On May 14, 2021, the VNU University of Economics and Business and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore) co-organized the international workshop titled “The Power of Online Education: Opportunities and Strategies for Vietnam Higher Education in the Context of Covid-19”. At the end of the workshop, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Vu Minh Khuong, representative of the research team in Singapore, concluded four key strategies that promote the digital transformation process in higher education in Vietnam in the coming time.
Strategic Thrust
1: Governance and Regulations
First and
foremost, for digital transformation to
succeed, leaders must have a clear vision of where they want their
organizations to be and also a good understanding of how to get there. the
National Committee on Education and Training Innovation
should assist the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in formulating and implementing national guidelines
and training programmes that are aligned with the government’s overarching
mandates and regulations.
Second, the
committee should also take on the role of a central coordinator, to assist MOET
in communicating the specific goals and objectives of the program and its
associated performance indicators, such as digital competency ratings of
students and educators, user satisfaction levels and Information Communication
Technology (ICT) utilization rate.
Third, the
committee should be empowered to conduct an independent and transparent program review, with the
objective of evaluating the criteria of appropriateness, efficiency and
cost-effectiveness of the national program and its subcomponents.
Fourth, the
committee could also be given the authority to take on the role of audit and
enforcement on behalf of MOET. This would be useful in ensuring compliance with
government regulations and requirements that are must- haves, which can include
basic ICT literacy training programmes that are compulsory for all students and
educators in HEIs.
Strategic
Thrust 2: Campaign
Fast-forward
to 2021, the rise of the digital era has made digital literacy akin to word
literacy skills. However, general awareness of the need for ICT training and
the perceived benefits of online learning
have remained low, as shown by our survey results. Therefore, it is timely for
them to roll out a Digital Literacy Campaign. In particular, the campaign
should create a mindset of embracing OL and receptivity to ICT training so as
to enhance their capacity in adopting the OL and narrow the learning gaps
caused by the COVID-19. In the long-term, the Vietnam government should also
consider a wider national campaign that includes the digital literacy training
into the curriculum of primary schools, so as to lay down a strong foundation
for the future generations beyond COVID- 19. The key
campaign objective is to improve the perceived benefits of online education for
the stakeholders: Administrators, Educators, Students.
Strategic
Thrust 3: Benchmarking tool for objective evaluation and tracking
To
facilitate this process, we have developed the Digital Readiness Benchmarking
(DRB) framework with a focus on five key transformation elements. This
framework is adapted from the European Commission Guideline on Promoting
Effective Digital-Age Learning 2015. Each
transformation element includes descriptors that provide further clarity on the
specific requirements that need to be met to effect the transformation. This framework can either be administered directly by the
National Committee under its role of program evaluation, or used by individual
institutions to self-assess their digital readiness, with specific performance
indicators reported to the committee for progress tracking. Details of the five
transformation elements are elaborated below.
Strategic
Thrust 4: Training
Our literature review on overseas best practices in
countries like Singapore clearly shows that successful digital transformation
is underpinned by investments in training and continuous learning. Studies on
other digitally mature countries also emphasized continuing professional
development as a key requirement for digital-age learning. However, the role of
training has remained one of the most overlooked aspects in digital
transformation as studies have shown that most organizations are not prepared
to keep up with their staff’s training and development needs. We postulate this training gap to be the main cause for the
perceived poor OL environment, due to the lack of technical know-how in
optimizing interactions between educators and students. As such, in
order to achieve more comprehensive, consistent and sustainable learning
outcomes, we recommend for the National Committee to develop a set of national
training standards with the following features for educators and students in
Vietnam’s higher education.
Among above recommendations, he emphasized: "Regarding
policy design and implementation, it is necessary to carry out synchronously
all 4 recommendations (4 promotive strategies), however, the recommendation in
the 3rd strategy on Benchmarking has the biggest spillover effects on improving
stakeholders’ awareness and strategy.”
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