[Opinion] Reflections on Online Lecture Services in the Untact Era

"We have decided to extend remote classes for another two weeks." I sighed softly after reading the email from the university headquarters. April has arrived, cherry blossoms are in full bloom, yet the usually bustling campus outside the lab looks so bleak. The campus, once filled with youth and laughter, has turned into a desolate desert due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Students and professors meet not in campus classrooms but online via video calls or watch self-produced videos to attend classes.

In this situation, complaints are inevitable. After gathering student opinions at the school where I work, all pointed out confusion caused by different attendance methods, a decline in class quality, and complaints about the increased volume of assignments due to weekly attendance verification tasks. There is also growing public opinion that tuition fees should be refunded because remote classes are inadequate.

Professors share similar frustrations. Those unfamiliar with online lectures struggle, and they must grade numerous assignments every week. Classes requiring experiments, practical work, or team projects had to revise their entire curriculum.

What about staff? They are overwhelmed responding to the flood of complaints and protests from professors and students, checking related equipment, and setting up online lecture recording environments. Everyone is struggling.

Facing this situation, we reflect on how complacent educational institutions, including universities, have been. Crises can come at any time, and only those well-prepared survive. Especially for universities pushed into fierce competition due to declining student numbers, this can be a matter of survival. So, what should we learn from this crisis?

The success of Minerva School has shown the potential for successful remote lectures. Does that mean just moving lectures online is enough? From my experience running online classes, I found that most students binge-watch lectures right before exams. Additionally, they often watch 75-minute lectures in 5- or 10-minute segments. This shows us the direction online lectures should take.

Videos provided by the hugely successful YouTube channel are mostly under 10 minutes, unlike university lectures. This length is ideal for maintaining concentration.

Research has shown that students engage in other activities within six minutes after starting e-learning classes. This suggests the need for short, well-structured lectures that utilize the maximum concentration span.

The world is shifting to an untact era. Ordering food has changed from dining in or takeout to phone delivery, and now to contactless ordering and payment via applications. Recently, due to COVID-19, delivery food or goods are left at the door, and customers receive a text message confirming delivery. All these changes flow in the direction consumers want. In this untact era, what do students, the consumers of online lectures, demand? It is time to listen to students’ voices and strive to expand infrastructure and improve lecture quality for proper remote classes.

Changhee Kim, Professor, Department of Business Administration, Incheon National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.