Proposal to expand the use of the course website.

On June 21, 2012, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities held a contract acceptance meeting for the use of the course website with lecturers, chaired by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Minh Hoa - Vice Rector of the University.With the aim of piloting the use of course websites as a tool to innovate teaching methods and enhance faculty-student interaction, in the second semester of the 2011-2012 academic year, the University signed contracts with 15 lecturers from various departments within the University to use the course website. This pilot program yielded positive results while also highlighting some technical difficulties and limitations, as well as potential sanctions if the use of course websites were to be expanded and standardized in the future. One of the young staff members whose contract was approved with outstanding results, Ms. Nguyen Khanh Thuong (lecturer in the Faculty of Journalism and Communication), stated that the course website is an excellent tool for lecturers, helping them to truly change their perceptions and teaching methods, and students to change their learning approach towards greater proactiveness. Using the course website increases interaction between lecturers, students, and information sources, proving extremely effective in improving teaching quality and academic management. Lecturers can build a database of lecture notes and learning materials, including a wealth of multimedia resources related to the subject, to share with students. Dr. Pham Manh Ha (lecturer in the Psychology Department) shared: from a psychological perspective, the course website helps overcome the shyness that is characteristic of Vietnamese students, allowing them to confidently discuss issues they are interested in with other lecturers. Among the features of the course website, Dr. Ha believes the forum is the most impressive function, a place where both lecturers and students exchange information very actively and enthusiastically on professional topics, helping to bridge the gap between lecturers and students, and helping lecturers understand the thoughts and concerns of learners to make appropriate adjustments. In the future, the University is fully capable of implementing online teaching for students through the course website. Nguyen Thu Thuy (Faculty of Tourism Studies) acknowledged that using the course website requires lecturers to have a higher sense of responsibility as their lectures are publicly and officially published online, and lecturers invest more effort in the course. However, the results obtained from both lecturers and students are much better than using only traditional classroom teaching methods as currently practiced. Nevertheless, many lecturers also pointed out several limitations in this pilot program, such as: this is a completely new approach for both students and lecturers, so everything is unfamiliar and confusing in the beginning; lecturers lack experience and methods to encourage and engage students in using the course website regularly; users have not fully exploited the features of the course website; and the website interface is not user-friendly. The school's computer and network systems are not yet sufficient to support the frequent use of course websites by students... At the meeting, all speakers affirmed the prospect of using course websites as an effective tool in improving teaching quality and innovating classroom management, and suggested that the school expand this approach throughout the school. However, achieving this requires a roadmap and commensurate investment to upgrade the network and computer labs; upgrade application software; prepare both the mindset and skills for use by teachers and students; and issue relevant official regulations... Mr. Dinh Viet Hai, Deputy Head of the Training Department, said: "A legal framework is needed for this. This regulation needs to be built on the basis of ensuring: paving the way for innovation in testing and evaluation to improve learning quality; preventing negative practices and cheating in exams; and synchronizing the division of responsibilities within the school to maximize resource utilization."