However, The Study, an Internet based e-Learning company, combines existing and disparate technologies in order to provide a new learning experience for its users today.
It provides customized, targeted video tutoring sessions for students throughout middle and high school. Gu Geon-hoe, President of The Study, says that the company is "By the students, of the students, for the students."
The blogs create a community
The components of the service are familiar to many people who use the Internet, but the company combines them together in a way that is unique. The first component is a blog. The Study's web site, at www.thestudy.co.kr, offers free blog spaces to anyone who cares to join. These blog areas are very familiar to Korean Internet users as they are set up in a fashion similar to the very popular blog site Cyworld. In fact President Gu says that some people refer to that section of the web site as Studying Cyworld.
There are a few features that are different, however. The teachers on the site have their tutorial videos and teaching materials available for download on their blogs, and the students have a study schedule area where they can plan online and offline study times. "I think blogs are very important for students to easily make relationships with others," said President Gu. "So in a blog we can meet together, students and teachers, and students' parents."
Both students' and teachers' blogs have areas to post personal pictures of themselves. They also have an area that shows who has visited their blog recently so that they can keep in touch with frequent visitors.
Gu Geon-hoe commented on this by saying: "It's a very big point for our system because normal systems of e-Learning teachers cannot know the students who have visited their site or their page, but we can know who has visited our site."
Ms. Lee Mi-hyun, the star teacher of The Study with 14 years of experience in English language education, is very enthusiastic about the blogs. She said: "I'm enjoying communicating with my students. It is very convenient. When they want to talk to me any time, they can ask me questions and I can answer them." She especially liked the speed of the whole idea. "It doesn't take a long time. Very individually we can have a good connection. It's very fast."
The videos teach the students
The teaching aspect of the site combines the best of the Web 2.0 experience. The site encourages its members to become a teacher by submitting a user-created video on a certain topic. Videos are reviewed, edited, and categorized by The Study staff and then are made available on the web page at the teacher's blog, and searchable by subject on the main web site.
Video class sessions can be created by any aspiring teacher on a variety of different middle school and high school subjects, and if they are approved by The Study then they are assigned a cost and become available for purchase. The value of the video lesson is also determined by The Study staff.
An average class and level can be as low as 60 won (US$0.06) per minute, approximately the same price as a long distance phone call, while a high-level class on a difficult subject can go for as much as 200 won (US$0.21) a minute. Video classes vary in length, but generally last between 30 minutes to one hour. The price that one pays for this video on demand is similar to a DVD rental fee at a video store, in that a user can watch the video as much as they'd like for a limited period of time, between 20 - 30 days.
Live broadcasts
The user-created content of the static blogs are one aspect of the e-Learning system of The Study, but even though video teaching is useful it does not completely replicate a classroom setting. However, live broadcasts by teachers with The Study's video teaching software go a step further in replicating a classroom situation.
More than 50 people can view real-time video broadcasts simultaneously on the Internet using The Study's software. Using one of their studios, the company can link students together with a teacher using a futuristic communication medium.
Students who also own webcams can simultaneously broadcast their video to the teacher as well. In addition, there is space in the layout of the conferencing program for a virtual blackboard that the teacher can use to write on, display documents and presentations, and use to visually communicate with students in a more traditional way.
It really must be seen to be believed. The virtual blackboard is based on a portable light pen interface. The interface has two parts, a clear glass pane that fits over a computer monitor and a pen that a user can touch to the clear glass pane to give drawing input to the computer. Setup and installation is almost entirely automated, and users simply plug the setup into a free USB port to begin using it. Teachers can sit in the comfort of their home at their computer and prepare detailed presentations with the light pen interface and a web camera.
Bring it all together
The design of the web site is unique, with a choice wheel made to be easily understood by young students. Users can choose the subject and level appropriate for what they are looking for with the choice wheel and the web site brings up a search of all pre-defined content suitable to them.
President Gu had a presentation of The Study's new e-Learning system at the Lotte Cinema recently, in which 400 people attended. The company now cooperates with local governments providing classes providing content for students who are too poor to go to after school institutes. President Gu said: "I have felt sorry about children or students who could not come to my academy because their parents cannot be rich enough to go to academy. So I have wanted an academy which can give some content and good systems for students who do not study, so I developed the e-learning system."
Currently, the web site has over 600 teachers and 20,000 subscribed students. The company is planning to expand in a variety of ways, first by affiliating with large scale academies all over the country so that their teachers can put some official content on The Study's site. The company is also looking abroad in order to export their system to other companies who are interested in implementing a similar learning system.
But in the end, President Gu said: "I think we cannot make our site fully and meaningfully. I think students and teachers can make our site fully."
