RIYADH: On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari opened the first international conference on "E-Learning and Distance-Learning" on Monday with a pledge to set up the necessary infrastructure and national standards in Saudi Arabia.
"The Kingdom is implementing a national plan under which most universities will adopt the new system of e-learning next year," said Al-Anqari. "This is part of our developmental plan to promote e-learning and distance learning," said the minister.
A total of 42 scientific papers will be presented in 19 sessions at the conference. The papers will focus on e-learning and distance learning including both their cultural and ethical dimensions, their prospects in the era of globalization and knowledge-based economy and their applications.
Fourteen workshops, conducted by 18 international experts for over 520 trainees, have been organized for the conference. Some of them focus on e-learning design and development, challenges, materials and evaluating e-learning etc. The trainees are faculty members from different Saudi universities, and those involved in creating e-content for learning as well as those who are interested in the field of e-learning.
After formally opening the three-day event, Al-Anqari toured an exhibition organized on the sidelines of the conference. The opening ceremony was attended by about 2500 guests including senior Saudi officials, distinguished speakers and IT experts.
Abdullah M. Al-Meqren, project manager of the National Center for E-Learning and Distance Learning (NCEL), accompanied the minister.
Al-Meqren said that the Ministry of Higher Education established the NCEL to set up the necessary facilities for e-learning. University academics who have agreed to adopt e-learning are being offered training. "Hence, the new system will produce dramatic progress in the Saudi education sector," said Al-Meqren.
The program entitled "Smart Campus System" aims at encouraging computer-based teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia, he said. Referring to the objectives behind the event, he said that the main one was to discuss and highlight issues and challenges in the context of implementing e-learning.
A.S.F. Karim, the CEO of Edutech, a major company participating in the conference, said: "The excellent initiative by NCEL underlines the Kingdom's seriousness in leveraging the advances made in e-learning technologies for the benefit of students, teachers and the country's future workforce. Our role in this massive movement is to provide educational institutions with the appropriate tools and solutions to help them build a robust structure for both e-earning and distance learning." Institutions which have already adopted Edutech's solutions, include Effat University (Jeddah), KFUPM Schools (Alkhobar), Al-Andalus Schools (Jeddah), and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University.
By M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan
© Arab News 2009
