Teacher Educators Digital Hub (TEDH): Supporting the digital transformation of teacher education in Viet Nam

This project is supporting pedagogical universities in Viet Nam to provide digital resources and skills to meet the needs of teacher educators as they continue to move much of their practice online.

Researchers

Dr Jane O’ConnorProf Matt O’LearyDr Vanessa CuiDr Louise WheatcroftRachel ChallisEmily Heathcote

Background

Experts from Birmingham City University (BCU) are working with Vinh University (VU), Hue University of Education (HUE) and Viettel Solutions Corporation (Viettel) to set up an online teacher educators’ digital hub (TEDH) which will serve as a key driver for the digital transformation of pedagogical universities.

TEDH will train and enable educators to create and share digital resources, experience and good practice for effective online teaching and learning. TEDH will be trialled and evaluated at VU and HUE and refined through input from their teacher educators and students before being rolled out for teacher educators and their respective universities across the country to access and benefit from.

The challenges and learning experiences of VU and HUE as the case study HEIs in this project will be shared with other HEIs to support their journey towards digital transformation.

In June 2021 the Vietnamese government released their development strategy for a ‘National digital transformation programme by 2025 (2030)’. However, HEIs have experienced many challenges in implementing this policy. For example, in line with MOET directives, teacher education was moved exclusively online during the Covid-19 pandemic and issues were identified with the lack of educators’ digital skills and the quality of digital teaching resources which impacted on student engagement and satisfaction (O’Connor, Le Quang et al, 2022).

The creation of TEDH is a response to these problems as teacher education post pandemic now follows a model of blended learning. In addition, the project will provide a roadmap for successful digital transformation in HEIs. These will generate sustainable impact and contribute to the wider digital transformation of education in Vietnam

The project will involve three workshops, the first at BCU in April 2023, followed by two in Vietnam in 2024 and an end of project event in 2025.

Research aims

• To set up a teacher educators' digital hub of resources and training materials for teacher educators in two case study universities in Vietnam.
• To train and enable educators to create and share digital resources, experience and good practice for effective online teaching and learning.
• To trial and evaluate TEDH at VU and HUE and refine through input from their teacher educators and students.
• To create and disseminate a roadmap for digital transformation at pedagogical universities in Vietnam.

Method of research

• Online evaluation surveys with teacher educators on their baseline digital skills and their skills after participating in TEDH.
• Online evaluation surveys of student teacher satisfaction with digital teaching and learning pre and post TEDH.
• Case study of digital transformation in two Vietnamese HEIs.

Findings

The findings will be disseminated at the end of project event in Vietnam in 2025 and subsequently in associated project reports and academic articles.

Application of research

The creation of TEDH will support teacher education across Vietnam. In addition, the project will provide a roadmap for successful digital transformation in HEIs. These will generate sustainable impact and contribute to the wider digital transformation of education in Vietnam.