order to eectively meet

the challenges and demands o uture education. Tis survey also

discusses human actors: the characteristics o students, teachers and

parents, the recognition o IC by CEOs and the teachers o primary

and secondary schools which all constitute a signicant part o the

core considerations or planning policies aimed at IC promotion.

2. Scope

Tis analytical study includes an overview o e-Learning policies

and the implementation o IC use in education in Korea. We willdiscuss the legal ramework, organizational structure, and the ways

o mobilizing unds necessary or this eort. We will also consider


19/24

Introduction 19

the policy implementation process and place a special ocus on

inrastructure, curriculum, teacher training, global standards, quality

assurance, monitoring and evaluation systems, and the global contri-bution. Te research is underlain by the conceptual ramework, which

rests upon the establishment o IC inrastructure, development o

the education inormation service, legal oundations, and global

partnerships. Each chapter is concluded by policy implications that

summarize the lessons, suggestions, experiences, and raise issues to

be addressed in the uture.

Te initiatives taken during three ve-year master plans to promote

IC use and e-Learning in the education system are summarized

in Figure I-. Te initiatives were grouped into ve categories:

inormation service, teacher capacity building, content development,

inrastructure, and organizational structures. Te right line shows

Figure I-1. Government Initiatives for ICT in Education.

Source: Hwang (2008a).

KoreanExp_16Nov10DJHwang

Master

Plan III

MasterPlan II

Master

Plan I

EDUNET

SchoolAdministraonSystem

EducaonResourcesSharingSystem

EBS

NEIS

CHLS

Edu-fine

u-Learningmodel school

Computereducaonin schools

Teachertraining

ICT modelschool

Life-spanteachertraining

e-Teachertraining

CAIcontent

1996

Computersubject

Expandcontent

Mulmediacontent

Learningobject

Metadatastandard

Teaching-learningmodel

Self-directedlearningcontent

KSX7001

DigitalTextbook

PCs,

H/W

SchoolNetwork(LAN)

Internetconnecon inall schools

e-Learninginfra.

u-Learninginfra.

Na

onalbureau

KMEC

KERIS

Regionalbureau

Regionalcenterfor ICT ineducaon

Educaon

CyberSecurityCenter

2001 2006

EDUNET: Educaonal informaon Service Portal

EBS: Educaon Broadcasng Staon

NEIS: Naonal Educaon Informaon System

CHLS: Cyber Home Learning System

KMEC: Korea Mulmedia Educaon Center

KERIS: Korea Educaon & Research Informaon Service

Educaon informaon service

Capacity building for teacher

ICT in educaon standardizaon& Educaonal content

Infrastructure

ICT in educaon policy

Initiatives of ICT Use in Education


20/24


the organizational structure in charge o a specic part o promotion

o IC in education. Te Korea Education and Inormation Service

(KERIS) was established in April 999 to support, plan, promote,and monitor the adoption and utilization o IC in education. Te

Education Cyber Security Centre was set up to provide education

institutes with a secure environment or Internet access, use o

education inormation services, and protection against external

hacking attempts. Te next line depicts the evolution o the use o

IC inrastructure rom hardware acilities available in classrooms to

e-Learning and urther towards a ubiquitous learning inrastructure.

Te central line shows the migration path o educational content

development rom Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) to digital

textbooks, which are quite similar to e-books available at present. Te

line second rom the le depicts the evolution o the teacher training

system to nurture teachers in order to meet the demands raised by

students, to become aware o technology use and the paradigm shi.

Te le line shows government initiatives taken to meet the demands

o students, teachers, schools, and the government.

3. The Current Status of ICT Use in Education

in the Republic of Korea

3.1 Overview

Rapid development o inormation technology helps to drive

knowledge and inormation-based society. How to dene knowledge

and inormation-based society and what kind o trends can be

expected in terms o change? In knowledge and inormation-based

society, a new economic principle directs the society: knowledge isconsidered more important than any other property; knowledge and

inormation prompt tougher competition than ever beore.


21/24

Introduction 21

Te demands associated with social change lead education reorm.

Education must be able to respond to social changes and ensure

adequate training o human resources to satisy the demands o thechanging society. No matter how hard we try to prepare or such

changes, nobody can ully anticipate or predict changes to come.

Tereore, a national strategic human resources development plan

or the next generation should be prepared on the basis o proper

oresight. Our society is increasingly multi-disciplinary. So an

individual cannot live autonomously and must be able to cooperate

and collaborate with others. Tus, importance o e cient andeective communication and collaborative skills becomes a critical

actor in education.

3.2 High Demand for the Innovation of Education

Te Republic o Korea aces such issues as the increase o private

tutoring expenses, the quality o public education, the grade and

competition-centred education system surrounding the National

Scholastic Aptitude est or University Entrance (NSAUE),

which oen results in the declining sel-esteem o teachers and

urther discomort o parents with the educational system. Te

dissatisaction o students and parents with public education leads

to extreme dependence on private education, even though it is

expensive. Tis trend restricts access to educational opportunities

or all on equal terms and impedes social harmonization in Korean

society.

