Is Synchronous E-learning Implementation in Public Universities a good idea during the pandemic of the COVID-19 in Vietnam?

Abstract

Vietnam has undergone the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in a more urgent situation when there were community transmission cases and a large number of Vietnamese people returning from different countries around the world. It happened soon before the national university entrance exams, which caused a huge number of challenges to the Ministry of Education and Training in particular. Consequently, the Vietnamese Government decided to apply social distance in various cities and provinces to hinder the pandemic. At the same time, the Government required the Ministry of Education and Training as well as educational institutions in every level of education to come up with a lasting solution to deal with the alarming situation to ensure the continuity of teaching and learning. Hence, synchronous e-learning with its obvious advantages has been employed more commonly throughout the country compared to the first wave of the pandemic. This survey study was conducted with a large number of students in some public universities in Vietnam to investigate the importance of synchronous e-learning implementation during the pandemic. The results of the study are valuable not only for public but also private universities in Vietnam. © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery. All rights reserved.