KMOOC for knowledge-sharing in open and distance learning

Taerim Lee and Dongkuk Lee
The Korean National Open University
Seoul, Korea

The development of MOOC as a flexible means of widening access to education in various regions, including Asia and Europe, and at various levels has been well documented. Over recent years, there has been a tremendous growth and diversity in ODL and a widespread use of e-learning in Asian and European countries. Open educational resources (OER) and MOOC are now the 'buzzwords' in education. This paper focuses particularly on the Korean MOOC platform which fits well with the circumstances in the Korean higher educational system.

The paper examines the quality, completion rate, certification, pedagogy and purpose of KMOOC in several universities and institutions under the Ministry of Education. It surveys and analyses in detail the resources which were produced by universities and the institutes KERIS and NILE. The paper also discusses the official funding support from the government for the KMOOC platform and LMS, the CMS system and the credit exchange accreditation system.

There are around 18,000 courses open to the public as OERs, but it is necessary to integrate the system archive to manage and share those courses to save costs and standardize the quality of the higher education content for better teaching and learning. KMOOC courses are a way of connecting distributed instructors and learners across higher education based on the KMOOC university members network and also the national institutes KERIS and NILE.