Localities are now gearing up to prepare to receive students, including HCM City, the major epicenter of the fourth pandemic wave.

Nguyen Tang Vu from the HCM City High School for the Gifted believes that as students return to school, online teaching will stop but not completely.

Vu said students have adapted well to online teaching. His students study seriously and effectively, always fulfilling exercises.

However, he found some problems in online teaching.

“I found that many students have to study online with devices with small screens, such as smartphones and tablets. As students have busy schedules, they will bear negative impact if having to look at small screen for too long,” he said.

The other problem is online exams. No one can say for sure if students cheat during the exams.

It is difficult to ensure the seriousness of exams and assess students’ abilities through online exams. There should be a closed exam procedure to ensure strict student supervision in order to minimize cheating.

Not all teachers and students can adapt quickly to the new teaching mode. The difference in students’ conditions and learning capacity, as well as the concentration level, may widen the gap even further.

Vu believes that everyone wants to resume in-person classes. If the outbreak can be controlled well and students come back to school, online teaching will stop. However, as this teaching mode has its own advantages, it will still be maintained in some classes and in some extracurricular lessons.

Videos and online lectures will be uploaded into e-libraries for students’ reference. The posting of lectures and home exercises via MS teams and Google Classroom will still be applied by teachers.

“The basic programs and content on libraries will still be very helpful to students and teachers,” Vu said.

Duy Khanh, a teacher at Nguyen Du High School in Phu Yen province , agreed that online teaching will still exist but will be organized in a more flexible way.

“I think that no teaching mode can replace teachers and students in classes. However, online teaching still can be applied in some circumstances,” he said.

For example, if students don’t understand lessons, they may ask teachers via Zoom, Team and Zalo, and teachers can also give exercises via the platforms.

The biggest problem to improve online teaching, according to Khanh, is the limited capability of IT software. The other problems include the quality of internet transmission and the students’ lack of devices.

He said online teaching allows students from many different localities to study with teachers they will never meet in life, especially in English study.

Khanh said that teachers will act as the organizers and mentors of students.

“I never think I am the person who transmits knowledge but just a guide, especially when there is a lot of knowledge available on the internet and in publications,” he said.

Phuong Duc Viet, Vice Headmaster of Hoang Hoa Tham Secondary School in Hanoi, said the school decided to train teachers on how to use MS Teams on February 27, 2020. At that moment, both the board of management and teachers did not think that they would have to teach online. The training was organized just because it was free.

However, Covid-19 broke out which accelerated the shift from offline to online teaching. And teachers have realized a lot of advantages which offline teaching doesn’t have.

“With online teaching, you can learn from everywhere and at any time,” he said. “The board of management can convene meetings with parents of the entire school, which cannot be done with offline meeting mode.”

Online teaching also ensures safety for teachers and students as they don’t have to go to school. They can save money on motorbike fuel, and help ease traffic congestion. Technological devices are getting cheaper and it’s easier to obtain them.

Viet believes that after students return to school, online and online meetings will still be maintained, but the proportion of online and offline hours will depend on the decisions of the board of management and the students’ and teachers’ technological adaptability. 

Phuong Chi

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