Convenient and Comfortable, yet Limited in Many Ways: Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic from Perspectives of Social Work Students in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Adopting conventional content analysis, our article seeks to address advantages and disadvantages of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic from perspectives of 186 social work students in an educational institution in Vietnam. Accordingly, though being appreciated mainly for its convenience in terms of travelling, time schedule and learning venue, online learning shows significant shortcomings regarding technical operation, interaction and learning effectiveness. From which, we discuss the opportunities and challenges for online social work education in Vietnam post-COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• Online learning
• social work education
• advantages and disadvantages
• Vietnam
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research is solely funded by VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi under project number ussh-2022.05.

Notes on contributors

Linh P. Dinh

Linh P. Dinh, PhD, MSc, gained her BA degree in Sociology from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University (USSH, VNU) in 2011. In 2012, she studied her Master of Science degree in Health and Social care at the University of Huddersfield, England. After graduating with merit, she got back to Vietnam and started working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology, USSH, VNU since 2013. She gained her PhD degree in sociology in 2018 with the thesis titled ‘Health dimensions of marital violence’. Her research interests include social security, health and gender studies, online education. She has substantial experiences with research design as well as data collection and analysis.

Trang T. Nguyen

Trang T. Nguyen, PhD, MSW, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Studies of Displaced Populations, Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences,Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She completed her doctoral training in social work at University of South Carolina. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work at Vietnam National University, where she then worked as a social work instructor. Her research interests include mental health problems, such as depression and dementia, as well as resilience and coping among older adults and their family caregivers. She is also interested in culturally competent, community-based, and art- based interventions for these groups. She has worked on several research projects on mental health problems and sociopsychological treatments for adults with mental disorders in Vietnam, as well as situations of and interventions for dementia family caregivers in Vietnam and United States.