E-learning in higher education in Vietnam - A case study of FUNIX

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY CHU NGOC MAI E-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM – A CASE STUDY OF FUNIX MASTER'S THESIS Hanoi, 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY CHU NGOC MAI E-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM – A CASE STUDY OF FUNIX MAJOR: PUBLIC POLICY CODE: PILOT RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYEN THUY ANH Hanoi, 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The period of conducting and completing this thesis has provided me with valuable knowledge and useful experience thanks to great supports and encouragement from my supervisors and colleagues from the research fields as well as my family and friends First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thuy Anh, my thesis supervisor, for her guidance and encouragement during the process of writing my thesis Thanks to her valuable advices and enthusiastic supports, I can identify appropriate direction & method for my thesis and complete my paper Secondly, I would like to express a special appreciation to people in FUNIX where I had a chance to participate in a variety of activities in an online university, conduct interviews and collect data for my thesis Particularly, special thanks go to Mr Phan Phuong Dat, the Director of FUNIX and Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, Deputy Manager of Program Development who have provided supports and effective coordination with other departments in FUNIX, enabling me to access different sources of data and collect useful information for my thesis My sincere thanks are also extended to lecturers and staff in Master of Public Policy Program in Vietnam Japan University for their great supports I would like to thank professor Okamoto Naohisa and professor Vu Hoang Linh for their feedback on my paper for better improvement Also, I would like to say thank to Ms Pham Thi Thu Ha for her assistance during my two years of studying and the period of writing my thesis Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to my family and friends for being a great source of motivation and encouragement for me to cope with difficulties during my thesis conducting and complete my paper TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES i LIST OF FIGURES i ABBREVIATION ii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Research rationales 1.3 Research significance & objectives 1.4 Research questions Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Empirical reviews of previous studies 2.1.1 Studies on impacts of e-learning on education 2.1.2 Emerging of e-learning and effects on traditional HEIs 2.1.3 Current states and challenges to e-learning integration in HE 2.1.4 Studies on current situations of e-learning in HE in Vietnam 2.2 Conceptual reviews of e-learning terms 2.2.1 Diversification of distance learning in educational systems 2.2.2 Technical terms in e-learning program development 2.3 Theoretical models & frameworks 10 2.3.1 A framework for e-learning application 10 2.3.2 A model to evaluate e-learning quality in developing countries 12 2.3.3 A summary of main perspectives for e-learning models & frameworks 13 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 15 3.1 Qualitative research 15 3.2 Research design of a case study 15 3.3 Description of activities 16 3.3.1 Desk-based reviews 16 3.3.2 Participant observation 17 3.3.3 In-depth interviews 17 Chapter 4: FINDINGS 19 4.1 An overview of e-learning in higher education in Vietnam 19 4.2 Organisational structure of an online university 20 4.2.1 An overview of FUNIX online university model 20 4.2.2 Organizational structure of an online university – FUNIX model 22 4.3 Development and delivery of online courses for HE program 24 4.3.1 Procedure of online course developing and operating 24 4.3.2 ICT facilities 26 4.3.3 Human resources – Academic & professional staff 27 4.4 Provision of HE educational degrees in an online university 29 4.4.1 Full online e-learning programs for bachelor degree & relationship with “offline” universtities 29 4.4.2 Blended learning programs for bachelor degree and cooperation with traditional universities 30 Chapter 5: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 32 5.1 A comparative analysis between models of online and traditional universities 32 5.1.1 Differences in organisational structures 32 5.1.2 Advantages of e-learning model comparing to on-campus model in terms of time and location 32 5.2 Shortcomings and challenges to application of e-learning in HE 33 5.2.1 ICT facilities 33 5.2.2 Human resources 34 5.2.3 Policy implication of higher educational degree provision 35 Chapter 6: RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION 36 6.1 Recommendation 36 6.2 Limitation & further studies 38 6.3 Conclusion 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 47 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 Khan’s descriptions of eight dimensions for e-learning framework 11 Table 2.2 Main perspectives of e-learning models & frameworks 14 Table 3.1 In-depth interview details 18 Table 4.1 Important milestones of FUNIX’s establishment 20 Table 4.2 Details of academic & professional staff 28 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1 Khan’s e-learning framework 11 Figure 2.2 E-learning quality evaluation model 13 Figure 4.1 Organisational structure of FUNIX 23 Figure 4.2 Practical procedure of online course development 25 Figure 4.3 Human resources in e-learning course development & operation 27 i ABBREVIATION HE: Higher education HEIs: Higher education institutions IT: Information technology ICT: Information and communication technology MLS: Management learning system MOOCs: Massive open online courses QA: Quality assessment OSS: Open source software MOET: Ministry of Education and Training ii CHAPTER - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background Progress in science and technology has posed profound impacts on our modern society Thanks to advanced technology, education has experienced evolution of different educational forms throughout the history From the traditional styles of teaching in classroom context characterized by face-to-face interaction between teachers and students, the new concept of distance learning was created based on the emergence of computer-based learning as well as video lectures and television programs (Holmberg, 2005) The following generation of distance education is the emergence of e-learning inspired