December 17, 2010 | Korea University Centennial Memorial Hall, Seoul, Korea

The KCUE held a seminar attended by member university faculty and officials from other higher education organizations to discuss openness in undergraduate education and the impact of the open educational resources (OER) movement.

Shigeru Miyagawa, Chair of the OpenCourseWare Faculty Advisory Committee and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), provided an address on MIT's path-breaking OpenCourseWare program and its impact on inspiring similar projects at other universities and organizations around the world. His address was followed by comments from Jae-Kyung Yi, professor at Sookmyung Women's University and Hye-Kyung Yang, senior researcher at the Korea Education and Research Information Service.

Professor Miyagawa's address was followed by a presentation by Kyung-Bae Min, professor at Kyung Hee Cyber University (KHCU). He provided a history and analysis of open courseware in Korea and discussed open education initiatives at KHCU that take advantage of Korea's excellent internet infrastructure. He also mentioned future plans for KHCU to begin open courseware services available through mobile devices in 2011 or 2012. Comments on Professor Min's address were given by Hee-Bae Kim, professor at Kwandong University, and Inn-Woo Park, professor at Korea University.

The seminar concluded with an address by Yamada Tsuneo, director of the Department of International Collaboration and professor at the Open University of Japan (OUJ). Professor Tsuneo spoke in detail on the impact of the OER movement in Japan and the role of the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium. He then provided an overview of the open courseware program at OUJ and the universities efforts to improve upon other OER initiatives. His address was followed by comments from Sun-Woong Kim, professor at Kwangwoon University, and Byung-Ro Lim, professor at Kyung Hee University.