[Opinion] "I Postpone Professor A's Classes and Attend Them All at Once"

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

'Am I the only one who has fallen behind on Professor A's XXX class lectures?' This is the actual title of a post that appeared on the university community where the author works. In the post shown by a student, comments such as 'The professor's lectures are postponed and then taken all at once.' and 'Yes, I am also behind on all of them. I plan to catch up before the final exam.' were posted. After reading it, I spent the entire Chuseok holiday pondering where things went wrong.

With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), university lectures have been conducted entirely online, giving professors roughly two options. The first is to record lectures as videos and upload them, and the second is to conduct lectures through real-time lecture platforms. Alternatively, a combination of both video lectures and real-time lectures can be chosen. Since preferences vary among professors and students, and some methods are better suited for certain subjects, classes are being conducted in various ways. Because COVID-19 is an unprecedented situation, universities differ greatly in terms of class duration per session, teaching methods, and so forth, struggling to provide consistent services.

While each university and professor may have different concerns, one common issue is 'attendance.' Attendance is a concern not only in cases where lectures are delivered via video but also in real-time classes. This is because students often turn off their cameras during class, record the session, and watch it later in bulk.

I had an opportunity to discuss this with fellow professors. Opinions ranged from limiting video access to a certain period, mandating camera use during real-time classes, requiring students to attend each lecture and submit assignments, to reluctantly giving up on enforcing attendance. However, all discussions were based on the premise that attendance must be enforced.

During the conversation, we all realized that premise. Is attendance really necessary? Of course, attendance is an important measure of diligence. But is a university a place that only cultivates diligent people? Once the discussion reached this point, we began to contemplate the fundamental purpose of a university.

Of course, as universities are called the halls of learning, they are ultimately places to cultivate knowledge, and those who learn knowledge tend to perform well if they are diligent. But does a diligent child always excel academically? Were Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft (MS), and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook considered diligent students in university? Does that mean they were not talented individuals?

As mentioned earlier, universities are conducting online education in various ways in response to the non-face-to-face era. Professors at each school also put a lot of thought into how to conduct their classes. However, we overlook how students want to attend classes. Just as each professor has a different teaching style, students may have different ways of attending classes, background knowledge, and environments. Recognizing and understanding this could mark a turning point in university education.

Many social environments have changed over time. The world is connected through the internet, and the speed of movement has increased. Accordingly, people's behavior patterns and ways of thinking have also evolved. But what about universities? Have they changed even a tenth as much as social phenomena? Do they stubbornly cling only to existing lecture methods, teaching materials, and lecture content?

It is said that the number of applicants for the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test has decreased by more than 10% compared to last year. Considering the usual test absentee rate, the number of applicants relative to the total university admission quota may be so low that the average admission competition rate could fall below 1:1. This is not just a problem for this year. Next year, South Korea's total fertility rate is expected to record one of the lowest levels in the world.

Universities are already in crisis beyond COVID-19. Even if a COVID-19 vaccine is developed or the number of new cases decreases allowing face-to-face classes, the current problems of universities will not be resolved. Universities must make every effort to reform at this turning point. This is no longer a matter of choice but a matter of survival.

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

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