UNLEASHING THE POWER OF ONLINE EDUCATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES FOR VIETNAM'S HIGHER EDUCATION TO EMERGE STRONGER BEYOND COVID-19
Betty Wong
Cheung Lok Kan
Lee Lizhen Lilian
Lee Wong Cheng
Siti Nur A'isyah Abdul Razak
Zulfadli Ab Rahim
DOI:
Keywords:
COVID-19; Online Education; Online Learning; Vietnam; Higher Education; Digital Transformation
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated technology adoption in the education sector. As a result of school closures, educational institutions worldwide were forced to switch to online learning to ensure continued access to education during this period. Vietnam is no exception. Even before the pandemic, Vietnam has been preparing to modernise its education system via the National Digital Transformation Programme (NDTP). However, being in the early stages of its transformation journey, the adoption rate of online learning has been low. This paper adopted a quantitative survey with 5-point Likert scale questions with 1 being 'Strongly Disagree' and 5 as 'Strongly Agree'. To examine the perceptions towards online learning in Vietnam's higher education. The survey had a total of 773 respondents, including students, educators, and administrators. The results indicated that the online learning experience amongst students and educators has been average. We identified four key barriers to the adoption of online learning, namely a) low perceived benefits of online learning, b) mismatch between the perception of administrators compared to educators and students, c) insufficient policy direction and guidelines for online learning; and d) lack of enabling conditions. Policy recommendations are made to overcome these gaps and optimise the potential of online learning in Vietnam's higher education.
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