e-Learning in South Korea

Korea embraced e-learning with the same enthusiasm and holistic thinking that has typified its approach to other e-strategies.

Korea’s development and subsequent maintenance of it advanced technology infrastructure as one of the best in the world Korea has provided the necessary conditions for e-learning to flourish – and so it has.

Korea’s ability to see its e-strategies as potential commercial opportunities and the means to increase its international competitiveness within the coming global knowledge economy is unflinching.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC) supported by every Korean administration has heavily promoted e-strategies since 1996 and has been intent on removing the digital divide in Korea (and subsequently – Internationally).

Almost uniquely, the Korean government has promoted e-learning on all fronts of education as part of its lifelong learning and commercialization philosophies – K-12 (primary and secondary schools), government civil servants, vocational training and private sector commercialization.

E-Learning in the Private Sector

In 1999 Korea’s Ministry of Labor introduced an Internet Communications Training Program and the Employment Insurance Refund Policy (providing incentives to companies using online training for their employees).

This led to an intensification of e-learning in many of the large Chaebols , e.g. KT, Posco, LG and Samsung.

Indeed, Samsung was an early adopter of e-learning across the many facets of this large conglomerate and, like many other private sector organizations in Korea, quick to identify e-learning as yet another major domestic and international commercial opportunity – commercializing many of its e-learning activities. 2000 also saw the establishment of the first commercial online ‘Hagwon’ or cram school.

To support ongoing commercialization the MOIC established the ‘Law for developing On-line Contents Industry’ in 2001 - focusing on both the development of digital content for education and the development of IT experts in the field of e-learning.

E-Learning in Government

Also in 2001 the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA) put into effect regulations for cyber training of government civil servants – serving the dual strategy of driving e-enabled government efficiency and stimulating the domestic market for e-learning products and services.

E-Learning for Higher Education

In higher learning too - the government has long promoted the use of e-learning and distance learning .

By 1998 over 40% of higher learning establishments were offering distance learning courses over the Internet.

By 2006 over half of all 4-year colleges and universities (particularly those with 10,000+ student enrollments – 90%) were offering e-learning courses.

In 2001, the Ministry of Education and Human Resource development (MOEHRD) enacted the ‘Cyber University Foundation Law’ and by 2004 some seventeen Cyber Universities were running – almost half as joint ventures between academia and private companies.

Another five Cyber Universities are expected to receive their charter in 2010 as fully fledged Higher Learning Establishments and an effort is underway to increase the number of foreign students.

E-Learning for K-12

Under the Korean Ministry of Education’s (MOE) six year plan (1997 to 2002) undertook an extensive program to equip all Korean primary and secondary schools with computer labs (two/school), computers for all teachers, computerized student profiles and records and the development of educational content and the implementation of e-learning under the auspices of a newly established multi-media education center.

The MOE’s approach for K-12 has been targeted at blended learning. However, such is the advance of e-learning by primary and secondary students in Korea that some commentators are predicting that students will only attend school for social and physical education.

Eight out of ten K-12 students in Korea will attend cramming sessions outside of school hours and this has created a major industry in Korea.

In 2000 one the first online ‘cramming schools’ was launched and today Megastudy.net has become South Korea’s fastest-growing technology company, with sales expected to grow 22.5 percent this year (2009), to $195 million.

In 2004 the government-run Education Broadcasting System (EBS) began running free tutorials on national examinations for secondary school students on the Internet and by 2009 had 2.8 million subscribers.

E-Learning for Health

Widespread adoption of e-learning in health education has been very slow in Korea.

A number of factors may have contributed to this – in particular, the vast amount of information and multilingual content that needs to be converted places it beyond the capacity (financial, time-wise and technically) of any one institution.

Prompted in part by recent developments in Internet technology (particularly collaborative Web 2.0 and Content 2.0 ) some 28 Korean Medical Schools established an e-learning consortium for medical education in Korea. Since that time, assisted by the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and the thematic network development expertise of Medical Education in Europe (MEDINE) the consortium has been successful in creating an e-learning portal e-MedEdu.

