East Asia Watch: Online learning in East Asia amid the coronavirus epidemic – common challenges

This blog is the first in our new series East Asia Watch - exploring how education institutions in East Asia are responding to different challenges that are evolving out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the series is two-fold:

• provide UK institutions with a greater understanding of both challenges and expectations of student-sending countries in East Asia 
• provide UK institutions with learning points and food for thought when developing their own responses to Covid-19

Online learning in East Asia amid the coronavirus epidemic – common challenges

Since the coronavirus outbreak in January, schools and universities in East Asia have almost entirely shut down at some point as a means of social distancing. Ministries have requested institutions to shift to online teaching to ensure students are kept up with their study progress while staying at home, and millions of students and their parents have been using different digital online learning platforms to satisfy their home-based learning needs.

The sudden shift to online learning and teaching has highlighted three key issues:

1. A lack of a comprehensive legal framework, set of regulations or a digital blueprint for the development of online learning in national education systems

The transition and adaptation to online learning has varied in different countries due to different stages of economic development, education systems, internet connectivity, and digital literacy. However, one common challenge that countries have faced is a lack of an official online education blueprint in national education systems.

In Vietnam for example, beside a Circular in 2017 regulating distance learning in the tertiary education system, there have not been any specific regulation of online learning embedded in the overall education system including quality assurance or recognition of online study results[1]. Only recently has the Ministry of Education provided some guidance about what digital platforms schools and universities can use for online teaching, and how online learning fees should be collected, which stated that additional fees for online learning during this epidemic must be decided between parents and schools and not exceed the total tuition fee for the whole academic year announced from the beginning[2].

In Malaysia, a setback that challenged online learning is “a lack of a comprehensive digital blueprint that integrates services, systems, databases, academics and related research, which makes it hard to mobilise resources and plan for an emergency situation like Covid-19”, said Professor Dr Abdul Karim Alias, Director of the Centre for Development of Academic Excellence (CDAE), Universiti Sains Malaysia in an article of The Star[3].

In Hong Kong, educators also recognise that the transition from in-person to online learning has not been easy and view this epidemic as an opportunity for the Education Bureau to incorporate online learning into the official curriculum[4].

2. Lack of expertise and skills in teaching online

Many Chinese teachers have just started to learn skills such as “speaking naturally in front of a camera, using a digital red pen during PowerPoint presentations, and engaging students via online written comments”. “It’s not easy for some older teachers to learn how to do live-streaming courses. Yesterday one of my colleagues told me she still didn’t know how to use it even after attending a coaching session”, a Chinese high-school teacher said in an article of the South China Morning Post[5]. The Chinese MOE, acknowledging that online teaching involves a new set of skills, encouraged teachers to use various online resources such as MOOC platforms to adopt new methods of teaching.

Using technology is just one difficulty that many Asian teachers are having to deal with when conducting lessons online. Other challenges they have raised include how to keep engagement with students and supervise their attention and study progress, or even what alternatives to lab experiments that they need to provide to their students in science lessons. Many teachers also complained that it takes them a lot of time to find appropriate online resources to make their lessons interesting[6].

However, according to Prof. Abdul Karim Alias of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)  “changing mindset is perhaps the most difficult challenge – especially among educators who have been resistant towards adopting technology and online learning”. He noted that only one-third of USM lecturers were fully prepared to conduct online teaching. Some have not even completed the basic task of logging into the learning management system, “so how could they even integrate online or attempt e-learning as part of a blended learning approach?”

In Vietnam, many teachers are still very passive, reluctant and unprepared when being asked to deliver online teaching lessons because of a lack in experience and skills in this mode of delivery[7].  A survey released at a teleconference titled “Online training at universities in the context of Covid-19 epidemic” organised by the Ministry of Education on 17^th April showed that only 45% of the universities nationwide have provided online teaching[8].

3. Students lack of self-study skills

An article in Vietnamnet.vn[9] mentioned some difficulties Vietnamese students are facing when studying online at home. A high-school student said “I have been instructed to study online for a few days, but I have not got used to it. The lessons are messy and duplicated, and there are so many teachers that I don't know who to choose. And the forms of lessons are quite different, which confuse me”. In another article in Vietnamnews.vn[10], another student complained “I have tried self-study, but it's not been effective as I have no teachers to help me”.

