Once students enter university, a sudden and massive amount of unprecedented autonomy is available to them. In addition to this newfound responsibility, students are increasingly expected to maintain academic success and engage in extra-curricular activities. Organizing and coordinating these responsibilities can cause confusion. Taking these difficulties into consideration, Korea University (KU) recently developed a new online portal system, KUchive. Designed to help KU students and faculty efficiently coordinate their school lives, this archive is prepared to welcome students to its online platform for the coming semester.
On June 15, in the middle of summer break, KU opened the beta version of KUchive, which can be accessed by students via kuchive.korea.ac.kr by logging in with their existing KU Learning Management System (KULMS) IDs. The new online system allows students to organize their curricular and extra-curricular activities in one system. Its dashboard contains numerous subsections to help students stay organized, including panels for extra-curricular recruitment announcements and convenient links to other online KU facilities. KUchive also has the unique function of assessing individual students’ core competencies in order to help them find suitable extra-curricular activities.
Access to Extra-Curricular Activities
Extra-curricular activities refer to any activity that falls outside the realm of the typical academic curriculum. Because it is now widely acknowledged that academic performance may be an incomplete evaluation of a student’s ability to succeed in the workplace, extra-curricular activities are becoming crucial for KU students when they search for jobs. For example, university students commonly take a leave of absence for internships and other activities. These experiences later become advantageous qualifications to include in their resume.
KUchive is one of KU’s attempts to help students through the process of gaining hands-on experience. The online system provides a platform that brings together all of the processes associated with extra-curricular activities. KUchive allows faculty to announce and promote new extra-curricular activities, and these appear on the students’ portals. Students can subsequently apply to participate in these activities and attain participation certificates through the portal as well. The system also offers a subsection to manage portfolios and arrange counseling sessions to help students prepare for post-university life.
However, the primary function of extra-curricular programs is to provide a diverse range of experiences, regardless of the advantages they offer later in life. Lee Mi Na, the system operator of KUchive, explained, “Participating in extra-curricular activities can showcase each student’s interests and the efforts they have made towards deepening these interests. Most importantly, however, the personal development achieved through these experiences has infinite value. We hope KUchive can be seen by students as a means to expand their potential and enjoy university life, rather than to simply succeed in gaining employment.”
KU’s New Emphasis on Core Competencies
In this novel promotion of extra-curricular activities, KUchive reflects KU’s new emphasis on six core competencies: appreciation and communication, social responsibility, convergent thinking, creative problem-solving, global mindset, and challenging leader. These competencies are based on the qualities necessary for an influential person during the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. KUchive provides a core competencies assessment, implemented through a self-reported survey. The portal then proceeds to recommend certain activities based on accumulated personal data.
This new emphasis follows the Organization for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD)’s Future of Education and Skills 2030 project, which highlights the development
of a well-rounded cognitive foundation through education. The project was established to consider the changing environments of the future, revolving around one main question: “How can we prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, to tackle societal problems that we cannot yet imagine, and to use technologies that have not yet been invented?”
By focusing on the previously mentioned six core competencies, KU is attempting to deliver a healthy integration of curricular and extra-curricular experiences that can guide students as they navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Thus, KU’s new education model hopes to be a composite of individual departments’ major curriculum, elective courses in liberal arts, and co-curricular activities that offer hands-on experiences.
How is KUchive Unique?
Regarding the main difference between KUchive and the other existing sites, Lee elaborated, “The majority of the functions of sites such as Korea University Portal to Information Depository (KUPID) are passive. That is, students are only able to view their grades and important announcements, while other actual activities such as course registration are connected through different links. KUchive, however, directly supplies extra-curricular programs, allowing students to view information regarding these activities, submit reports, attain certificates, and construct a resume.” In addition, Lee stated that, by accumulating and analyzing personal data, KUchive uniquely offers personalized feedback, which students can refer to as they contemplate what activities to pursue.
Ultimately, KUchive is a central portal to the various sources of school information, while simultaneously encouraging the active participation of students and faculty. Acknowledging that KUchive is currently far from perfect, the management team encourages feedback from students, as they hope to implement more functions in the coming months.
Along with the announcement of KUchive’s new launch, President Chung Jin Taek stated, “It is now the time to reevaluate the necessary qualities of an individual for the post-COVID-19 era and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In this era of novel values and creative pursuits, we must also refine our educational philosophy to reflect the changing content, method, and system of education.” KUchive exists with the main objective of assisting students but is also a representative of how the model of education is changing in response to the unpredictable dynamics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Indeed, in an era defined by information, connectivity, and innovation, KU is developing its fundamental systems and student services to complement the changing environment, one step at a time.