Online Learning in K-12 Schools Amid Covid-19 in South Korea: Challenges and Opportunities

In this chapter, we discuss how to respond and mitigate the educational crisis through remote teaching and learning. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of the educational crisis, we first present the educational policies taken by the Korean government with some examples of distance learning strategies. The Korean Ministry of Education provided schools with the guidance to adopt three types of online classes for remote teaching and learning: (a) real-time interaction, (b) content-based online class, and (c) assignments-based online class. Some measures were taken to ensure equal access to learning platforms for all students with a zero-rating policy, the device loan service, and the emergency classroom service. We then discuss unique issues and challenges at three levels of the educational system, namely the macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors to highlight the necessity of the multilayered approach in mitigating the education disruption nationwide. The chapter concludes with the opportunities concerning how the lessons learned from this large real-life experiment can shape the shift toward the future of education.