by the expansion of internet access with emphasis on web-based learning (Saykili, 2018) Recently, the birth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) was remarked as a new wave of distance education with highlights of increasing interaction among participants and meeting increasing demand from a huge number of learners regardless of geographical location (Tracey, 2013) The evolution of online education throughout the timeline of history has proved its potentials of expanding application and integration in all levels of education Moreover, the phenomenon of industrial revolution 4.0 is believed to make changes in all aspects of our life (Hussin, 2018) Then, impacts on different educational levels are inevitable Particularly, in responding to the fourth industrial revolution, higher education (HE) has experienced considerable changes in terms of curriculums, pedagogical approaches, teaching methods as well as functions of education (Xing & Marlawa, 2017) As a result, higher educational institutions (HEIs) are supposed to adapt and make appropriate changes to increase access and meet increasing demands of learners Also, current trends of educational development in the age of 4.0 industrial revolution focus on innovation in teaching methods and learning approach (Hussin, 2018) For instance, it is stated that there has been an increasing tendency of developing flexible learning approach regardless of time and space limitation Moreover, students are considered as the central focus of the learning environment in which courses are designed in responding to trending requirement of learners 1.2 Research rationales In Vietnam, there has been a boom in online educational market with diversified elearning providers and various forms of online learning (Le, 2017) For tertiary education, since 2000s, universities started to show interests in e-learning application in higher education and initiated the trend of integrating e-learning in programs for Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees (Nguyen, 2016) Therefore, increasing demand for e-learning programs in higher educational environment has made it necessary for universities and e-learning providers to apply effectively e-learning approach for the purpose of attaining undergraduate and postgraduate programs More importantly, there has been a limitation in policy documents on governmental direction of higher educational e-learning model development and regulations for management of e-learning providers’ activities in the online educational market For instance, the Ministry of Education and Training have issued only two documents in 2016 and 2017 on application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in online education and regulation of distance higher education (MOET, 2016; MOET, 2017) Consequently, it is essential for policy makers to provide more specific regulations to manage operation and activities of e-learning providers in Vietnamese markets 1.3 Research significance and objectives Significance of the study:  Higher educational institutions & e-learning providers  Policy makers Objectives of the research The research aims at providing an overview of the current situation of e-learning application in higher education in Vietnam and an insight into the operation of an elearning institution From comparative analysis and discussion of a case study of an online educational model, the paper, then, proposes policy recommendation to help e-learning institutions apply effectively e-learning in higher education in the context of Vietnam 1.4 Research questions The main research question: How can e-learning providers improve their application of e-learning in higher education in Vietnam? Research sub-questions: 1) What is the current situation of e-learning in HE in Vietnam in terms of elearning application types and provision of higher educational degrees? 2) What is the procedure of developing & delivering an online course and its influencing factors? 3) What are advantages of e-learning application in HE comparing to traditional method of education? 4) What are shortcomings and existing challenges to e-learning providers in applying e-learning in HE (in terms of developing online courses and providing university degree? 5) What policy recommendation should be made to enable e-learning providers to utilize advantages and tackle difficulties in the process of e-learning application in higher education? thanks to flexibility of studying location, online education can expand more access to higher education, especially people from distance In particular, FUNIX has a number of students who are now living in different regions of Vietnam or even in foreign countries For instance, FUNIX has a network of students from more than 60 provinces in Vietnam Information provided by FUNIX Academic Department staff also mentioned a small number of FUNIX students who are working for branches of FPT Software Companies in other countries like Japan or Singapore It is also stated that concerns for FUNIX online courses from Vietnamese learners living or working abroad have had a tendency of growing for the last two years Secondly, in terms of time, attaining tertiary degree program online may help learners reduce their total studying duration or adjust their enrolment time based on their pace of learning and personal schedule Also, the time of starting university course is flexible instead of a fixed opening date for a new school year As a result, this advantage can help encourage an increasing number of full-time workers who desire to study while working (part-time studying program) Information provided by officers in Academic Department of FUNIX stated that a significant number of their students (accounting for about 70%) enrolling in higher educational online program are full-time workers These learners include those who desire to get their first bachelor degree while working and those who want to gain their second higher educational degree 5.2 Shortcomings and challenges to application of e-learning in higher education 5.2.1 ICT facilities Capability of ICT infrastructure of e-learning institutions is a crucial factor for the process of implementing online education In the model of FUNIX, the obstacles for ICT availability come from both hardware and software availability In order to utilise open-source LMS, it is important to have a strong server system and other necessary hardware infrastructure According to opinion of IT staff in FUNIX, weak server system affecting operation and causing ineffective