Study -> Online, Practice -> Offline

“Studying online, practicing offline.”

Four sports teams have been created by cyber-universities that operate online.

Hansung Digital University announced, “We have opened a soccer, baseball, basketball, and taekwondo team, which we are prepping for the competitions starting from next March.” Hansung Digital University is the first of its kind to have started four sports teams equipped with elite players, although the World Cyber University did open a second-tier soccer and baseball team previously.

Hansung Digital University recruited a total of 75 players, including 25 each for soccer and baseball, for the four sports, recruiting star player such as Gong Han-bin (Namgang High School) who attained the MVP status by scoring seven goals during this fall’s High School Soccer Union Games. The teams have welcomed the key players in each field, including soccer’s Park Jong-won, a key player of Hansung University, basketball’s Jung Gyung-gu, baseball’s Park Jong-hoi of Hongik University, and taekwondo coach Baek Moon-jong.

These large scale sports teams are intended to show the advantages of cyber-universities that allow students to study and play sports concurrently. The lectures are conducted through the internet, while actual practice sessions take place at the soccer, baseball, and basketball fields located at Ansan City. In exchange, the Hansung Digital University sports teams have to wear Ansan’s logo on the field.

Jang Dae-gap, a professor of Physical Education at Hansung Digital University, confirmed, “We could function as an alternative to the current problems manifest in Korean sports, where students are trained merely as sports robots. The students may study whenever they can without actually being present in the classrooms.”

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com