Agentic education · Learning science

Actionable companion · Assessment & reasoning

Learning with agency: What Are the Opportunities and Challenges of Using AI in Medical Education in Vietnam?

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide, separate from the original research. Proposed actions are not claims or recommendations attributed to the source authors. No independent peer review of this guide is asserted.

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Evidence and context

Title and abstract screening; stage labels describe reported settings, not verified numerical ages. Design labels require full-text appraisal. Reported stage(s): Higher education, Adult & professional learning. Health-professions learning must be distinguished from K–12 instruction.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the linked source license:

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform medical training through adaptive learning, immersive simulations, automated assessments, and data-driven insights, offering solutions to persistent issues such as high student-to-faculty ratios, overcrowded classrooms, and limited clinical exposure. Globally, many universities have already embedded AI literacy and competencies into undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education programs, while in Vietnam, the use of AI in medical education remains limited and fragmented. Most students have little formal exposure to AI, and empirical evidence on faculty or institutional readiness is scarce. Experiences from other countries, including Malaysia, Palestine, and Oman, demonstrate that incremental adoption and faculty development can facilitate cultural acceptance and curricular innovation, providing useful lessons for Vietnam. At the same time, significant barriers remain. These include inadequate infrastructure in provincial universities, low levels of AI literacy among both students and educators, underdeveloped regulatory and ethical frameworks, and resistance to pedagogical change. Cost-effectiveness and sustainability are additional concerns in a middle-income context, where upfront investments must be balanced against long-term benefits and equitable access. Advancing AI in Vietnamese medical education will therefore require a coordinated national strategy that prioritizes infrastructure, AI literacy, faculty development, quality assurance, and sustainable funding models, alongside ethical and legal safeguards. By addressing these key foundations, Vietnam can harness AI not only to modernize medical education but also to strengthen preparedness for a digitally enabled health workforce.

What kind of evidence is this?

Intelligent tutoring & adaptive learning · Survey / observational study

Stage: Higher education; Adult & professional learning. Screening labels describe reported context and study-design language. They are not a risk-of-bias rating or proof of effectiveness for an age band.

Design the system before the pilot

Document the learner model, mastery rule, hint sequence and adaptation signal. Compare adaptive routing with the same content in a non-adaptive sequence. Check whether early errors lead to persistent low-expectation pathways.

  • Use common rubrics, blind scoring where feasible and a fresh unaided reasoning task. Document permissible assistance and avoid treating AI-detector scores as proof of misconduct.

A 90-day district pilot

  1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Have the curriculum lead and a teacher read the methods and limitations. Record the study design, sample, comparator, outcomes and evidence gaps. Define a local question that the study can help inform.
  2. Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one disciplinary task. Require a first attempt, a documented AI consultation, a critique of the output and an independent explanation. Align the comparison group and scoring rubric with the same objective. Name an accountable owner and set the baseline, success threshold and budget before implementation.
  3. Days 31–60 · Test. Start with a small voluntary cohort, preserve an accessible non-AI route and require teacher review. Use synthetic or de-identified examples; approve data handling and tool terms through district processes.
  4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Blind-score reasoning and accuracy on a new task without AI. Distinguish model examination scores, student perceptions and actual learner gains; only the last directly tests educational benefit. Compare with baseline, document uncertainty and stop or revise if learning worsens, access is unequal or critical errors persist.

The board decision brief

Report the learning problem, evidence quality, participating population, total cost including review time, measured benefit, errors, access differences and remaining uncertainties. Make a dated recommendation to stop, revise or expand. A positive perception survey alone does not establish learning improvement.

Attribution and reuse

Trung Anh Nguyen; Thanh Binh Nguyen; Duy Cuong Nguyen; Anh Dung Vu; Khanh Linh Dang; Nhu Quynh Le; Duy Anh Ngo; Dang Kien Nguyen; Van Thuan Hoang; Thanh Binh Ngo. What Are the Opportunities and Challenges of Using AI in Medical Education in Vietnam?. JMIR Medical Education (2025-12-02). https://doi.org/10.2196/77817

Companion prepared 2026-10-30. Original authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract is an attributed source extract; the implementation plan is new AI-assisted editorial material, offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license. This guide has not undergone independent peer review.