The article analyzes documents on the online teaching competence of lecturers and generates them into 4 main research directions, including: (1) roles of lecturers in online teaching and factors influencing the online teaching competence of lecturers
(2) component competencies of the online teaching competence
(3) development of the online teaching competence for faculty
and (4) development of the online teaching competence scale for lecturers. A literature review through document analysis also reveals the in-depth studies on online teaching competence, and in Vietnam there is still a huge gap. On the other hand, the results of the literature review provoke in-depth research directions on the online teaching competence of lecturers in Vietnam, such as an online teaching competence framework for lecturers
contents, forms, methods, and modes of training the online teaching competence for lecturers
or the development of an online teaching competence scale, and so on. These directions will be the scientific basics for developing the online teaching competence for lecturers to adapt to the strong digital transformation in Vietnamese higher education institutions.