The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is drafting a Circular regulating standards, processes for adaptation and appraisal of electronic textbooks from printed textbooks compiled according to the General Education Program.
The Ministry said that it received 26 comments and suggestions for the draft from Departments of Education and Training; Vietnam Education Publishing House and comments from Ministries and units under the Ministries.
Regarding Article 6 on electronic textbook technology features, the Can Tho Department of Education and Training proposed adding the function of monitoring learning progress. It is necessary to clearly stipulate the minimum mandatory level (e.g., interactive exercises, monitoring learning progress), while AI and VR are optional; stipulate optimal capacity and maximum capacity limit.
However, the Ministry of Education and Training believes that monitoring the progress of learning with all students using electronic textbooks is a very difficult feature, reflecting personalization. Student and teacher learning progress should be monitored during the teaching organization process.
Regarding capacity, the Ministry believes that the regulation will be rigid and cause difficulties for the adaptation unit; limited in the way of expression.
Regarding infrastructure and security, the Departments of Education and Training of Can Tho, Ca Mau, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City proposed clearer regulations on not collecting any personal data of primary school students other than general statistical data (number of visits, study time... ) and the requirement not to display advertisements or unrelated content.
Regarding this content, the Ministry of Education and Training said that there are regulations, complying with the provisions of the Publishing Law, the Network Security Law, and the current Digital Technology Industry Law; strictly complying with regulations on security and privacy of personal data.
The Ministry also affirmed that the number of visits and study time are due to the needs of students and teachers organizing learning activities.
There is no additional arising when students study. Electronic textbooks do not yet manage personal learning data. Electronic textbooks are considered as a source of learning materials" - the Ministry stated clearly.
According to the draft, electronic textbooks have features for searching, marking, taking notes, zooming in, and outlining content; allowing basic interaction (choosing answers, dragging and dropping, listening repeatedly, entering text,...); flexible integration and update features, linked to learning management systems according to popular standards, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality technology.
At the same time, electronic textbooks are available for online use or download when there is no stable Internet connection, ensuring users can always use them; do not insert advertisements, business content, shopping suggestions, external introductions into electronic textbooks,...
Regarding infrastructure, the draft circular stipulates that there are measures to prevent and protect from network security threats, ensuring that they do not contain links or harmful, offensive content.
Regarding the process of converting electronic textbooks, the Ministry said that it has revised the experimental process as follows: Coordinate with general education institutions to organize technical experiments and evaluate user experiences on groups of students and teachers representing regions.
The experimental result report includes indicators of latency, technical errors and convenience in operation, efficiency for test forms; the number of experimental periods is at least 5% of the total number of periods for subjects and educational activities with 105 periods/school year or more, at least 10% of the total number of periods for subjects and educational activities with 70 periods/school year to less than 105 periods/school year, at least 15% of the total number of periods for the remaining subjects and educational activities. The form of organization of the experiment is direct or online or combined direct and online or simulated.
