Public interest in the Distance Learning College of Kim Il Sung University is rising day by day. The college started over a year ago, but it has an enrollment of thousands of students. An increasing number of workers from large and small factories and enterprises in the capital city of Pyongyang and provinces enter it. The students’ enthusiasm for study is running high. Song Hyon Jun, rector of the college, explained the reason, “The reason for the growing enrollment and rising enthusiasm for study is that the teachers of the college have worked hard to improve the conditions and environment of education.”

The teachers are exerting themselves to improve the quality of their distance learning lectures to rear talents of practical ability. First of all, they prepare new teaching plans in keeping with the characteristics of their students who are studying while working and improve the quality of their lectures.

According to the newly developed program, teachers’ explanation and actions are immediately turned into distance-learning lecture materials. These lectures are suited to the specific qualities of the worker-students and fit in closely with the actual reality. In this course, the four subjects of study increased to 15.

They have directed special efforts to making e-study materials and widely using them in distance learning. They have compiled the e-study materials in a way easy to understand at lectures, and inserted into them essential study materials, foreign languages and information techniques which greatly help the students. They are actively using various documents, sounds, pictures and dynamic images to raise the students’ power of cognition and practical ability. Worthy of special notice in distance learning is lectures by tablet PCs. They have put the contents of all study subjects for each term into tablet PCs so that students can study in the distance-learning lecture room and at any other places, too. The distance learning system Ryongnamsan is becoming even more popular among the students because it enables them to study even in breaks at the working places, subway trains and buses. The teachers have also established a wireless network to turn all factories into classrooms, enabling the students to study anywhere in the factories. They give terminal examinations with an automatic system of marking by computer. This is strictly based on a voice-discrimination system, and the grades of the students shown in the computer will clearly tell them their school performances and stimulate them to study hard. The computer shows the students’ work, understanding levels, assignment execution and even the executing speed, making it possible to appraise their scholastic abilities correctly.

Among the students receiving distance learning are disabled ex-soldiers. Studying at home while receiving medical treatment, they say distance learning develops their mental faculties and cultural level. The enrollment in distance learning is increasing everyday among the workers of the Pyongyang Municipality Mushroom Farm, Jangchon Vegetable Cooperative Farm, Pyongyang Children’s Foodstuff Factory and Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory. The rector said that among the excellent students are Ri Un Ju, actress of the Korean April 26 Animation Studio, Pak Sim Jong, worker of the Munsu Water Park, and Pang Jin Song, worker of the Tongdaewon District Landscaping Station. He continued, “Teachers including An Kwang Chol, vice head of the basic physics department, Physics Faculty, are now receiving many letters from worker-students. The letters say they have learned a lot from the easy lectures, and that they will study hard and make a contribution to the building of a thriving nation with high qualifications. In the future, too, we will make every effort to improve the quality of our education.”