Talking with Thua Thien Hue Weekly, Dr. Nguyen Cong Hao, Head of Training and Students Affair Department of Hue University said that students’ wishes will be met in the coming time as Hue University and member universities are focusing on diversifying training methods.
Dr. Nguyen Cong Hao, Head of Training and Students Affair Department of Hue University
According to Dr. Nguyen Cong Hao, online training in postgraduate education brings a lot of benefits for the learners because they can catch up with the education program everywhere, at any time. However, no matter what training methods are, the preparation has to be carried out carefully and the role of the learners has to be put on top.
Sir, can you talk in more detail about the time and scope of online postgraduate training of Hue University?
Recently, Hue University has issued the Decision No. 459/QĐ-ĐHH (March 12, 2020) promulgating the regulations on organizing and managing online training, and the Instruction No. 828/HD-ĐHH (June 9, 2020) about building and opening the E-Learning course. This is the basis for member universities to build up online training programs for postgraduate education.
In the last meeting of Admission Council, Director of Hue University Admission Council suggested that the universities should promote online training for qualified modules.
Actually, Hue University just has direct education and has never trained online before. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Hue University started opening a number of modules in this training form. However, it was just a temporary solution for pandemic time rather than that included in the plan.
At present, the legal corridor and related issues are available, and the issue of training time depends on each university. If the universities speed up their process, online postgraduate training can be applied right on the next academy year. However, in order to ensure quality, it’s necessary to well prepare in terms of people, facilities, lectures, and many other factors.
Candidates taking the postgraduate examination of Hue University in 2020
In terms of scale, it’s impossible to train 100% online. With the faculties of social science, it can be more convenient. However, with specific fields such as medicine and pharmacy, as well as technology, online training just can be implemented with theoretical parts, while it is arduous with clinical and practical modules. Building up online training programs has to base on reality to ensure quality.
Many universities in Hue have never trained online postgraduate education before. Does it lead to any difficulty during practical implementation?
Hue University has not officially conducted online postgraduate training yet. Methodical training requires plans as well as open announcements to learners so that they can catch up with the information and carry out the preparation.
In online training, the most important thing at this time is transforming traditional lessons into online lessons, and the lecturers have to get more interaction with their students. Universities must have good preparation for the system, software, and good data link, etc.
Comparing with the students in tertiary education, the learners of postgraduate education witness many differences. With these differences, which are the changes that need to be done in the training plan?
In terms of essence, the similarities between online tertiary education and online postgraduate education are that documents have to be transformed from direct into online form, and lectures have to get more interaction with the learners.
However, the difference is that in tertiary education, students would join the courses in some fixed studying schedules, while it’s more flexible for postgraduate courses. The goal of online postgraduate education is towards the optimality and no time limitation. Because most of the learners mainly go to work; the training programs can depend on the arrangement of both lecturers and learners.
With regard to principle, it’s necessary to create a learning environment that learners can catch up with their learning anywhere, at any time. When opening an online training mode, with many modules, the learners do not need to come to Hue for their study.
The time of master level training requires 1.5 to 2 years, depending on the arrangement of the plan and learning time to ensure learners receiving a sufficient volume of knowledge. If the learners get a reasonable time arrangement, they can shorten their learning time.
Sir, according to you, which are the points that universities and learners should care about when online postgraduate education is about to open?
In my opinion, training institutions have to choose the appropriate ology to re-build the program. Furthermore, they need to select certain subjects, not all.
Secondly, lecturers must be selected. In fact, some lecturers are ready to undertake online courses but some others are not. It’s necessary to choose the lecturers because there won’t be any high effectiveness if someone is forced to do what they aren’t willing to.
Additionally, there must be a process of preparation and training in both information technology and preparing online lessons with specific rules, and lesson plans such as how long for a video clip, which one needs interaction. Even with the learners, they also need to be trained and instructed in preparing skills of IT and interaction on the online system.
With online training, the learners have to be fully proactive to build up their guarantee plans. For example, no one can keep on studying right after a whole day working hard and getting tired. Therefore, they should have a reasonable plan with appropriate studying time. With any method, forced studying cannot gain any achievement.
Thank you for your sharing!
By Huu Phuc