The Ministry of Education announced Thursday that it will widen the scope of its Korean Massive Open Online Course service to provide up to 500 free lectures.

K-MOOC is a free web-based course service that offers lectures from universities via e-learning technology. It provided 140 courses from domestic leading universities in 2016 and aims to nearly triple that number to 500 in 2018.

K-MOOC has doubled in the number of students participating with interactive learning opportunities such as discussions, quizzes and Q&A sessions with professors, according to the ministry. In 2018, K-MOOC will include lectures on big data and artificial intelligence critical for the “fourth industrial revolution.”

By Ahn Sang-yool (koolsangon@heraldcorp.com)