utilisation of e-learning 33 software is one of the prominent problems in ICT infrastructure of an e-learning provider Other challenges come from IT and academic staff’s skills on utilizing open-source LMS For instance, feedbacks of learners on errors and malfunctions of some parts on learning pages have been reported by FUNIX’s tool of managing students’ experience and collecting student’s comments It is obvious that both academic staff and supporting staff of the online courses would require more special training for taking full use and adopting effectively advanced technology and authoring tools for designing, delivering and maintaining e-learning programs 5.2.2 Human resources The group of academic staff for the procedure of designing, delivering and maintaining an online course has been proved to have some shortcomings Thanks to the study in the case of FUNIX, it is possible for the author to examine and analyse both strong and weak points of these academic and professional staff Moreover, it is important to mention two main existing problems among human resources of an e-learning provider model The first prominent issue is the limitation in knowledge and experience of the course designers in designing academic content online Despite their high academic and professional qualification and specialized knowledge, almost all of them are reported to have no background understand on instructional design of online content As an “offline” traditional lecture and an online one are introduced in different learning platforms and environments (face-to-face class vs virtual classroom; hard-paper materials vs ICT platform), teachers are required to have necessary skills of adopting advanced authoring tools to deliver their lecture content The lack of these skills may result in incompatibility between lectures’ content, pedagogical methods, curriculum and characteristics of virtual learning environment Secondly, the groups of course designers, reviewers and mentors are outsourced staff, affecting their level of commitment to the time of course development (during 34 period of both pre-implementing and implementing course) According to reflections of officers in Program Development Department of FUNIX, sudden changes in course designers or reviewers during the time developing a complete online course had negative effects on progress and consistence of content quality of the course The coordinators from FUNIX also mentioned their difficulties in making contact and pushing these academic staff to speed up the progress of developing the e-learning courses 5.2.3 Policy implication of higher educational degree provision The above findings on types of e-learning application in higher education and relationship between online and offline universities have indicated impacts of governmental policy on implementation and operation of e-learning educational institutions Firstly, there is a lack of governmental detailed direction and guidance on management and operation of e-learning institutions for university degrees Secondly, it is true that there have been no recognition of the MOET on legal existence of an online university who can provide its own official degree with equivalent value as official degree by “offline” university For instance, FUNIX’s students can only receive degree issued by FPT University for Distance Learning Degree In addition, e-learning providers have had difficulties in operating independently from the strict supervision of traditional university, requiring supportive policy from government for more active operation of an online university in the future Finally, the process of integrating online program into oncampus higher educational program would demand more cooperation from traditional universities 35 CHAPTER – RECOMMENDATION & CONCLUSION 6.1 Recommendation Having acknowledged the strength and weaknesses of e-learning application in HE in the context of Vietnam, it is important for e-learning providers to utilise advantages from e-learning models and encounter obstacles to the process of integrating e-learning higher educational programs More importantly, policy makers should make radical changes to facilitate e-learning providers for their better improvement and sustainably development of e-learning in HE Four crucial aspects that e-learning providers need to focus on their application and integration of e-learning for tertiary programs are human resources, ICT infrastructures, institutional operation (for HE degrees) and cooperation with traditional universities Enhancing human resource skills As mentioned above about human resources at different positions in an online university, it is necessary to highlight important functions of the academic and supporting staff in the process of building and implementing an online course This can be considered as the core factor for the development and sustainability of an elearning provider Therefore, ensuring availability and enhancing capacity of human resources is one of the most essential tasks for e-learning institutions in Vietnam In terms of skill enhancing, academic staff involving in the procedure of course development, especially e-learning course designers, should improve their skills of designing online content for online courses It is important for teachers to know how to use tools & advanced software to create their lectures and assignments For instance, knowledge on instructional design of an online course is also important for course designers to change their types of delivering their lesson content and adapt new approach to assessing and interact with students Moreover, other supporting staff like mentors or course instructors as well as course development coordinators 36 and quality assessment staff need to be equipped with knowledge on e-learning developing and course quality assurance because they also contribute considerably in the process of developing an online course As a result, e-learning providers are highly recommended to conduct regular and intensive trainings for their academic and supporting staff To support and enable elearning providers to hold these trainings, it is necessary for governmental policy to promote knowledge transference from both domestic and international sources For instance, creating favourable conditions (in terms of incentive providing) is an effective method to encourage knowledge and experience sharing from developed countries and successful models of e-learning application Improving ICT infrastructure Guaranteeing availability of ICT facilities is the second