Students listen to an online lecture at a library of Gwangju University in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, on March 16, 2020, when the school belatedly opened its spring semester due to the new coronavirus. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — More people have been spending more for online courses during the pandemic era, a report said Wednesday.
The Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) conducted a survey of 10,154 people, of which 1,221 (12 percent) had used online means of education.
Among them, 691 were either elementary, middle, high school or college students, comprising more than half of the respondents.
Among those who had used online means of education, 17.6 percent spent an average of more than 35,000 won (US$28) each month for online educational content.
The percentage of those spending more than 35,000 won per month on online courses has climbed in the last three years. The percentage of those who spending less than 5,000 won, in contrast, has dropped.
“The pandemic and social distancing measures have limited offline courses given at schools and academies, and people have sought to fill in the educational void with online courses, leading to the rising number of people paying higher costs to study online,” KISDI said.
Access to online education content via smartphone has dropped in the last three years, going from 62.5 percent in 2019 to 56.1 percent in 2020 and 48.8 percent last year.
“People became more adjusted to using stationary devices for accessing online content, rather than mobile, as they spent more time at home, away from the pandemic.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
