Proposal to expand the use of subject websites

On June 21, 2012, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities held a contract acceptance ceremony for using the course website with lecturers under the chairmanship of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Minh Hoa - Vice Principal of the University.With the aim of piloting the use of subject websites as a tool to innovate teaching methods and enhance interaction between lecturers and students, in the second semester of the 2011-2012 school year, the School signed a contract to use subject websites with 15 lecturers from many units in the School. This pilot has brought positive results, but also pointed out some difficulties, technical limitations and sanctions if the use of subject websites is expanded and synchronized in the future. One of the young staff whose contract was accepted with excellence, Master Nguyen Khanh Thuong (lecturer of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication), said: subject websites are a very good tool for lecturers, helping lecturers to really change their perception and teaching methods, and students also change their learning methods to be more proactive. With the use of the subject website, the interaction between lecturers - students - information sources is high, extremely effective for improving the quality of teaching as well as the organization and management of learning. Lecturers can build a database of information about lectures, learning materials, including rich multimedia documents about the subject to share with students. Dr. Pham Manh Ha (lecturer of the Faculty of Psychology) shared: from a psychological perspective, the subject website helps overcome the shyness that is a typical psychology of Vietnamese students so that they can boldly discuss with students about the issues they are interested in. Among the features of the subject website, Dr. Ha believes that the forum is the most impressive function, a place where both lecturers and students exchange information very enthusiastically and passionately about specialized topics, helping to shorten the distance between lecturers and students, helping lecturers grasp the thoughts and concerns of learners to make appropriate adjustments. In the future, the School is fully capable of implementing online teaching for students through the subject website. MSc. Nguyen Thu Thuy (Faculty of Tourism Studies) admitted that using the subject website requires lecturers to have a higher sense of responsibility when their own lectures are published publicly and officially online, and the lecturers' investment in the subject also requires more effort. However, the results obtained from both lecturers and students are much better than using only traditional teaching methods in the classroom as it is now. However, many lecturers also said that there are still many limitations in this pilot use such as: this is a very new way of doing things for both students and lecturers, so everything is very confusing and awkward in the beginning; lecturers do not have much experience and methods to promote and attract students to use the subject website regularly; users have not fully exploited the features of the subject website; the website interface is not friendly; The school's computer and network systems have not yet met the needs of students using the subject website regularly... At the meeting, the opinions expressed all affirmed the prospect of using the subject website as an effective tool in improving the quality of teaching and innovating classroom management activities, and suggested that the school replicate this method throughout the school. However, to do this requires a roadmap and appropriate investment to upgrade the network system and computer rooms; upgrade application software; prepare both the ideology and skills for teachers and learners; issue relevant official regulations... MSc. Dinh Viet Hai - Deputy Head of Training Department - said: "There needs to be a legal framework for this. This regulation needs to be built on the basis of ensuring: paving the way for innovation in testing and evaluation to improve the quality of learning; preventing negativity and cheating in exams; synchronizing the assignment of tasks within the school to maximize the exploitation of resources".