Foreign academics zoom in on e-learning's scope and promise
Korea Times file
By Kyung Lee
Erin Murphy, a law professor at Yeungnam University in North Gyeongsang Province, has not introduced her courses to her students the way she preferred following the COVID-19 lockdown.
Instead she prerecorded her lectures through existing online platforms that the university's IT department helped normalize to start the spring semester.
On the importance of meeting each student and getting acquainted with their communication abilities, Murphy said: “The first week of class I typically try to speak to my new students and assess their level of comfort with English. As for the online lectures, I do not think it is a perfect substitute for my classes.”
While foreign academics like Murphy told The Korea Times of their initial struggles with e-learning systems, they also accepted ― to an extent ― the need to adapt to applications that best interpret their physical classrooms during the lockdown.
Into her second week of teaching classes online, Murphy stressed the necessity of dialogue ― rather than prerecorded lectures ― between a professor and students to fully grasp electives like substantive law.
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And she added it is the perfect time to adjust and make remote learning more interactive during the pandemic.
"Right now, I would say a combination of lectures and contemporaneous dialogue would be optimum," she said. "But I hope to be able to directly discuss the cases and legal issues with students, creating dialogue that enables them to sharpen their critical thinking."
If the lockdown persists in the coming months, Murphy added she would transition from forwarding her bundle of recorded lectures and questions to applications like Zoom where she could engage in the law with her students through an intensely Socratic approach.
In a response provided by email, she continued: “If my students read this, they will surely get nervous.”
Students' struggles
Students like Wu Hao, a Ph.D. candidate at Korea University's Graduate School of International Studies, first noted connection issues and background noise in online discussions set up by the faculty at the start of the spring semester.
Having overcome most technical difficulties, one limitation Hao mentioned as significant was the online discussions lacked prominent guest lecturers, who prefer speaking in front of a live student body rather than through the monitor.
He added that convening a large class through a live online seminar could lend itself to only a few participating students, the possibility of “free riders” and individuals reluctant to chime in.
“I'm curious if this function will deter professors and students from speaking their minds,” he said.
Still, despite e-learning methods proving a challenge for professors ― who itch to return to their physical classrooms ― according to Hao, the virtual learning system offered in one of his courses delivers more practicality to students beyond the convenience of recorded lectures uploaded to the school's web portal.
The system enables professors who manage larger classrooms to assign students into small discussion groups, only to rejoin the seminar when the customized session expires.
For these small discussion groups and seminars to work, however, rests on another component that is less technical.
“Class size matters initially, especially during the first few lectures,” Hao said. “And ultimately, it rests on the kind of rapport built between professors and students.”
E-learning vs. culture
The practice of incorporating e-learning programs and recorded lectures may have flourished in Korea long before the COVID-19 lockdown, but the most effective platforms to date offer students a more interactive interface, livestreaming sessions and multiple communication channels that enable direct contact with instructors ― and curricula reaching a broader audience.
According to Michael Kim, an education expert based in Korea and co-founder of an online academy for medical professionals, remote programs designed by Khan Academy, an international online education platform for kids and adults, qualify as a model example in providing these features in the form of videos, games and visual exercises, with homework and questions also checked by real tutors.
He also believes its methods can be reinterpreted and adapted successfully for other practical and technical subjects.
“Look at a music class, where students can record their parts and contribute to an ensemble piece,” he said. “And if they have amazing internet speed, maybe they can just jam together remotely.”
Even as Korea's academic institutions have adopted various e-learning platforms as temporary responses to the country's social distancing measures, Kim added that its educational culture is still too rigid to accept such alternatives as mainstream learning vehicles when schools eventually reopen their doors.
In fact, according to Kim, innovative virtual learning tools and advanced learning beyond physical classrooms and textbooks are much more scolded than praised as acceptable practices.
“Once systems are established, there is a tendency to iterate rather than innovate on the educator's side,” he said. “And on the learner's (side), people tend to favor what the herd is doing, or what key influencers are doing whether it's in the individual's best interests or not.”