World Subak Federation Launches Global Open Courses for the Preservation of Traditional Martial Arts Heritage on KOCW, Under the Korean Ministry of Education

The World Subak Federation announced the official launch of a global open course series on KOCW (Korea Open CourseWare), Korea’s premier public higher education platform, in collaboration with the Korea Subak Association. This groundbreaking initiative aims to digitize, archive, and distribute free historical knowledge about “Subak”—a disappearing traditional Korean physical culture and martial art—to students, researchers, and culture enthusiasts worldwide.

Deeply rooted in Korean history, Subak embodies a profound story of cultural survival. This online course will comprehensively document the continuous lineage of Subak, spanning from the video recordings of Master Kim Won-bo in the early 20th century to the efforts of the late Master Song Chang-ryeol, who preserved the Subak tradition within the refugee community at Yongdusan Park in Busan after the war.

The Korea Subak Association is utilizing KOCW, an Open Educational Resource (OER) platform operating under public trust, to shift the perception of martial arts from a mere physical training discipline to a systematic academic field. This course will provide multilingual subtitles, detailed syllabuses converted into a standardized digital archive, and rare historical video materials showcasing the technical and cultural evolution of Subak.

Song Jun-ho, President of the Korea Subak Association, stated, “This is not merely about teaching a technique, but about ensuring democratic access to a disappearing intangible cultural heritage.” He added, “In alignment with the global Open Educational Recognition (OER) movement and UNESCO’s vision for protecting living cultural heritage, this platform will allow anyone from Egypt to Canada to freely learn and preserve Subak.”

After completing institutional credential verification and administrator login checks, the Association is currently preparing metadata and digital materials for system upload. All courses are scheduled to be released online within the next few weeks, and Subak will establish itself as an important model for the digital archiving of traditional physical culture.

KOCW is an online open university course operated by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), a public institution under the Ministry of Education. It allows users to study lecture videos and materials released by domestic and international universities and institutions.