Digital transformation is the application of digital technology to fundamentally impact all aspects of business and society. At its simplest level, digital transformation means transforming an organization's core business to better meet customer needs by leveraging technology and data.

The Da Nang University of Science and Technology and the Ha Noi-based Hitachi Systems Vietnam Company together signed a cooperative agreement on carrying out the ‘Digital Technology Laboratories’ project in Da Nang

For developing countries, the digital transformation opens up new opportunities for convergence, including by leapfrogging intermediate infrastructures of the industrial age, drawing on the vast knowledge spillovers from the internet, taking advantage of the new markets enabled by digital platforms, and exploiting production possibilities enabled by digital technologies.

Grasping this opportunity, the Vietnamese government has accelerated digital transformation by implementing Viet Nam's National Digital Transformation Programme by 2025 with a vision to 2030.

Under the programme, Viet Nam strives to be named among the top 50 countries in the E-Government Development Index (EGDI), and one of the 35 leading countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII), over the next 5 years.

Also, the digital transformation will be speeded up in 8 priority aspects of healthcare, education, finance-banking, agriculture, transportation and logistics, energy, resources and the environment, and industrial production.

Over recent years, Da Nang has boosted digital transformation in all aspects, especially education.

Da Nang is now home to 180 educational institutions with around 280,000 school pupils and college and university students. All school teachers and university lecturers are attached with identification codes on the municipal educational sector's database system.

A group of students from the Da Nang University of Education celebrating their graduation day outdoors while throwing their caps up in the air

While the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for educational systems across Viet Nam, it has also brought much needed attention to the importance of connectivity, and the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning in an open schooling context.

As Da Nang braced for two waves of COVID-19 infections in April and late July 2020, the online training method was successfully carried out in many educational institutions citywide with satisfactory results.

Many member tertiary establishments under the University of Da Nang took the inititative to switch from face-to-face to the e-teaching method, an initiative move to ensure both pandemic prevention measures whilst quarantining the progress of their education programmes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and maintain undisrupted learning.

During that period, teaching and learning activities were conducted online via learning management systems (LMS), and other the supporting tools of MS Team, Office 365, and Zoom.

According to the University of Da Nang, the application of online teaching during coronavirus school closure was hailed as the optimal solution in complying with the city's compulsory social distancing rules and ensuring the smooth running of the curricula in tertiary establishments. With this proactive and flexible approach, distance learning proved to be effective, not only in managing students during the city's social distancing period but also ensuring “continuing learning during coronavirus school closure”.

In 2021, Da Nang educational sector will prioritise speeding up information and communication technology infrastructure development, and train digital human resources.

Heed will be paid to promoting the use educational technology (EdTech) in teaching and learning activities. EdTech refers to an area of technology devoted to the development and application of tools (including software, hardware, and processes) intended to promote education.

By TRAN VAN NAM - Translated by M.D