aspect that e-learning providers need to pay more attention Improving ICT infrastructures for e-learning implementation in higher educational programs requires both upgrading of hardware and software foundations In the case of online university like FUNIX, it is important to have a strong server system and other necessary hardware facilities to operate an online course smoothly, meeting increasing demand from learners and adapting to changes in terms of course requirements In addition, upgrading authoring tools for multimedia content designing, course delivering and learners’ managing is supposed to play a crucial role in providing an online course independently (to avoid dependence on international MOOC sources) and effectively (to reduce technical errors during the process of running online courses) For policy makers, it is necessary to promote the cooperation between e-learning providers, higher educational institutions and enterprises from private sectors so that more investment from private businesses on e-learning development or elearning start-up models like FUNIX These will be a good source of financial support for technological innovation and ICT facility improvement Encouraging active & independent operation of e-learning providers 37 Dependence of e-learning providers like FUNIX on traditional universities and limitation in their operation as mentioned above should be tackled by promotion of policy changes For instance, it is highly recommended to propose policy regulation and direction in the operation and management of e-learning institutions It is essential for the e-learning providers to have legal status to operate as an online university (not a distant training centre of a traditional university) and legal rights to issue higher educational degrees As a result, they will have more chance to operate actively and independently, providing more access to higher education to a larger numbers and types of learners Promoting cooperation from traditional universities for e-learning integration in HE To achieve the goals of radically integrating e-learning program in campus universities, it is important to promote more cooperation between traditional universities and e-learning providers First of all, governmental policy on providing more incentives for traditional universities to adapt blending-learning approach should be proposed so that e-learning providers can extend their scope of operation and diversify their types of services delivering (both full online and short course integrated programs) Secondly, both teachers and learners from traditional universities should be aware of the necessary changes in traditional ways of teaching and other cultural believes & traditions in learning methods to utilise advanced technology in teaching and learning activities for higher outcomes of higher educational programs 6.2 Limitation and further studies There have been some limitations in this research, requiring further studies in the future First of all, the research design of a case study focusing only on FUNIX, a private e-learning provider, has made it difficult for the author to have a wider view on e-learning developing in Vietnam in terms of both private and public sectors For a more comprehensive understanding about e-learning application in higher education, it is suggested to conduct further studies in e-learning operation in public 38 educational institutions and a thorough comparison between the two models of private and public educational sectors Secondly, for the limitation in the scope of studies, this research has not covered all the aspects of e-learning implementation framework For instance, the author has focused mainly from the aspects of educators (e-learning providers) without consideration on the perspectives of learners (learners’ satisfaction and performance) or pedagogical approach (content quality assessing criteria, learning strategies & analysis) Moreover, this would require further studies with surveys conducting among higher educational students and teachers or course designers (from both on-campus and online universities) for the purposes of collecting more necessary data and viewpoints for more in-depth understanding of e-learning in the context of Vietnam 6.3 Conclusion Through the discussion and analysis on the case study of FUNIX, it can be concluded that implementing e-learning in higher education in the context of Vietnam have shown both advantages and disadvantages Providing university degree through e-learning systems has been proved to bring about benefits for both educational institutions and learners in terms of cost, time and location However, the model of online education for tertiary degrees in Vietnam still has weaknesses and obstacles in terms of ICT capability, human resources and institutional issues of legal status and cooperation with traditional universities Changes in governmental policy on application of e-learning in higher education should be proposed to help e-learning providers utilise advantages and tackle difficulties in the context of Vietnam The policy recommendation should focus on these key points:  Promote intensive training for academic and professional staffs on E-learning course development, especially in terms skills on instructional design for online courses 39  Enhance ICT infrastructure by encouraging cooperation between educational institutions and enterprises for raising investment on ICT facility  Propose policy changes on encouraging active and independent operation of e-learning providers in the process of developing online course, delivering programs and issuing higher educational degree  Encourage more supportive activities and cooperation from traditional universities to integrate more e-learning courses in on-campus programs It is important for policy makers to create favourable environment and an incentive scheme to connect private e-learning providers, traditional university and industry (businesses from private sectors) in the process of promoting e-learning application in providing higher educational programs 40 REFERENCES Agarwal, H., & Pandey, G N (2013) Impact of E-learning in education International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 2(12), 146147 Bates, A T (2005) Technology, e-learning and distance education Routledge Bichsel, J (2013) The state of e-learning in higher education: An eye toward growth and increased access Educause Center for analysis and research 10.13140/RG.2.1.3686.0644 Bryan, A., & 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