Open learning materials are needed when there is a shared set of textbooks.

A common set of textbooks in Vietnam needs to follow the direction of standardizing core content, but opening up flexible space for teachers and students, supported by a rich open learning materials ecosystem.

Few issues in Vietnamese general education are as controversial as textbooks. It is not just a matter of publishing or choosing books, but also a story of philosophy, fairness and quality.

A shared set of textbooks needs to go hand in hand with the development of an open and digital learning ecosystem to achieve high efficiency in learning and teaching.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Resolution 71 of the Politburo sets out the requirement of having a set of textbooks for nationwide use and free of charge by 2030 - a step to unify quality, ensure fairness, and go hand in hand with developing an open and digital learning ecosystem. In addition, it also helps reduce the burden on parents, increase fairness for students, and facilitate quality management.

OPEN LEARNING MATERIALS - THE KEY TO AVOIDING FALLING INTO A RUST

According to UNESCO, open educational resources (OER) are "teaching, learning and research resources in any format and medium, in the public domain or released under open licenses, allowing others to access, use, adapt, reuse and share freely, at no cost or with minimal cost". In the digital age, open educational resources have become a global trend, helping education not only save costs but also spread knowledge widely.

Applied to Vietnam, open learning materials can include: question banks, digital lectures, illustrative videos , experimental simulations, online data managed by the Ministry of Education and Training, and allow the teacher community to contribute. Thanks to that, students can not only learn from paper books, but also access multidimensional knowledge from the digital environment.

The experience of Korea with the K-MOOC system, or Singapore with the Student Learning Space (SLS) portal, shows that open learning materials help to shorten the regional gap, ensuring that students in rural and mountainous areas still have access to quality resources like those in the city. If Vietnam builds a national open learning materials repository, along with a set of standard textbooks, it will be a big boost for educational innovation.

However, a major concern of public opinion is that the current 3 sets of books have invested a lot of effort and money, if it stops, it will be a waste. The reasonable solution is to integrate the best values ​​of each set into a common set of books. The Ministry of Education and Training can establish a council of experts, compare and select the strengths of structure, images, and methods, to build a standard set of books, inheriting the quintessence of the 3 existing sets. In addition, it is necessary to open a license to allow the reuse of the content of the books in the open learning resource warehouse. Illustrations, exercises, and good materials can be completely digitized to serve the community. Thus, the compilation effort is not lost but continues to be promoted.

FINANCE AND COPYRIGHT MECHANISM

To build a shared set of books and an open scientific repository, the financial issue cannot be ignored. If books are still only published by commercial publishers, it will be difficult to widely disseminate them as open documents. The State needs to buy the copyright and re-publish them under an open license, so that the whole society can use them for free or at a very low cost.

This model is not new. Many states in the US have applied it, helping to save hundreds of millions of dollars for students. Vietnam can absolutely learn from it, although the initial investment is large, but in the long run it reduces the cost burden for parents and ensures equality in access to knowledge.

With open learning materials, students can not only learn from paper books, but also access multidimensional knowledge from the digital environment.

Photo: Dao Ngoc Thach

C STANDARDIZATION GOES WITH EXPANSION, NOT DEPENDENT ON TEXTBOOKS

The transition from multiple sets of textbooks to a common set of textbooks, if combined with open learning materials, will be a harmonious combination: standardization to ensure quality, expansion to foster creativity. This is the path that many developed countries have taken.

The story of textbooks, in the end, is a philosophical story: Do we want a fragmented education or a unified and open education? Do we want to maintain waste or create fairness for all students? The answer lies in political determination and specific ways of doing things: A common set of textbooks goes hand in hand with the development of an open learning materials system, and especially ensuring that exams and assessments are based on the program, not dependent on textbooks.

Therefore, in parallel with standardizing books, it is necessary to focus on training teachers: guiding them to use open learning materials, apply digital technology, and apply active teaching methods. Then, "a set of books" will not mean "a teaching style", but will be the foundation for each teacher to promote their individual creative identity.

Textbook innovation is not simply a matter of a few books, but a symbol of Vietnam's education development strategy. From many sets of textbooks to a common set of textbooks, from printed knowledge to open and digital learning materials, we are entering a new phase: Education for comprehensive and equitable development for all.

Only by doing this can Vietnam both standardize quality and open up a wide knowledge space for all generations of students - a modern, integrated education, but still with its own identity.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/can-hoc-lieu-mo-khi-co-mot-bo-sach-giao-khoa-dung-chung-185251002214856532.htm