Vietnam/OER

Policies Survey notes:

In Vietnam, it appears that universities are involved in a number of OCW initiatives and partnerships with foreign institutions.

The respondent to Policies Survey from Vietnam noted in relation to Vietnam's motivations for involvement in the OER movement that "[OER] encourage(s) participants to contribute and share knowledge [and] encourage(s) networking with the international OCW/OER communities."

The respondent to Policies Survey from Vietnam noted that policy makers in Vietnam want:

• To provide a solid infrastructure and appropriate tools as well as technical support and training for the development of OER in Vietnam

• To develop high quality course content based on available OER from leading universities in the world

• To provide the OER community with courses that have Vietnam-specific content that considers the Vietnamese culture

• To provide new methods for the development of sample course materials

• To establish a Vietnamese OER users’ community and encourage participants to contribute and share knowledge

• To encourage networking with the international OER communities.

Overview

Vietnam (Việt Namin Vietnamese), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.

With a population of over 86,000,000, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.

The capital is Hanoi but the largest city is Ho Chi Minh City.

The people of Vietnam regained independence and broke away from China in AD 938 after their victory at the battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive dynasties flourished along with geographic and political expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, until it was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. Efforts to resist the French eventually led to their expulsion from the country in the mid-20th century, leaving a nation divided politically into two countries. Fighting between the two sides continued during the Vietnam War, ending with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.

Emerging from this prolonged military engagement, the war-ravaged nation was politically isolated. The government’s centrally planned economic decisions hindered post-war reconstruction and its treatment of the losing side engendered more resentment than reconciliation. In 1986, it instituted economic and political reforms and began a path towards international reintegration. By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with most nations. Its economic growth had been among the highest in the world in the past decade. These efforts culminated in Vietnam joining the World Trade Organization in 2007 and its successful bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in 2008.

Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces (known in Vietnamese as tỉnh, from the Chinese 省, shěng). There are also 5 centrally-controlled municipalities existing at the same level as provinces (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương). The provinces are further subdivided into provincial municipalities (thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh), townships (thị xã) and counties (huyện), and then, subdivided into towns (thị trấn) or communes (xã). The centrally-controlled municipalities are subdivided into districts (quận) and counties, and then, subdivided into wards (phường).

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Vietnam.

Education in Vietnam/OER

For a general description of education in Vietnam/OER see Education:Vietnam.

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see Vietnam.

Hanoi Open University (HOU) and Ho Chi Minh City Open University (HCMCOU) have launched pilot e-learning programs. HOU has selected the TOPICA platform, while HCMCOU is experimenting with the Mega e-meeting software. These institutions are the major distance education providers in Vietnam. HOU has about 65,000 students, 70% of whom study at a distance. HCMCOU also has about 65,000 students, 40,000 of whom study at a distance. (2)

Internet in Vietnam

Internet hosts (2010) - 129,318

Internet users (2009) - 23 million (2)

The telecommunications sector is in the process of transition from central planning to an open market. Deregulation of the sector is proceeding, although at an uneven pace. Vietnam Post & Telecommunications (VNPT) remains the dominant provider of fixed line services and serves over 55% of mobile subscribers through its subsidiaries. Growing competition in the mobile phone sector has resulted in a rapid increase in mobile penetration. However, fixed line services in rural areas remain poor or non-existent largely as a result of the lack of effective competition for VNPT. Moreover, growth in fixed line services has stagnated, in part due to VNPT’s concentration on the more lucrative mobile services and on the provision of broadband access in urban areas. Consequently, Vietnam has a relatively low rate of Internet penetration by world standards. Only 27.1% of the population had Internet access in 2010. (2)

Internet in Education

There is a skills gap in relation to teachers in primary and secondary schools. The use of ICT in primary and secondary teaching remains extremely limited, despite increasing Internet access at the school level. This feature is partly attributable to the lack of teacher training in this area. Another contributory factor is that relatively few non-urban schools had Internet access before 2008. (2)

OER Initiatives in Vietnam

Vietnam has played an active role of the OER movement for some years. (1)

National OER initiatives

The Fullbright Economic Teaching Program OCW for Vietnam launched soon after the MIT OCW. (2)

Another initiative, the Vietnam OpenCourseWare (VOCW) program began in 2007. The VOCW began as a joint effort between the Vietnam Foundation (VNF) and the MoET. (2)

The US-based Vietnam Foundation has also has established the Vietnam Open Educational Resource (VOER) program. VOER is an open repository where anyone can post OER for Vietnamese students, teachers and independent learners. Vietnam has developed its own national version of the Creative Commons licensing scheme. (2)

Since the mid-1980s, the Hanoi Open University, Ho Chi Minh City Open University and other providers have made extensive use of radio and TV broadcasting in TVET course delivery. Regular TV and radio broadcasts feature teachers and industry experts presenting sessions on topics from the vocational training curriculum. (1)

Universities across Vietnam have added more than 200 courses to the VOCW portal. (2)

Institutional OER initiatives

Universities across Vietnam have added more than 200 courses to the VOCW portal.

References

2. ICDE Country Profile for Vietnam (http://www.icde.org/projects/regulatory_frameworks_for_distance_education/country_profiles/vietnam/)

Reports

1. ICDE Report: 'Regulatory frameworks for distance education: A pilot study in the Southwest Pacific/South East Asia region - Final report'. December 2011. Prepared by the Project Team (Team leader, Dr. Rosalind James) (accessed at http://www.icde.org/filestore/Regulatory_Framework/RegulatoryFrameworksforDEfinalreport2.pdf on Friday 13th July 2012)
2. Country report: Vietnam (on e-learning), circa 2003 - http://203.183.1.152/aen/content/aen_conference_2003/files/q_results/q_vietnam.pdf

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