The portal, though exhibiting the odd blend English and Korean, includes some 200+ virtual patients, 400+images and video clips showing clinical procedures and diagnosis. The consortium is expending considerable effort on researching the design of e-learning in health settings and virtual patients in particular.

Globalization of e-Learning

Korea’s aspiration for e-learning, as with other areas of its u-Korea ‘blue ocean’ strategy, is the fostering of Korean e-learning product, service and know-how as a global brand. This can be seen in the following statement by the Director General of the Ministry of Education:

“….the Ministry plans to prepare a foundation for Korea’s elearning industries and experts to advance into foreign markets smoothly through a non-business model for educational informatization that has great ripple effects. ….Accordingly, we plan to maximize ripple effects in local countries through the educational informatization support project, which is made under the premise of free assistance and exchanges for three to five years.”

Challenges

The Korean’s addiction to the Internet, obsession with Hagwon (cramming) and ubiquitous life-long learning provide a level of demand for u-learning that will foster innovation and enable Korea to showcase achievements to the world.

However, translating this into a global brand where e-learning products and services are seen as synonymous with Korea will prove a major challenge to a nation that clearly struggles to market itself or its achievements successfully – particularly amongst the more developed nations.

However, Korean planners – both public and private sector, are, if nothing, culturally tenacious and largely unified in their Hallyu (Korean Wave) vision for the future and constantly modify and adjust their joint attack on world markets.

If they jointly and severally find the formula for successful commercialization then the economic fruits of the massive e-learning market (particularly in Asia and developing countries) are there to be had.

Findings Analysis

Strengths

Korea’s accomplishments are noteworthy on an international scale.

The country’s IT super-power status, level of government and private sector funded research and holistic planning, its highly advanced ICT infrastructures and solid domestic demand borne out of a Confucian thirst for education and credentials all auger well for the development of new and innovative products and services in the e-learning space that can address international market demand too.

Weaknesses

To date Korea is spectacularly unsuccessful in marketing its concepts, products and services in an economic area that is far less tangible than say memory chip manufacture. Korean culture does not lend itself to western marketing techniques.

In addition, the obsession with educational status and ubiquitous lifelong learning is not shared by many of their largest potential customers in Europe and the USA.

For this reason, Korea is embarking on massive state sponsored cultural exchange and aid programs designed to inculcate developing nations in (particularly in Asia and Africa) with the u-learning ethos of Korea and Koreans.

Despite its obvious holistic unified planning capability, enthusiasm for u-Korea can and often does result in considerable competitiveness between ministries and often results in a plethora of ministerial involvement and accusations of a lack of coordination.

The resultant reshuffles of responsibility and accountability have seen ministries formed, reformed, renamed and rationalized on a periodic basis tending to cloud the real accomplishments of the Korean government.

Opportunities

Clearly, ubiquitous life-long learning presents a very large opportunity.

One only has to ponder the success of the gaming market being converted into more educational fun content to appreciate the opportunity.

Convergence of technologies, e.g. Digital TV, Collaborative Web 2.0 Internet, Gaming, Wireless Communications, Location Based Services and Social Networks, to appreciate where the Korean manufacturing giants can transform the learning space – in the home, workplace and schools of the future and the massive commercial opportunities that that presents to Korean Industry.

Threats

Time is the greatest threat to Korean innovation. It will take many years for many undeveloped or developing countries (particularly in Africa and Asia) to develop the necessary infrastructure, e.g. curriculum design, communications coverage, etc., to be able to assimilate innovative products and services from Korea.

This presents a major challenge to such a rapidly advancing nation – as the lag in demand for more advanced products and services will require Korean manufacturing to adapt to a different business model and more low-tech solutions.

In a similar way the less than ‘enthusiastic’ adoption of Korean notions of u-learning by developing countries will make it difficult for Korea to establish the barrier to entry it seeks in the ‘blue ocean’ of e-learning.

For commercial success – timing is all important.

If Korea cannot successfully accommodate the varying speeds of development at home and abroad it may find itself a victim of its own success – with the ultimate success going to those countries with the capacity to develop solutions and a late starter advantage.

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