In order to solve the education-related problems and to respond to the

new demands o the changing society, there is a need or reorming

school education and the educational system on the whole. IC use

in education and e-Learning as one o its components are one o thebest ways to expand educational opportunity so that students and

citizens can be satised with education.


22/24


3.3 ICT Infrastructure

Te Republic o Korea has built a world-class I inrastructure andInternet acilities nationwide. For instance, the average number o stu-

dents per personal computer is .8, and .% o schools are equipped

with Mbps Internet lines. Te majority o the population in Korea is

able to access the Internet anywhere and anytime: Internet utilization

rate is .% and 89.9% o the population use the Internet at home.

E-learning was adopted by 8.% o regular education institutes

in 9. According to the national statistics, 9.% o regular

educational institutes adopted e-Learning in , .% in

and .% in . However, e-Learning has been adopted in

9.% o higher education institutes beore the year , which

means that e-Learning began to be used in higher education earlier

than in primary and secondary education in Korea. Te adoption

o e-Learning was the highest in primary schools ollowed by

secondary schools and universities: primary schools (88.%), middle

schools (8.%), high schools (8.%), junior-high schools (.%),

junior colleges (.%), and universities (8.%). E-learning has

been recognized as a major tool or nurturing and training human

resources, with the reported use by , government o cials in

8, ,, employees and workers employed by companies in

8, and , teachers per year.With the dramatic increase in the use o e-Learning, its quality

management required the attention o learners and the government.

In addition, increased attention was paid to the sustenance o high

quality e-Learning services running at schools, cyber universities, as

well as e-Learning institutions established or job training, teacher

training, and government o cial training. According to the results

o the national poll, Korean learners ound that the most attractive

eatures o e-Learning were cost saving and learning time ollowed by

system stability, content quality, diversity, and learning eects.


23/24

Introduction 23

3.4 E-Learning to Reform Education

in the Republic of Korea

Te results achieved since the introduction o IC in education

make it possible to consider the implementation o e-Learning as an

alternative way to reorm education in the Republic o Korea. First,

Korea has built a top-ranked I inrastructure over the last decade.

Te Facilitating E-Learning Industry Law denes e-Learning as a

learning process utilizing electronic devices, inormation technology

and broadcasting communication technology. According to theInternational elecommunication Union (IU) in , with the

Cyber Korea Plan the Republic o Korea was ranked th in the

world in terms o PC diusion rates and st in the number o registered

high-speed Internet users. As stated in the Economist Intelligence Unit

() study, the ROK was the th among countries or e-Learning

readiness, o which all the top countries, except or Korea, were

English-speaking countries. Te Republic o Korea is abreast the U.S in

the area o e-Learning readiness in the industrial eld. In addition, the

Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS) programme and e-Learning

service or supporting the high school graduates to prepare or

NSAUE, which are part o the national initiative taken to reduce

huge private tutoring expenses paid by Korean amily, is a unique

educational system which drives the new I era with the convergence

o Internet and broadcasting communication technology. Tereore,

the existing IC inrastructure, combined with the readiness and

preparation or e-Learning lays ground or a new educational system.

Second, e-Learning drives education reorm that provides access

anytime and anywhere to anyone with a desire to study. Generally,

e-Learning means utilizing IC to expand education; however, this

does not mean just utilizing IC as an end. E-Learning suggests

utilizing IC to remove limitations o time and space so that anyone

could have the opportunity to study and learn at an individual level.


24/24


able I- shows that e-Learning became quite popular in the Republic

o Korea regardless o gender, age, and educational and vocational

background o learners. Te highest ratio o young people is explainedby the act that they were taking courses relevant to NSAUE aer

school. Tis was also proved by the growth ratio o 9.% in 9 as

compared to the number o high school students in 8.

Table I-1

E-Learners in the Republic of Korea

Category 2007 (%) 2008 (%) 2009 (%)Growth

Rao (%)

Total 39.4 45.0 48.3 3.3

Gender Male 45.8 47.6 50.4 2.8

Female 31.5 41.9 46.1 4.2

Age Group 6-19 67.0 70.9 72.0 1.1

20-29 50.7 61.3 62.6 1.3

30-39 27.2 30.5 40.8 10.3

40-49 23.4 29.6 31.7 2.1

More than 50 11.2 13.5 18.4 4.9

EducaonalBackground

Pre/Elementary 61.3 70.3 62.7 -7.6

Middle 65.6 64.5 84.2 19.7

High 77.4 81.2 90.5 9.3

University, Graduate School 69.5 69.3 70.2 0.9

VocaonalBackground

Student 66.8 70.5

Professional Clerical 43.5 48.8

Service/Producon 16.1 22.4 NA NA

Housewife 10.0 10.5

Jobless 21.1 26.5

Source: NIPA (2010). Reformulated by Hwang (2009a).

Documents

ICT in Korea