The Hanoitimes - GiapSchool, the first online study portal, under the Massive Open online Course – MOOC model, has been recently launched in Vietnam.
GiapSchool, initiated by Dr. Giap Van Duong, is expected to foster education reform in the country.
The portal was launched on August 31 at www.giapschool.org with the aim of bringing modern knowledge from around the world to students in Vietnam at the fastest speed, free of charge and through the most convenient devices with the help of the Internet and modern computing technology.
It’s also expected to encourage citizens in Vietnam to be more proactive in learning throughout their lives.
GiapSchool is designed to foster the organisation of online courses to be used by tens of thousands of students at the same time. It allows students to listen to a lecture, do exercises, do tests, join group discussions and talk to lecturers.
Students can be anyone who has a computer or mobile phone that can connect with the Internet.
On the same day of the launching, a seminar on the new training model was organised, attracting the participation of several education experts and students.
Some say that several teachers have spoken out against this new training model for fear that it may affect their jobs.
“It’s true that several teachers are worried about their jobs once the introduction of MOOC is complete. However, students and the public will be the decision-makers and the development of MOOC is part of an unstoppable trend,” Dr. Giap Van Duong said.
Several teachers have raised concerns over the quality of lectures and potential infringement of copyrights on uploaded lectures.
Duong said, “As far as I know there would be no agency that would verify quality of lectures and students would make their own assessment. Those who produce the lectures would also own copyright.”
According to him, even though many lectures were previously uploaded on Internet, they’re not MOOC but only e-learning.
“MOOC doesn’t grant the student any certificates. It’s just open to anyone who loves to learn,” He emphasised.
However, Dr. Ngo Bao Chau said attention should be paid to building a system of credits as soon as possible in order to get funding to continue the training project.
“Most major universities in the US are private, therefore, they don’t grant credits to free-of-charge training. Their main income comes from tuition fees that reach up to USD40,000 and USD50,000 per year. I do think that developers of MOOC should create their own credit system,” Chau commented.
He suggested that MOOC developers should gain experience from online games in order to attract students by use of interesting programmes.
Meanwhile, Dr. Le Thong Nhat said it’s important to increase people’s habit of learning on the Internet and paying tuition fees that way as well.
“In order to intensify the development of online training, due attention should be paid to students’ parents,” he added.
