Vietnam strengthening online teaching, learning during Covid-19 crisis

In response to the outbreak of the fourth Covid-19 epidemic, the education and training sector nationwide has been strengthening online teaching and learning at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.

Vietnam strengthening online teaching, learning during Covid-19 crisis ảnh 1 A lecturer of  the HCMC-based Open Unviversity is teaching English on the internet 
Families and teachers play significant roles in supporting students during the Covid-19 crisis. Many years ago, online teaching activities were applied in some school units but only with a limited scale and content.
Since the Covid-19 epidemic has spread widely, many localities have had to implement strict social distancing, and online teaching methods have also taken the throne. Online learning is the newest and most popular form of distance education today.
Assoc. Professor Tran Thien Phuc, Vice Principal of the University of Science and Technology, said that online teaching has been a sub-optimal substitute for face-to-face instruction.
In order to run this teaching method smoothly, schools have had to prepare infrastructure; specific online learning materials, and inspired teachers and students to new teaching and learning methodologies.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 epidemic, when the southern metropolis had not yet implemented strict social distancing, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology organized online training in the form of so-called centralized online training.
In this form, the school built 22 studio rooms in the lecture hall, equipped with 2-3 computers, camera systems, lighting equipment, recording, directing software with different settings. Lecture videos were uploaded to the school's electronic lecture system (BKeL system) and stored, along with interactive rooms between lecturers and students in assignments or projects.
For the system to operate smoothly, with such a large number of classes, the school has expanded the network bandwidth from 200Mbps to more than 700Mbps. Not to mention increasing the upload bandwidth of the existing transmission line, the school also supported the download bandwidth of each student...
According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do, as of October 12, 23 localities are running on-campus education while other eight localities are carrying out blended education - combining online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with traditional place-based classroom methods and via television.
Thirty-two cities and provinces are performing teaching and learning on the internet television.
For the implementation of the program "Internet connection and computers for students) program", by October 12, the education sector has mobilized about VND66.82 billion and more than 800,000 studying devices.
Schools have poured much money into infrastructure for virtual learning and teaching.
Vietnam strengthening online teaching, learning during Covid-19 crisis ảnh 2 Physics  teacher Nguyen Trung Anh Vu is delivering lessons 
Schools have inspired lecturers and students to attend virtual classes because online teaching and learning are new to everyone. Teachers and kids of high schools have been bumping into more difficulties for learning on the internet because of their limited knowledge of IT.
Pham Minh Trang, head of class 1/1, Dong Da Primary School in HCMC’s Tan Binh District said that in the past when students went to the school directly, a day they had more than 8 hours of activities at the school. Therefore, teachers have a lot of time to accompany the children during playtime, mealtime and lunch breaks.
However, with online teaching, all communication between teachers and students is only through computer screens within limited time and space. For effective teaching and learning, teachers must create closeness and make students feel happy to meet them.
Teachers have had to pretend to be children to dance to exciting music with students at the beginning of the lesson. In addition, teachers also spend time learning about each student's interests, combining teaching and guiding children to draw pictures and make toys.
A physics teacher at a secondary school in Binh Thanh District moaned during the epidemic season, teachers almost work relentlessly to answer students’ questions. She reminded some days, she received students’ calls at 11 pm to ask her for advice on how to do homework and the students explained his internet at home works after 10 pm.
Hoang Si Dang, a life skills teacher at Nguyen Du High School in District 10 said in addition to professional knowledge, each teacher in the online teaching phase due to the impact of the epidemic must also equip himself with his own health care skills, measures to prevent epidemics, relieve psychological pressure to promptly advise students. He received calls from students on Zalo, Facebook messengers without stop. Therefore, he resorted to the establishment of an exchange group with more than 2,000 members.

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