"Online learning has gained significant momentum over the past few months in the region and Element K Middle East has been playing a pivotal role in boosting this trend," said Susan Bodinson, General Manager, Element K Middle East. "Through constantly updated courses and strong attention to Arabised content, we have been able to customise online courses to suit the specific requirements of regional users. GITEX provides us a perfect platform to demonstrate our strengths and key differentiators amongst other e-Learning providers in the region."
Element K Middle East, the leading international e-Learning provider, will have a strong presence at GITEX Dubai this year, with a focus on demonstrating their new International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) Syllabus 4 courses, fully localised in Arabic and English and KnowledgePlanner, a unique intranet-based Arabic and English Learning Management System. GITEX will also mark the first anniversary of the LearnOnline e-Learning community developed in partnership with Etisalat's eCompany business unit.
"Both our English and Arabic ICDL Syllabus 4 courses contain content examples using the up to date Microsoft Products - Microsoft XP Operating System and Office 2003. We are extremely pleased to announce that our Arabic courses are fully customised for the Gulf market and all the content examples use Arabic versions of Microsoft XP Operating System and Office 2003. This is unlike most other content providers who simply translate the text around their English courses and do not use Arabic software versions in their content examples," added Bodinson.
ICDL Syllabus 4 was developed by the European Computer Driving License (ECDL) Foundation over a two-year period and incorporates inputs from computer users, subject matter experts and practicing computer professionals. ICDL Syllabus 4 has been adopted by many regions around the world, and the Gulf Region will complete their migration to this new syllabus by the end of 2004. ICDL Syllabus 4 provides a stronger awareness for using computers by addressing many new technology areas such as security, file compression, e-Government, netiquette, and lifestyle technology devices such as digital cameras and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's). Element K Middle East will display their new ICDL Syllabus 4 Arabic and English courses at both the Element K Middle East stand and the ICDL GCC Foundation stand at GITEX to be held from 3-7 October 2004 at Dubai International Exhibition Centre.
The Element K Middle East stand will also host Eduquity Career Technologies who will help demonstrate 'KnowledgePlanner', a unique intranet-based Learning Management System (LMS) jointly developed by the two companies. Knowledge Planner was developed in response to the growing demand for an Arabic and English intranet e-Learning solution for corporate, education and government customers. The KnowledgePlanner e-Learning solution is the first and only one of its kind in the world, providing Arabic and English capabilities, and works in a similar way to Element K's widely used 'KnowledgeHub' Learning Management System.
"The development of KnowledgePlanner demonstrates Element K Middle East's commitment and drive to offer the most advanced and innovative e-Learning solutions in this region" said Bodinson. "Although similar to KnowledgeHub, this comprehensive and fully hosted Learning Management System which offers the latest in course management, student management, assessment and reporting tools, is hosted on an organisation's intranet, allowing training administrators to develop customized learning environments and offer proprietary content and assessments for internal users within their organizations. This solution is also extremely beneficial to organizations that do not have real time internet access yet want to offer e-Learning to their employees or students."
Element K Middle East will use also use GITEX to highlight its online courses that are offered on the LearnOnline community (http://LearnOnline.ae) - a local online learning community for the UAE, launched a year ago in association with Etisalat's eCompany.
"With the recent addition of over 200 new courses, the LearnOnline portal, has acquired a large number of new users. Apart from the 1,000-plus online courses, we have enhanced our offering with updated libraries including TRA Communications Technologies, Security Implementation and Office 2003. Element K Middle East will be present at the Etisalat stand to showcase the LearnOnline and present corporate-oriented e-Learning demonstrations," said Bodinson.
-Ends-
About Element K
Element K is a leading provider of instructor-led courseware and e-learning solutions for technology and business skills serving training centers, Fortune 1000 companies, schools and universities, government organizations and individuals. Element K has a 20-year history in computer training and is a pioneer in courseware development and e-learning. The company launched its e-Learning offering in 1996, making it the first company to offer interactive IT content on the Web. Today, Element K offers more than 1600 online courses in information technology and business skills. Its engaging and interactive online training solutions feature collaborative, instructor-facilitated online courses, self-paced tutorials, vLabs hands-on exercises on remote hardware, professional certifications, a comprehensive reference library and KnowledgeHub, a hosted e-learning platform with robust learning management capabilities. Element K's professional services include learning management consultants to assist with deployment and a participation development team to help maximize participation and return on investment. For more information on Element K's offerings, visit www.elementk.com.
Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Element K, vLabs, and KnowledgeHub are trademarks of Element K LLC.
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© Press Release 2004
