Sung Man-young, who is a 70-year old honorary professor from Korea University School of Electrical Engineering, has been preparing online lectures since a month ago. Although he has been teaching students since 1980s, he has never given online lectures once. He has learned types of materials for online lecture and filming methods from the university’s e-learning team as remote lecture has become inevitable due to the spread of COVID-19. He has asked questions whenever he was curious about something in order to provide the best possible lectures for his students.
Thanks to his efforts, recording session of his first online lecture finished without any issue. He has been preparing real time online lectures after gaining confidence from the recording. “Although I was concerned about a traffic issue if many students come to my lecture all at once, there has not been any issue so far.” said Professor Sung. “I am currently looking into real time online lecture that will allow me to know my students’ reactions immediately.”
It has been two weeks since South Korean universities suddenly had to start providing online lectures due to the spread of COVID-19. Although there have been some confusions about implementing full-on online lectures, many professors have been attempting various ways in order to communicate better with their students. Many professors believe that online and offline lectures need to be converged even after the COVID-19 situation settles down in order to increase level of participations from their students. With this situation as an opportunity, many believe that there needs to be progress and innovation throughout university lectures.
Professor Lee Kyung-jeon of Kyunghee University’s Department of Business Administration recently opened a channel on YouTube that provides free lectures on AI for his students and the public as well.
Professor Lee gives his lectures on YouTube and answers relevant questions through Facebook in real time. “While one cannot listen to an offline lecture again once it is over, one can repeatedly access an online lecture regardless of time and location.” said Professor Lee while talking about advantages of online lecture.
Professor Kim Jung-kwon of Kwangwoon University’s Ingenium College of Liberal Arts slows down the speed of his speech while recording online lectures where many Vietnamese and Chinese students attend. He gives personalized lectures after checking nationalities of his students in advance and he has been giving personalized lectures after gaining knowhow on online lecture ever since he gave his first online lecture about 10 years ago.
Professor Kim has been giving online and offline lectures at the same time since 2017. The reason why he has done so is because level of participation from his students and academic achievement have been better when he gave online lectures rather than offline lectures.
“Online lecture can be uploaded on various platforms and it can be viewed by many students.” said Professor Kim. “Academic achievement has been better when students first watch my online lectures and discuss about them in classrooms.”
Professor Choi Jae-hong of Gangneung-Wonju National University’s Department of Multimedia Information gives questions every 10 to 15 minutes during his online lecture in order to raise level of participation from his students. After an online lecture, he picks 2 to 3 students to have them summarize his lecture. He does this in order to prevent his students from accessing his online lecture and not listening to his lecture by muting it.
“While I look at my students when I give an offline lecture, it is easy for an online lecture to be one-sided as there is lack of reactions.” said Professor Choi. “As a result, I try to raise level of participation by asking my students questions during my online lecture.” Professor Choi uses various IT tools such as Google Hangouts and Facebook.
These professors want online lecture to continue even after the COVID-19 situation settles down. They want new trends to take place within university lectures that have been dull after attempting various lectures that they could not give in the past.
“We will be able to provide more effective lectures if we can appropriately combine online and offline lectures even after the COVID-19 situation settles down.” said Professor Kim.
“Combination of online and offline lectures will be needed in the future.” said Professor Choi. “We need to utilize many advantages of online lecture.”
Professor Choi hinted that online lecture can also reduce any controversy about how grades are assessed that students feel most sensitive about. “Comments and questions from students remain on online lecture sites.” said Professor Choi. “As a result, online lecture helps professors to be more objective as they do not have to depend only on their memories when evaluating one’s participation level.”
Staff Reporter Jeon, Jiyeon | now21@etnews.com