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A new school year has begun for many Korean students this week.
More than 70 percent of high school graduates in Korea enter college, but not all of them
attend what you'd call traditional universities. A growing number are going online... to do
their studies. Kwon Soa reports. Excitement is in the air
at Seoul National University's orientation ceremony, where thousands of new young people
are marking the start of student life. It's the same scene at another welcoming event
for freshmen at another university. But here at Seoul Cyber University, students
do not walk around the campus, looking for their classrooms, they jump on the internet
to take their classes. Moon So-yun is a cyber university sophomore.
She graduated from a two-year college program, but became interested in counseling psychology,
and tried to find a way to balance a job and her studies.
"The biggest advantage of taking cyber university classes is, that you have no restrictions
as to time, location, or age."
So-yun says sudden pop quizzes and discussions make the courses more interactive.
"Many cyber universities do not limit their education to online classes, but give students
the opportunity to take part in offline courses and activities at their offline campuses."
Professors say online classes are not only good for students, but for teachers as well.
"For professors of offline universities, it's not easy to receive feedback or monitor yourself.
That goes for me too, as I have worked at conventional universities for 10 years. But
since my classes are now filmed, I can get concrete feedback."
There were only nine cyber universities in Korea in 2001; today there are 21.
The number of cyber students is on the rise too, jumping from 6-thousand in 2001 to nearly
1-hundred-15-thousand in 2013.
Experts attribute the jump to the increasing number of students pursuing life-long education.
Much lower tuition prices have also played a role.
However, cyber universities still face challenges compared to brick and mortor institutions.
"I think the credibility of cyber universities is right now in an ongoing examination period
time. Some areas' quality is doubted, in terms of degree programs and methodology of teaching
and learning and job skills, etc."
Despite the self-evident figures and the increasing popularity, of cyber universities, iit will
take time for cyber universities to develop the respect afforded to conventional schools.
Kwon Soa, Arirang News.