Principle of Hà Nội College for Electromechanics Đồng Văn Ngọc. — Photo kinhtedothi.vn

Principle of Hà Nội College for Electromechanics, Đồng Văn Ngọc, spoke to Kinh tế đô thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) newspaper about the e-learning programme the college has employed during its closure because of COVID-19

How did your college prepare for the implementation of e-learning in vocational education?

Hà Nội College for Electromechanics has developed an e-learning system over the last three years. Firstly, we prepared technology to develop an online teaching system. The system is designed with information about the school managerial board, departments, lecturers, classes and students. As soon as the technology was chosen, we invited an experienced company to develop a pilot programme for every activity. The pilot programme has proven successful.

Secondly, the college opened training courses for teachers so that they could master the technology and improve their online teaching skills, particularly in managing and operating an online class. 

Students were instructed to attend online classes, discuss in groups and take internet-based exams. Before the online classes start, teachers send students soft copies of the lessons. Our storage technology and an internet connection could deal with 90 classes divided into three shifts a day. In terms of data, the college is using iCloud, and we invested in a separate server to manage and secure information.

Which lessons have gone online?

Until now, all theory lessons are taught online, including those in general subjects like Politics, Law, English, Computing and the theory part of all job training courses that the college offers.

When COVID-19 ends and students go back to school, we will assess the results of e-learning. To ensure the quality of e-learning, based on its strength and limitations, we developed different scenarios on the impacts of online vocational training.

People are concerned about cheating during online examinations. How can you solve such a problem?

We are confident that our online education system can assess students’ performance properly. In an online class, we installed software programmes to help teachers interact with students. Students still can work in groups and answer questions like they do in conventional classes.  

We developed a web-based “questions-bank” system and each student will be given random questions. Their answers will be collected and rated normally. As well as online exams, students would be re-examined in traditional ways when they are back at school to verify if the students master the knowledge or if there is anyone sitting behind the students during the exam but teachers cannot see on the screen.

Are there any difficulties in online vocational training?

I think that e-learning at Hà Nội College for Electromechanics basically deals with all issues of education management and theory content. Moreover, e-learning can enrich the college’s resources as all teaching materials will be digitalised and added to the college’s database. With e-learning, teachers are also required to update their teaching materials and increase the quality of the materials to draw students’ attention. 

It also paves the way to make our college borderless, as we plan to invite native English teachers to join English classes.  

Last but not least, practical lessons are still an indispensable part of vocational training. Many vocational training courses require “on-the-job learning”, or “learning by doing”. Our college is improving facilities, including machinery and technology so students can practice properly. — VNS