E-learning is an emerging trend in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, said the chairman of the third annual forum on e-learning excellence in the Middle East last week.
To illustrate his point, Professor Alain Senteni, Dean of the School of e-Education at Hamdan Bin Mohammad e-University (HBMeU) and chairman of the forum, hosted by HBMeU, referred to the establishment of the first Middle East e-Learning Association (MEEA) at the forum.
"This [e-learning] is something that has become trendy and the reason why is it allows quality without exclusivity," said Senteni. "It allows for an increased demand in a short period of time… if you can deliver a programme to 10 people you can deliver it to 1,000."
It also permits broadened scopes of knowledge and content, he added. He went on to say e-learning gives more responsibility to learners and increased importance to the management of their own learning which essentially results in stronger professionalism.
Ensuring quality
The UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is the first in the Arab world to structure defined standards for e-learning, said Sentini.
This essentially endorses the notion that e-learning is the way forward in education while maintaining quality assurance, he added. "These standards are something that are used to accredit programmes and institutions.
"I think it's good to have a regulatory process," said Senteni.
HMBeU received its accreditation from the ministry last year but was previously an e-learning college. It is now going into its second semester and already boasts a total student body of almost 400 enrolled in the masters and bachelors programmes.
Going local
The theme of this year's forum was bringing global quality in e-learning to a local context. "The programmes we teach at the moment are developed by people in Hong Kong, Switzerland and the US. So it's about taking knowledge and customising or adapting it to a local context," said Senteni.
He went on to say the forum is a great way to revisit the whole process and system of education.
"It [this forum] is a way to make things evolve quickly, answering the increasing needs of education in the market," said Senteni.
