EBS and e-Hakssupteo Sites Rechecked Ahead of the 16th
"Current Measures Completed"
Some Teachers Upload Only EBS Lectures and Textbooks
"Interactive Sessions Likely Difficult"
Ministry of Education Expands Online School Opening Situation Room
Emergency Support Teams Including Call Centers to Operate
On the 9th, when middle and high schools nationwide started online classes beginning with 3rd-year high school and 3rd-year middle school students, teachers and students held an online opening ceremony at Junghwa Middle School in Jungnang-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
On the unprecedented first day of online school opening on the 9th, some students experienced disruptions in their classes due to errors on the sites where remote classes could be accessed.
According to the Ministry of Education, the maximum number of users accessing the learning management systems (LMS) provided by the education authorities, EBS Online Class and e-Hakseupter, were 267,280 and 120,832 respectively on that day.
As the number of users temporarily increased, connection errors occurred on the EBS Online Class middle school courses from 9:00 AM to 10:15 AM. Because of this, some classes were reportedly interrupted. Kwon Ji-young, Director of e-Learning at the Ministry of Education, said, "It was not a server problem but an issue caused while expanding containers to increase the number of simultaneous users," adding, "The issue has now been resolved."
The Ministry of Education announced plans to conduct pre-checks on connection errors. This is due to concerns that access delays might occur again ahead of the staggered school openings on the 16th and 20th. Director Kwon stated, "We plan to check server usage and real-time user connections every five minutes and conduct simulations to see how much load can be tolerated," adding, "If necessary, we will consider additional system expansions and ways to effectively utilize equipment already installed internally."
Differences were also observed in the quality of classes, which had been a concern. Schools designated as remote class pilot schools conducted various types of classes, from interactive lessons to recorded remote classes, but some teachers filled class time only with EBS lectures or uploaded only textbooks and learning materials, causing dissatisfaction among students.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye is delivering a greeting during her visit to Gosaek High School in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do on the 9th. (Provided by the Ministry of Education)
The Ministry of Education plans to expand and reorganize the Remote Education Preparation and Inspection Team into an online school opening situation room and form emergency support teams related to remote classes by city and province. Park Baek-beom, Vice Minister of Education, said, "For the first time in the history of the Republic of Korea, online school opening has begun. Before today, students, parents, and teachers at schools must have felt a mix of excitement and anxiety," adding, "After one to two weeks, they will be able to adapt, and online education has the advantage of allowing learning anytime and anywhere."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education announced that all third-year middle and high school classes nationwide, including special schools, opened online on this day. It is estimated that there are about 445,000 high school seniors and 415,000 middle school third-year students nationwide. The attendance rate was high, exceeding 98%. The Ministry plans to calculate the exact attendance rate including students who left after classes end at 4 PM.
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