Social Science and Human Research Bulletin

Professional learning communities (PLCs) provide a setting in which lecturers jointly investigate professional problems and improve teaching and research practices. This study constructs a conceptual framework for designing digital learning environments that sustain PLCs in Vietnamese provincial political schools. It combines an integrative review of scholarship on PLCs, online professional learning and digital competence with analysis of five institutional and regulatory documents issued from 2024 to 2026. The synthesis distinguishes the provision of digital platforms from the organisational conditions required for collaborative learning. The framework links five design domains to a five-stage inquiry cycle, six dimensions of PLC functioning and a three-tier evaluation approach. The 2025 administrative report records 270 school-level research projects, 170 school-level seminars, 320 journal articles and 914 lecturers participating in faculty-level demonstration teaching. These figures indicate potential sources of shared professional knowledge, not evidence of active PLCs or digital effectiveness. The article identifies governance, trustworthy knowledge resources, collaborative competence and documented application as central design considerations. Its relationships are propositions for subsequent field-based validation rather than experimentally established effects.

professional learning communities, digital learning environment, political schools, lecturer development, knowledge governance, collaborative inquiry, Vietnam

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