- Boasts of optimized educational environment for online lectures; becomes the object of benchmarking by offline universities

[Photo] SCU receives Grade A in MOE's diagnosis of cyber universities' capability

SCU received a grade of A in the 2020 Cyber University Certification/Capability Evaluation conducted jointly by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS).

In 2007, our school was selected as the best among domestic cyber universities in comprehensive evaluation. In 2013, our university was rated Grade A in the evaluation of domestic cyber universities. With the honor received in 2020, our school has become the first cyber university to be rated as the best-level cyber university for three years in a row and whose good quality has been proven. As for the certification/capability evaluation done in 2020, four received Grade A, eleven received Grade B, and four received Grade C from the evaluation on the capability as an institution for higher education in six sectors: school management/finance, curriculum, classes, faculty members, students, and remote education infrastructure. Said grade becomes the basis for providing differentiated bonus points in the evaluation of cyber universities' application for financial support programs. Those rated A or B are qualified to share academic credits with those in foreign countries. In 2021, MOE decided to change the financial support programs for cyber universities from contents development programs to those wherein cyber universities make proposals based on the programs designed by them based on their characteristics and conditions.

According to observers, our school runs a system ahead of the others as one accompanying future customized online education. In 2000, our school became the first in the country to be authorized as a cyber university. It was also the first among the cyber universities to adopt mobile lecture service, establishing an education system that is bound by neither time nor space and securing its position as the leader of online education. SCU's online curricular enjoys a good reputation. In 2018 through 2020, we carried out a project of enhancing the higher education e-Learning capability for leading universities in El Salvador with financial support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) as a good example of displaying our good-quality online education program worldwide.

Our school runs diverse curricula for students, adopting not only flexible methods of course registration as the advantage of online education but also the merits of offline education. Our one-on-one career coaching system maximizes individual students' capability of landing a job. Our mentoring system encourages exchanges between existing students and newcomers including those transferring from other universities; thus strengthening the bond among them and building a human network. The system also helps them share learning knowhow and other information with each other. Moreover, our school has become the first cyber university in the country to adopt a system of four semesters a year, making it possible for students to adjust their final semester. In 2019 and 2020, the K-MOOC (Korea Massive Open Online Course)Program adopted all of the eight subjects in five courses suggested by us in five courses; thus suggesting the good quality of our lectures. Based on such results,

SCU was selected as a target of benchmarking for officers at the Seoul/Incheon Offices of Education in 2020 when remote education became part of our everyday life amid COVID-19. Thus, they have come to visit our school for informal meetings. Those of major offline universities have come to visit us for benchmarking or mutual cooperation. At the 2020 Conference on Future Society Education, which was held through YouTube, those from the government, academic circles, and businesses discussed the subject New normal of the country's education in a period of contactless, and those from offline universities referred to SCU as a model of future universities.

As a school operated by the Shinil Educational Foundation, SCU has built a unique history since its opening in 2001, overcoming its limitations as a cyber university operating on its own. To enhance the quality of remote education, we have done what we can including the formulation of a development plan, establishment of the vision of talented human resources, establishment of teaching/learning system, operation of an innovative school operation system, opening of convergence curricula, operation of sophisticated e-Learning system, expansion of global leadership, etc. Such efforts of ours have recently been recognized outside the country through ODA programs and the like. Our school will secure its position as a prestigious cyber university through continued investment in educational innovation for the convergence of human resources equipped with capability required in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, said SCU President KANG In.