Using e-Learning to Expand Access to Quality Education in Vietnam #PartnerHighlight

Education is a human right, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is to ensure that right for all. In Vietnam, achieving SDG4 is a top national priority, but one of the major challenges facing its education sector is “the lack of appropriate infrastructure and facilities in many locations across the country, especially those located in remote and isolated areas where facilities are still in short supply, affecting inclusive education.”

HOCMAI Education is an organization on the front lines of solving that very problem. By leveraging the increased internet coverage nationwide, its e-learning platform is bridging the accessibility and quality gaps faced by traditional in-person schools. We sat down with the HOCMAI team to learn more about its unique solution, and how hosting MovingWorlds Institute Global Fellow Sam helped them make even more progress towards SDG4 in Vietnam.

What is HOCMAI’s mission?

Our mission is to foster a learning environment and education program that is based on the needs of students from every facet of society. By promoting supplemental education that is accessible and inclusive, our goal is to fulfill our responsibility to the communities we serve by supporting all learners to reach their full potential. 

HOCMAI teachers and students at a new student welcome event

What social problem does your organization address, and how does it solve it?

Vietnamese students face three common problems: (1) A lack of access to quality education in rural areas, (2) An absence of personalized learning paths available in traditional classes, and (3) A lack of familiarity with using the internet for active learning purposes. 

To help close those gaps, we developed an online learning platform called Hocmai.vn, which has become the leading K-12 online education provider in Vietnam. The platform allows teachers to publish online lectures, design courses, and reach K-12 students who otherwise wouldn’t have access to high-quality teaching and personalized support. As a result of using the platform, students can receive additional support developing their learning abilities and overcome the fear of periodic exams and academic assessments that are part of the national curriculum. 

A teacher recording a video lesson for the HOCMAI platform

When we launched in 2007, Hocmai.vn was the first mover in the online education space for K-12 students in Vietnam and the ASEAN region. Today, 3.8 million students have registered and learned with Hocmai.vn! 

We are continuing to innovate, update, and improve to meet two basic learning goals:

1. Equipping all students with the knowledge and skills required by the general education curriculum: Hocmai.vn provides products to help students learn topics from the foundational level to the advanced level. Students become proficient through exercises that allow them to practice what they’re learning and gain the skills and confidence to perform well on competency assessments that are part of the complete general education.

2. Helping students achieve high scores on end-of-grade exams: Hocmai.vn provides products with a comprehensive and methodical exam preparation schedule, providing students with the knowledge and skills to meet their score goals on the entrance exams for secondary schools, high schools, and the annual national exams.

HOCMAI students learning about immersive learning technology

To meet these goals, Hocmai.vn offers personalized online programs for each student, which include video lessons, test bank questions for assessing the learner’s progress and skill level, a free online library, interactive Q&A and discussion features, and study news and community updates. This content is tailored to each student’s unique learning style and study habits through an adaptive learning engine based on their pace and style of learning. 

Students can access multimedia lessons online compiled and taught by teachers, put what they are learning into practice through exercises and question banks attached to each lesson, take self-assessments and practice exams, have questions answered by specialized advisors through a multi-channel support system, and discuss topics and exchange knowledge with their peers. 

As of July 2019, Hocmai.vn has delivered nearly 1,200 courses made up of more than 35,000 video lessons. Our adaptive testing system has over 200,000 multiple-choice questions and is continuously updated, and our free e-library contains nearly 10,000 learning materials and is accessed by more than 50,000 students per month. 

Representatives from HOCMAI accepting an award for its innovative application of technology at the 2019 ASEAN ICT Awards

Why did your organization choose to host an experteer, and what was your matching and planning experience like? 

After joining the MovingWorlds platform, we posted a project for an experteer to help us measure the social impact of our online learning platform and programs. MovingWorlds helped us find the right experteer, Sam, who was in charge of developing the HOCMAI social impact report. Sam specializes in researching social impact and had prior work experience at KPMG, which is one of the world's leading professional audit, tax, and advisory services firms. He had exactly the skills we were looking for to help us effectively evaluate our business activities and develop a report so we could tell our story better.

Sam (fourth from left in back row) with HOCMAI staff and students

How did hosting an experteer add value to your organization and help accelerate your impact?

Hosting Sam as an experteer added value by helping us gain an objective evaluation of our impact in the context of the national and international online education sector and compile statistics and reviews of our abilities to create positive social change.

It was very valuable to have HOCMAI evaluated independently and objectively by an Experteer. It gave us more reliable insight than previous evaluations made by us internally. Through the report he helped us compile, we can now reliably measure our social impact and use those insights to guide future business strategy and promote future investment. 

We’re proud to partner with organizations like HOCMAI Education who are advancing SDG4 by making education more accessible and inclusive! If your organization could benefit from pro-bono support to advance its mission, join our platform to access capacity-building support.