Online Learning During the COVID_19 Pandemic: A Multiperspectival Narrative of Vietnamese University Students

Abstract

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has become more popular and challenging in the panorama of higher education in Vietnam. However, there has still been very little research strongly focusing on the lived experiences of online learners, especially the English-major students in Vietnamese universities. In this paper, I retold the process of my students‟ collaborative autobiographical narrative inquiry into their lived experiences of learning online under the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic at a technology university in southern Vietnam. My research wonders came from two questions: (1) What is online learning? and, (2) Who are the Vietnamese students in this space? Early in the time together, my students came to understand how the narrative beginnings shaped their wonders in relation to online learning. I then employed collaborative autobiographical narrative inquiry as the research methodology to better understand the experiences in online classroom communities and the learners‟ relationships with the institutional, social, cultural, and personal narratives before, during, and after their online learning journey. Through the process of telling, retelling, and reliving those storied experiences, I came to learn that online learners‟ experiences of online learning have not been fully paid attention by the instructors and university; the online learning journey still lacks physical and mental support; and intimate relationships with family and „learning buddies‟ could help them overcome the challenges. Finally, I engaged in the questions of “so what?‟ and “who cares?” to shape the forward-looking stories for those being and becoming online learners.