Nearly 400 delegates from more than 25 countries attended the 2026 Global MOOC and Online Education Conference in Hanoi, Viet Nam. The Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance and the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) co-organised the conference, which was hosted by Tsinghua University and Vietnam National University, Hanoi. At the opening ceremony on 3 November, the discussion focused on how higher education can respond to AI.
How AI can serve higher education
Four plenary sessions and several roundtables examined how universities can use AI to improve MOOC design, teaching and personalised learning. Participants discussed the skills educators and students will need, as well as questions of governance, ethics and trust as institutions adopt AI.
Viet Nam’s Deputy Prime Minister Le Tien Chau called for responsible, human-centred AI and stronger international cooperation. In her keynote, UNESCO IITE Interim Director Shafika Isaacs emphasised that AI in education should serve the public interest, with public participation and oversight.
Research, course awards and regional cooperation
The opening ceremony marked the release of the 2026 report and index on the digital development of higher education, drawing on data from 101 countries. The conference also recognised 20 MOOCs, including courses on data structures and algorithms, AI literacy for educators and AI-assisted student support.
A China–ASEAN workshop on AI and digital education addressed teaching innovation and professional education. Participants considered how sharing digital resources and working across borders could bring effective teaching practices to more classrooms.
Sources
Original link: https://aiedchair.bnu.edu.cn/news-gmc-hanoi-2026-en/
