Learners’ Perceptions towards Online Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Study at a Center of Foreign Languages in Vietnam

Online learning is a revolutionary trend of educational technology today. Particularly, online learning has become the donminent alternative to traditional learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and in the new normal. Various studies have shown that online learning has varying effectiveness at all levels and types of education; however, it is worth noting that many learners are still struggling to accept the mode of online learning, and learner retention has been suggested as one of the greatest weaknesses in online education. The current study used a questionnaire with open-ended questions to examine online learners’ perceptions of online learning as well as to understand reasons for their retention in online courses. The results revealed that most of the learners, especially young learners still preferred traditional face-to-face learning to online learning due to various problems they experienced while doing online learning, such as lack of facilities and necessary interactions. However, the retention rates are relatively modest, indicating the perceived quality of online programs at a center of foreign languages in Vietnam.

Factors Affecting Students’ Intention to Use Massive Open Online Courses

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) attract many researchers because of their massiveness, openness, machine and peer assessment, yet there are still many questions to be answered. This study was conducted at FPT University in Can Tho during the 2020-2021 academic year using the quantitative approach. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select 226 participants who partook at least one MOOC on the Coursera platform. The questionnaire consists of 18 items adapted from Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by Davis (1989), and Learning Strategies, by Marton and Säljö (1976). The findings showed that perceived ease of use (PEOU), and perceived usefulness (PU) have a great impact on students’ intention to use MOOCs in the future, PU, however, has a stronger and more direct correlation to the acceptability of MOOCs. Furthermore, surface learning strategy has a negative effect on the intention to enroll in MOOCs while deep learning strategy was not significantly correlated with intended future use of MOOCs. More importantly, a valuable finding was that surface learning strategy was in inverse proportion to courses variable and it can be lessened. Our findings are expected to offer a multi-dimensional view for students, especially those in the current context as well as MOOCs developers in order to design curricula.

Self-assessment and Language Learner Autonomy: An Exploratory Study in a Vietnamese University

This paper aims to explore the role of self-assessment in developing language learner autonomy in the Vietnamese higher education context. Specifically, it focuses on how the assessment for English language learning is currently conducted and how this relates to learner autonomy. Despite the Vietnamese government’s official requirement for learner autonomy, Vietnamese higher education’s language academic context provides presently little space for autonomous learning. The idea of self-assessment is relatively unfamiliar and has, therefore, been little investigated. Based on qualitative data from observations and interviews with 38 university students, this paper presents the understanding of learner autonomy in Vietnamese higher education. In particular, the findings suggest that self-assessment may be a useful operational approach for fostering language learner autonomy in Vietnam and other similar settings. Also, they highlight the demand of promoting self-assessment literacy and the importance of self-assessment principles within the local context.

University Governance in the context of Vietnam’s Educational Innovation

University governance brings about the success of a university. Renovation of management in the direction of university governance will exert important influences to improve the training quality of the higher education system. The article presents the theoretical basis and research process related to university governance activities to promote education innovation. The study combined qualitative and quantitative research; the survey sample was 120 people, of which 44 were managers and 76 were lecturers and staff working at Saigon University. The article proposes university governance related to such elements as planning for the development of resources in the university, policy mechanisms, organization and leadership, and monitoring. The article clarifies the relationship between the components of university governance activities in the direction of a system approach to help universities manage their activities towards sustainable university governance.

Prospects of Blended Learning Implementation at FPT University Can Tho, Vietnam

Drawing on the evaluations of students’ attitudes toward learning aspects the mixed-method research aims to examine the prospects of Blended Learning at FPT University in Can Tho. Four hundred sixty-seven students partook in the study by providing answers for a 30-item questionnaire with open-ended questions. The results showed that most students have positive attitudes towards factors constructing their Blended Learning adaptability, including (1) Study Management and Online Learning, (2) Classroom Learning, and (3) Learning Flexibility. The results of Binary Logistic Regression also clarified the good promise of Blended Learning implementation and the discovery of other concerns that hindered informants’ willingness, namely Worriment about Learning Effectiveness, Online Learning Barriers, and Learners’ Ego. The research findings served as a reference for FPT University and other higher institutions to better grasp how students perceive Blended Learning to develop strategies for successful practices.