Such difficulties have not only been reported in Vietnam. Some articles in the South China Morning Post [11]reflected the same learning difficulties at home facing a lot of Chinese and Hong Kong students due to a lack of concentration. A Chinese student said “My motivation to study is stronger when my classmates are around me and all working very hard”. Meanwhile many Hong Kong parents characterise themselves as “exhausted”, “annoyed”, “confused” and “frustrated”, because their children rely too much on their supervision at home while they can’t always supervise and provide full support to their children[12]. Lecturers in China have noted that the lack of in-class interaction makes it difficult to gauge if students are responding well or not understanding, or indeed if they are even paying attention.

To some extent, this reveals that many students in the region don’t have the habit of or lack of skills for self-study. Traditionally many Vietnamese students spend their after-school hours in extra face-to-face classes where they receive extra tuition, and thus have no time left to learn by themselves at home. Even at universities, self-study often accounts only for 20 per cent of a common syllabus[13]. Many students are not used to being proactive in approaching teachers for recommendations on books or study materials through which they can study on their own.

The habit of rote learning, depending too much on teachers, a lack of critical thinking, self-study and research skills are some main barriers for students to adapt quickly to online learning as well as maintain their interest and acquire knowledge effectively through this learning mode.

Implications and food for thought

Sharing of knowledge, experience and expertise about online education

While the switch to online learning is a difficult process for institutions everywhere, the UK has an advantage in this area thanks to the knowledge, experience and expertise developed over time by UK institutions. This existing expertise, as well as lessons learned from the current crisis, will be very valuable to less experienced policy makers, academics and teachers in the region. Generally speaking, some key questions from which UK experience could be applied include:

• How to avoid deepening inequalities in society, resulting from access to online resources, platforms and tools.
• Best practice of creating interactive learning activities, such as use of polls, inviting students to write online comments to answer questions, sharing notes and useful resources through features like Google Drive, and other innovative ways to make classes more interactive. 
• Assessment methods of students’ learning progress or how to develop innovative e-learning courses in different subject areas.
• Formalising online education in education systems. For example, in Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training is in the process of drafting a legal framework to apply online learning into the higher education system, including a suitable percentage of online teaching in the traditional curriculum, quality assurance of online training programmes as well as assessment and recognition of study results of this learning mode[14].

Positioning UK education in terms of developing students’ self-study and research skills

UK institutions’ innovative teaching culture, that is designed to encourage independent thinking, problem-solving skills and self-motivation – some of the important skills for students to develop self-study and self-research capability – has always been highly appreciated by international students, especially by Asian students who normally find a big difference between their traditional way of learning and the methodology they adopt when studying in the UK. These skills are even more critical when adjusting to online education. During this period when a lot of students struggle with their self-study activities at home, the importance of acquiring these skills have become as vital than ever.

A silver lining from the current crisis, is that it is potentially a good time for UK institutions to maintain relevance by supporting institutions in the region with innovative teaching methods to equip students with these skills. The main focus to date has been on ensuring that online classes do not have a negative impact on current students’ academic performance until institutions are able to return to face-to-face classes.  However, the current situation also allows institutions the opportunity to be brave and try out new teaching methods and digital solutions they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to use. Although online learning in its current form is likely to be a temporary solution, it should be seen as an opportunity for UK institutions, rather than a temporary stopgap.

British Council Vietnam recently conducted a quick survey among local schools and universities about support needed in online learning. The recommendations included online training courses for local teachers, or dissemination of recorded videos of lessons taught by UK teachers so that both local teachers and students can access to learn the method of learning and teaching applied by UK institutions. Participating in online seminars or conferences organised by some local universities addressing issues relating to this topic or sharing of teacher training online resources with academic staff at partner institutions are also some very useful activities that UK institutions can do to strengthen partner relationships during this time. 

Developing online TNE programmes can be another way. In Vietnam, the online and blended learning mode for TNE was covered and recognised in a legislation issued in 2018, for the first time. This is believed to open more opportunities for local institutions to learn teaching methodology from international partners through different modes of teaching. This may be a potential area of TNE for UK institutions to develop in not only Vietnam but some other countries in the region where TNE development tcould benefit from this kind of innovation.

Lien Ta, Assistant Director, Education Services, Vietnam.

With thanks to contributions from our IES staff:

China:
Mandy Deng – Education Services Manager
Miranda Matty – Education Services Officer

Hong Kong:
Karen Hsu - Education Services Manager

Malaysia:

Saman Imtiaz, Hub Lead, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore