한국과 일본의 방송대학 비교 연구

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the similarities and differences between Korea National Open University(KNOU) and the Open University of Japan(OUJ). Both universities were founded as accredited educational institutions open to all the people in Korea or Japan. As a system of teaching and learning, they offered television lectures, multimedia lectures, and some raido/audio lectures that were made available through the Internet. Face-to-face schooling called classroom sessions or offline classes adjunct to the main online multimedia lectures were the distinctive features from other online only cyber universities. Since the KNOU targeted to provide economically challenged adult learners with higher education as an alternative, it has 4 colleges and 22 departments under the university. However, OUJ’s educational catch phrase is “whoever, whenever, and wherever.” As a result, it has only a school of liberal arts offering six humanities-related courses for every Japanese adults learner. The changing social, educational and technological environments require that two universities employ a multi-faceted strategic approaches to balance distance education, higher education and lifelong learning to empower professors and students, and to develop more flexible methods of teaching and learning.