Korea University (KU) President Yeom Jae Ho has been causing quite a stir in the media with his new policies. Ever since his inauguration in 2015, Yeom constantly carried out reforms such as three-no policy and abolishment of merit-based scholarship. Although they remain controversial, it is clear that KU has set a new paradigm in the academic circle as one of the nation’s major universities. Yeom plans to continue with his experiment by creating two new facilities in KU.
▲ A three-dimensional picture of the SK Future building from the Central Plaza. Provided by Design and Construction Department. |
KU plans to construct the SK Future Hall right across from the Centennial Memorial SAMSUNG Hall, near Central Plaza. The building will have five floors above ground and three underground. Just like most of the other buildings in the Liberal Arts campus, the SK Future Hall will be done over in a modern style, but with a slight mix of postmodern added to it.
The main purpose of the construction of the SK Future Hall is to provide a space where students can freely discuss various topics. So far, many of the classes in KU are held in big lecture rooms that can each fit over 100 students. With this great number of people per class, it has been impossible for students to communicate as a whole. Students simply listen and take notes, making themselves passive learners.
The SK Future Hall, on the other hand, will comprise 80 small lecture rooms, where students can discuss in small groups. Discussion topics will be related to the online lectures offered in a flipped class. Although class flipping is a newly introduced teaching style in KU, it is expected to be applied in most classes by 2018, the year when the SK Future Hall’s construction is expected to be complete.
Therefore, once 100 or more students listen to the same online lecture at home, they will be split into small groups. Each group will consist of around 20 students, and students within each group will either solve problems or engage in discussions in a lecture room at the SK Future Hall. Professors who have knowledge of the course will also be assigned to each group to answer any queries students may have and lead the discussion in the right direction.
The groups that take the same class can vary in regards to course material. Even if the students listen to the same online lecture for a particular class, professors can help students find how the subject specifically relates to their own majors. For instance, an Economics professor could provide problems that are more mathematical for a student majoring in Statistics.
Furthermore, the SK Future Hall offers hundreds of one-square-foot rooms that serve a similar role as the reading room, otherwise known as dokseosil in Korean. A chair and a table will be arranged in each room and there students can immerse themselves by taking a moment to review what they have learned and discussed in class that particular day.
▲ A three-dimensional picture of the SK Future building from the People’s Square. Provided by Provided by Design and Construction Department. |
Ma Dong Hoon (School of Media and Communication), who is the Director General of the Future Strategy Department, believes that the SK Future Hall will allow more “flexibility” in KU. For this flexibility to take place, however, KU needs to make sure that there are enough professors who can teach as small-sized classes replace the conventional big lecture rooms. KU also needs to decide how it will assign students into different discussion groups. Hopefully, KU will spend the remaining three years wisely by drawing up specific plans.
Meanwhile, another building will be built this year as part of the KU Business Incubation Support Team’s brand new project. It is a five-story building made out of 30 to 40 container boxes, and the area where the building will be situated is called Pioneering Village. Pioneering Village will be created in between the Media Hall and College of Political Science and Economics.
▲ A three-dimensional picture of Pioneering Village. Provided by Design and Construction Department. |