Delivered by RMIT Vietnam’s Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) in collaboration with Saigon Innovation Hub and EdTech Asia, the one-day forum aimed to determine Vietnam’s capacity to deliver high quality digital learning and teaching in the higher education sector.
All fun and games
Speaking as a panelist during the morning session, Associate Professor Mathews Nkhoma, Head of RMIT Vietnam’s School of Business & Management, said there are two main issues currently facing higher education in Vietnam — a heavy reliance on the use of textbooks and the use of final year exams as a means of assessment.
“If you’re teaching finance, it’s difficult to find a textbook that includes cryptocurrencies and blockchains,” Associate Professor Nkhoma told attendees.
“At RMIT Vietnam, we’re phasing out the use of textbooks in favour of our own case studies that focus on real issues in the Vietnam context and then students present their possible solutions back to industry.”
Associate Professor Nkhoma went on to highlight other areas RMIT Vietnam is investing time and money to develop, such as the recent adoption of the Canvas learning management system, and gamification in classes as a way to simulate real world scenarios.
The future is now
Building on Associate Professor Nkhoma’s comments was Associate Lecturer in RMIT Vietnam’s School of Communication & Design, Mr Ondris Pui, who presented on his experiences in developing and implementing an emerging technologies course in 2016. Mr Pui said he noticed rapid change around that time in technology development and realised that educational approaches needed to move in tandem to keep pace.