Reforming the Organizational Structure for ODeL: The Case of the Hanoi Open University
Dang Hai Dang
Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Hanoi Open University, Vietnam
In the last 10 years, Vietnam has exerted significant efforts to improve the national education system by increasing the number of new educational institutions, increasing the investment in education, redesigning the national university entrance examination, providing licensing for foreigner investment in the education sector, and diversifying the forms of learning. However, the distribution of education services in the regions is not uniform; the quality of education is still debated; and there is still a big gap between academic knowledge and practical application. Open and distance e-learning (ODeL) appears to be one of the optimized solutions to overcome these issues. In northern Vietnam, the main authority responsible for open and distance education is the Hanoi Open University (HOU). Through 18 years of building and development, it has become one of the most active educational institutions in Vietnam. However, ODeL is relatively new for the university and HOU needs to evolve systems to effectively implement ODeL. The paper aims to analyze the effects of ODeL on the organizational structure of HOU and the way HOU is deploying ODeL. It also offers some suggestions for ODeL implementation at university level.