Students at residential colleges care about their environs. The grungy, college-issued couch gets a slipcover. The fluorescent overhead light gets support from a shaded table lamp. The bare walls get posters. The phrase “Feng Shui your dorm room” gets 26,900 Google hits.

It comes at a time when technology and demand mean this type of education can play an important role boosting Vietnam’s increasingly knowledge-based economy. According to Dr Professor Lam Quang Thiep, former director of the Higher Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, other regional countries like Thailand, China and Malaysia, have been effectively using distance education in their plans to popularise higher education.

April 2009. Since becoming a Global Partner of the Illinois Online Network in January 2009, OCD has sent 10 Vietnamese trainers to the The Master Online Teacher Certificate program offered by the prestigious University of Illinois in e-learning mode.