EMVITET Study Visit Belgian perspectives on ingraining Education 4.0

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Belgium virtual visit was organized by KULeuven in the last week of March 2022. All together 34 Vietnamese participated gathered in Phu Yen Province, Vietnam. All of them work together physically on the daily assignments and reviewed learning materials provided by KULeuven training team. The whole training week combined face-to-face collaborative learning (in Vietnam) with online guidance and demo from KULeuven via Zoom. The focuses of the training were on topics that particularly interesting for Vietnamese partners, such as online assessment, curriculum design for blended learning, technology-enhanced practice (e.g., virtual reality and gaming) and industry collaboration.

All training topics following the core of the project- Education 4.0 competencies in pedagogy, digital technologies and the learning ecosystem, which were developed during the past three years (2019–2022). Teachers from six Vietnamese partner institution participated actively in the session as the 5 days training adapted a “flipped” approach- before the synchronous sessions, they were watch videos or reading documents to prepare questions or organize group discussion in preparing inputs to be further investigated or worked during the synchronous sessions. During the synchronous sessions, group work or Q & A sessions were organized, which encourage teachers to interact with the KULeuven resource persons and group members. Many products have been produced. For instance, in day 1 on the topic of online assessment, teachers created a padlet to have an overview of the wins & challenges of off-campus assessment. On day 2 -curriculum development of blended learning. Teachers were guided step by step to reflect on current practice and (re)design a blended module/part of their courses. Designs were shared and comments were given for further improvement.

The 5 days training offered wonderful learning opportunities for Vietnamese teachers to exchange and share ideas cross institutions. After a long time of isolation, it was also a great occasion for them to socialize, which is essential for future sustainable collaboration (after the project). Creating networks, this is also what the project and current Belgium virtual study visit promoted.

The training materials for asynchronous and synchronous were organized on google drive. They are accessible for all teachers before, during and after the training. This open access may maximize the impact of the training (e.g., anyone who want to use part of the resource for training purposes, they are welcome to take the benefits).

The anonymous evaluation of the 5 days virtual visit was rather positive. 17 out of 34 participants were answer the questionnaire. All their answer were satisfied or very satisfied.

EMVITET project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education Program of the European Union.