Analysis of Operational Transition Types in Educational Program Management of National Nature-Based Educational Institutions Before and After the Pandemic† - Focusing on Changes in Operating Modes and Perceptions of Educational Program Managers -

This study analyzed operational transitions in the management of educational programs at national nature-based educational institutions before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and interpreted the findings from the perspective of redundancy and the operational resilience gap in community resilience. National nature-based educational institutions were defined as public institutions that provide educational, interpretive, and experiential programs based on natural resources, outdoor spaces, visitor routes, and exhibition or interpretation systems, including arboreta, the National Institute of Ecology, and regional biological resource centers. The analysis used online unstructured texts from Naver blogs, cafes, and news articles from 2018 to 2020, a survey of 63 education program managers from seven institutions, and institutional program operation records. The results showed that visit- and participation-oriented keywords, such as experience, program, festival, family, and travel, were prominent before the pandemic, while keywords related to the restorative use of natural spaces, including nature, forest, garden, healing, and walking trail, were also identified after the pandemic. The survey results indicated that face-to-face offline operation remained important, along with increased recognition of blended learning and outdoor-oriented programs. Program operation records showed a decrease in face-to-face offline operation and the coexistence of online, non-face-to-face, blended learning, and suspended programs. Based on institutional combinations of operation modes, three transition types were identified: field-continuity, hybrid-transition, and suspension-inclusive types. These findings suggest that post-pandemic educational program management involved a reconfiguration of operation modes rather than a simple shift to online delivery, providing implications for future management systems that maintain educational continuity under external disruptions.