Page 83 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

Low et al, 2021

• Challenge 5- Burden of teaching hours and subjects taught

Several academics in NUOL thought that they had more teaching than they were supposed to
do. The teaching hours can stretch up to between 11 to 20 hours per week. Some of the
academics have to teach from 20 to 40 hours in a week. It would be very difficult for them to
spare time to do other tasks such as doing research. These academics also have to teach more
than two subjects. There are some academics who have to teach five subjects.
Counter Measure 5- The introduction of action research to the NUOL academics was
to introduce the concept of getting started with research in the classroom. By doing this, they
could conduct their lessons and do research at the same time. Providing incentives such as
research scholarship to bright individuals could also cultivate the research interest among
NUOL academics.

• Challenge 6- Insufficient communication in relation to research (unable to access)
More than half of the staff at the Faculty of Letters, NUOL had hardly accessed the necessary
information about research. For example, notices on training, budget, and other related
information. Many wished that they had prior information about research funding to be more
prepared in developing research proposals and so on.

Counter Measure 6 – The promotion of ToT or other research opportunities to relevant
networks in the university could be communicated as a long-term research plan for staff with
incentives/rewards to those who succeed in securing the research grants. It would be good to
keep a database of potential learners by maintaining contact and communication through a
broadcasted announcement or e-mail.

Strengths to improve research
Although the academics faced some limitations, they have certain strengths that would help
improve the research capacity at the Faculty of Letters, in NUOL for example, (1) academics
recognized the importance of doing research, (2) they were willing to do research, (3) they had
a positive attitude towards doing research, and (4) the availability of some research equipment.

Practical Lessons Learned

Support of the top management is crucial to ease facilitation when conducting
training/workshops/seminars in Lao PDR. Recognizing the importance of research will provide
more motivation to encourage staff to do research. Good access to Internet is crucial to develop
a platform for training. Inclusion of important references which are available online for further
reading is necessary. It would be useful to consider a multimodal delivery which includes
videos, online-courses, quizzes (some e-learning can be incorporated as activities to reinforce
learning/sharing of resources). Availability of a core of people who are familiar with research
will aid in the mentoring and coaching initiatives. We need to recognize that capacity building
needs long term commitment. Senior academics who have more experiences in doing research
could mentor the juniors in research in related areas. Sharing one’s expertise with others
collegially is one way of passing knowledge from one generation to another generation.
Perhaps some kind of a research network within departments and between faculties could be
established. A change in the mindset of sharing ideas needs to be encouraged. Collegial
performance contributes to the work of the whole team or center or department and ensures a
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