the implementation of e learning

The implementation of e-learning in the Arab

Universities

Challenges and

opportunities

Done by:Abeer AL Maawali

Amal AL HosniRuqaia AL HashmiMuna AL Dhouri

ARAB COUNTRIES AND

E-LEARNING

Arab countries face a critical need for open learning opportunities

Why ?!

Demographic growth poses a challenge to the education systems.

Arab States have to ensure educational opportunities to 88 million students.

competing demands for resources to ensure other basic needs such as nutrition, housing, health services

Arab States suffered from persistent troubles and conflicts, embargoes, occupation and wars.

Most of the Arab countries’ population are amongst the poorest in the world.

Most services are concentrated in the towns.

In some countries, more than 75 % of the country’s telephone lines are concentrated in the capital city.

Another systemic problem is that road, rail, and air transport networks are limited, costly to use, and often in poor condition

Most Arab countries have proven unable to meet the needs of all students

Establishing new educational institutions in Arab countries is hard and costly especially in rural areas which are in more need for such facilities.

1. ICT Infrastructure2. Culture, Leadership and e-Learning

Strategy.3. The Local Content:4. Copyright Issues5. Instructors & Learners

CHALLENGES FACING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF E-LEARNING IN THE

ARAB COUNTRIES

ICT INFRASTRUCTURE

Globalization furthermore dictates the increasing use of technology, which is the most efficient means for production and communication.

CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND E-LEARNING STRATEGY

E-Learning is also a new way of thinking about learning, a totally new culture for learning.

We need to have the culture which will embrace e-Learning means and build the leadership support for that culture.


Many leaders have underestimated the complexities of the interactions between e-Learning and the working environment, and how truly difficult it is to change people's attitude.


With so many stakeholders and business variables in the mix, a more strategic approach is necessary.

Building an e-Learning strategy requires us to address:

1. New approaches to e-Learning.2. Learning architectures.3. Infrastructure.4. Learning Culture, and Management

Ownership.5. Sound business case.6. Reinventing the training organization


THE LOCAL CONTENT

Very few organizations actually use the Internet for real education or business activities.

o limited number of local people have access to the Internet,

o limited skills available for digitizing and coding pages,

ohigh costs of local Web-hosting services.

THE LOCAL CONTENT

Arab States face the problem of the usage of foreign language as the technological medium.

Citizens in Arab countries first and foremost prefer to access content that relates to their environment.

COPYRIGHT ISSUES

COPYRIGHT ISSUES

Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and artistic works.

Copyright is one of the very important challenges for the e-Learning especially for the Arab countries.

Authors and trainers make greater use of the Web, they face greater risks involving copyright law.

CONTINUE Having a clear copyright policy for the

online training is mandatory. great attention should be paid to the

issue of the copyright ownership for the material of a web-based courses.

A special copyright agreement should be done between the different parties to resolve such problems.

INSTRUCTORS & LEARNERS

e-Learning is not just introducing new technology for learning, but also a new way of thinking about learning.

E-Learning needs special specifications of the way of designing its content and also the way of receiving the content.

The quality of e-Learning relies heavily on the preparation and the talent of the instructor.

CONTINUE

Instructors who deal with e-Learning should have special skills.

CHARACTERISTICS FOR E- LEARNER

Being able to learn independently and view learning positively.

Being able to make the best use of their time, have self-disciplined, and enjoying working alone most of the time.

Being able to clearly express themselves in writing.

Having good computer and Internet skills.

Having the need for knowledge, but incapable of attending traditional training or education.

Being revel in solving problems.

OPPORTUNITIES OF THE E-LEARNING IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES

We can classified the opportunities of e-learning in the Arab countries into two main categories:

1. Business opportunities

2. Flexible learning environments

FIRST: BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

1. Enhancing the ICT Infrastructure. community centers or private cyber cafes

projects for Internet Exchange Points “IXP”: limited band widthreduce the cost for the ISPs

CONT.

2. Local Content Development: Projects for digitizing the Arab

countries cultural heritage. raising the level of education Overcoming the illiteracy problem raising the awareness between citizens

CONT.

3. Support Services Providers: Translation services Content localization service .

Why??

CONT.

4. Technical Support Providers: Web developers, software developers, multimedia

developers, graphics designers, database administrators,

WAN and LAN administrators, networks security systems specialists,

maintenance specialists & technicians, networks installation

CONT.

5. Marketing Support Providers:

Providing e-learning requires a support from

marketing and publicity agents like:

market surveying, data analysis, strategies and plans,

designing publicity brochures, marketing and sales

kits, advertising campaigns.

preparing mailing lists and arranging for conferences

and exhibitions

SECOND: FLEXIBLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The combination of Information that are easily, quickly, and inexpensively reachable through WWW and the Computers network had the greatest impact on the drive towards “e-Learning”.

REFERENCES :The implementation of e-learning in the Arab Universities:Challenges and opportunitiesPaper to be presented at DLI 2006, Tokyo, JapanAhmed Yousif AbdelraheemSultan Qaboos UniversityCollege of educationInstructional and Learning technologies DepartmentP.O. Box 32, Postal Code 123Alkhoud, Sultanate of OmanEmail: [email protected]#: + 96892220197Fax #: +96824413817Tokyo, November 2006