Excellence in Internal Quality Assurance: An Empirical Study in United States

Assessment or internal quality assurance (IQA) processes have often been driven by external stakeholders such as accreditation and governmental agencies of higher education, which are focused on accountability rather than quality improvement. This research examined how private and non-profit Doctoral and Research institutions with less public financial dependence and accountability requirements adopted the Excellence in Assessment (EIA) rubric to improve their IQA models that supports improvement. A survey based on National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) EIA rubric was sent to the ASSESS Listserv to learn if there was a difference in EIA scores related to source of funding and Carnegie characteristics. A two-way MANOVA analysis of the survey responses showed that there was no difference in IQA practice followed EIA rubric between source of funding (public and non-profit private institutions) and Carnegie classification (Research and Comprehensive). Recommendations are made regarding the reliability of the EIA rubric. The EIA designation can serve as a framework for U.S. and non-U.S. higher education institutions to benchmark and improve the current IQA processes.

HMông Students’ Sources of Funds of Knowledge: A Case Study of Kinh Primary School Teachers’ Practices

Teachers working with ethnic minority students who have different language and cultural background from their own may have little knowledge of their students in out-of-school context. This lack of students’ knowledge and resources outside of the school may lead to deficit thinking regarding this non-dominated group as intellectually and academically deficient. Underachievement and low study engagement by HMông ethnic minority students in disadvantaged primary schools in Vietnam evidence a need for more effective teaching practices to support these minority students’ learning and reduce inequality within their educational environment. The funds of knowledge (FoK) approach attempts to overcome teachers’ perceptions of ethnic minority students and their knowledge through learning about these students’ FoK and incorporating these insights into the teaching practices. The purpose of this study is to explore how Kinh teachers identify HMông students’ sources of FoK in order to support their teaching/learning practices. This research employs qualitative educational research method together with case study method to examine the way Kinh primary teachers identify HMông students’ sources of FoK. The findings indicate that Kinh primary teachers identified HMông students’ different sources of FoK that the teachers could beneficially be drawing on to empowering HMông children’ participation, achievement and Kinh teachers’ teaching practices.

Cooperative Approach: A Survey on Students’ Preferred Classroom Activities in Reading Classes at Thu Dau Mot University

The Cooperative approach or Cooperative learning approach is defined as a model of group learning in which students are assigned to cooperate in teams for gaining a common purpose whereas they have to show their independence in completing sectional tasks. This learning style, to some extent, has been used in Reading classes at Thu Dau Mot University along with other methods for boosting students’ working motivation. From the mentioned premise, the paper investigated English-majored students’ favorable activities in Reading classrooms to clarify student’s learning motives as well as their willingness to work in group during the lessons. A survey questionnaire on selective activities was sent to the fourth–year English majors to measure the respondents’ attitudes. Accordingly, the paper focuses on the following aspects: (1) students’ attitudes towards reading skills, (2) their preferred classroom activities, and (3) their expected achievements from the course. Consequently, it is found out that there was a kind of intrinsic motivation among learners in the course, the students are interested in self-conducted activities, and that cooperative learning activities might foster students’ love for reading.

Educational Leadership in the U.S. and Vietnam: A Cross-Culture Comparative Study

Under globalisation, comparative educational studies have become more relevant. This paper is the first of its kind to compare education and training for principals in Vietnam and the U.S. and will offer among the few systematic studies on school leadership in Vietnam. Utilizing previous research on educational leadership and culture in the U.S. and Vietnam, and survey results from Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2018, I used t-test analyses to test several hypotheses about the differences between principals in the two countries. The findings suggest differences in age, gender, managerial experience, teaching obligation, and obtained levels of education and training between American principals and Vietnamese principals. Principals in the U.S. are younger and less experienced than principals in Vietnam. Level of education and need for professional development programs potentially indicate that American principals receive more thorough training in their education compared to Vietnamese principals. Accordingly, this comparative study provides valuable insights for both countries and contributes to diversifying the literature on educational leadership which the West has long dominated.

An Investigation into Secondary School Students’ Sino-Vietnamese Competence in Philology Learning Activities

Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary is an important part of Vietnamese vocabulary. The ability to use Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary partially reflects one’s Vietnamese language competence; therefore, the ability to use Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary is an important element in the language ability of Vietnamese people in general, and secondary school students in particular. During in-class literature activities, secondary school students are equipped with Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary to a certain extent, but the effectiveness of using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in communication and in learning has yet to be fully evaluated. This article focuses on evaluating the ability to use Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary of secondary school students in Hanoi by using questionnaires and tests to obtain both subjective and objective data from the learner’s perspective. The survey results will be used as a practical premise to propose new teaching methods to develop Sino-Vietnamese language competence of secondary school students in Literature, in accordance with the 2018 General Education Curriculum.