The HCM City Food Industry University students have been off school for a couple of weeks but there is no online work.

Vietnamese university students remain unfamiliar with online teaching and learning. Meanwhile, the conditions of students are different and not all of them have sufficient materials to access online lessons.

According to the school’s rector Nguyen Xuan Hoan, online teaching can be applied to a limited number of students who have good conditions.

The students are not only from large cities, where there are favorable conditions, but also from remote and rural areas. Many students don’t have internet access, while others have it, but the transmission speed is not good enough to learn online.

The students are not only from large cities, where there are favorable conditions, but also from remote and rural areas. Many students don’t have internet access, while others have it, but the transmission speed is not good enough to learn online.

The Economics & Law University began teaching online in late February. A recent survey found that 10-15 percent of students could not keep track of the lecture due to the low connection speed.

Dang Thi Ngoc Lan, vice rector of the Finance & Marketing University, said the school has organized online teaching, but only to help students review knowledge. Lecturers are not giving new lessons.

She said if the school gives new lectures, students in remote areas will be at a disadvantage because they cannot access the lessons.

According to Do Van Dung, rector of the HCM City University of Technology Education, the school has spent big money and six years to familiarize students with the habit of online learning. Therefore, the schools which have not prepared well in recent years won’t be able to organize online classes now.

Dung said people cannot anticipate all the problems in teaching online. At some schools, lecturers just make video recordings and post the clips on the internet. But this way of teaching will not help.

“Online lectures need to be designed in a different way. You need to cut the lectures into small parts and each part lasts 10-15 minutes. After every 15 minutes, you need to check if students understand the lessons,” Dung said.

However, despite the difficulties, teaching online is the best choice for teachers and students in the context of the epidemic escalation.

Le Viet Khuyen from the Association of Vietnam’s Universities and Junior Colleges said no one knows for sure when the epidemic can be stopped, therefore, teaching from a distance must be a choice.

He thinks that teaching on TV alone won’t be enough, and that it would be better to apply both direct teaching and teaching from a distance. 

Mai Lan

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