RMIT Vietnam’s Learning Lab links students with success

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Tiếng Việt

RMIT Vietnam’s Learning Lab links students with success

An online learning tool sponsored by RMIT Vietnam’s Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) is enhancing RMIT’s position as a leader in Vietnam’s education community.

It’s not usual for universities to give away their resources. Intellectual property in education is expensive and hard earned.

This year, however, RMIT Vietnam has bucked that trend, launching an online self-study tool called Learning Lab Vietnam, accessible not only to RMIT students but also to any member of the public.

Designed to empower learners to develop their skills at the university level, Learning Lab Vietnam is a customised learning-support website from which students, teachers and supporters can access a range of academic resources and interactive tutorials.

Offering clear, easy-to-follow online modules in topics including Essay Writing, Critical Thinking and English Language, as well as more in-depth, technical advice on how to tackle Maths and Stats problems for example, Learning Lab Vietnam has been curated to complement the full range of academic courses offered by the University.

The site is already enhancing RMIT Vietnam’s position as a leader in the wider education community, while furthering the Centre of Digital Excellence’s mission to promote digital best practice across the region.

Joel Swenddal, Manager of Student Academic Success (SAS), the learning-support team at RMIT Vietnam, said Learning Lab Vietnam is a great complement to SAS’s face-to-face support services.

“This digital format allows us to dramatically expand the range and impact of our offerings, both inside and outside the RMIT community,” he said.

Joel Swenddal, Manager of Student Academic Success (SAS), presented about the Learning Lab Vietnam at the launch on 6 July.

The launch of Learning Lab Vietnam follows an extensive development process. SAS collaborated with partners at RMIT University in Melbourne to adapt content from a similar Australian project to create a customised Vietnam site. With the help of project funding from RMIT’s Centre of Digital Excellence, SAS transferred more than 500 pages of study aids from the original site and developed many more, creating a comprehensive suite of tailored materials that continues to grow.

Explaining the role it’s playing in ‘softening’ the leap from a traditional Vietnamese learning style to a more self-guided approach to study, SAS Senior Learning Advisor Danny Green explained that Learning Lab Vietnam is already proving to be a valuable resource.

“Students can access it independently or in groups,” he said. “And as support staff, we can use it as a tool when we’re doing sessions with students, modelling how they can use it on their own.”

The site is also a helpful resource for teachers, offering resources to make lessons more interactive.

On opening it up to the public, Mr Green agreed that it was the University’s responsibility in Vietnam to offer this type of learning skills-based content to the wider educational community.

“Learning Lab Vietnam is an incredible resource for students and teachers, and we’re happy to share it with others.”

Learning Lab Vietnam is available at https://learninglab.rmit.edu.vn.

Story: Jon Aspin

Campus and community

10 July 2017