E-Learning and Its Effectiveness in Saudi Arabia

E-learning and its effectiveness in Saudi Arabia ,13-1-2010.

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KING ABDUL-AZIZ UNIVERSITY Faculty of Computer and Information Technology

E-learning and Its Effectiveness in Saudi

Arabia

CPIT 221

13-1-2010 27-1-1431

Class: CA

To Teacher : Ola Al-Shagran

Ola Aldraiby and her friends on

CPIT 221


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Outlines:

1. General Concept of E-learning.

2. History of E-learning

3. Need of E-learning In Saudi Arabia

4. E-learning in Saudi Arabia

5. E-learning Around The World

6. The Effects of E-learning On Saudi Students

7. Obstacles And Difficulties Faced By E-learning In Saudi Arabia


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ABSTRACT:

We divided our paper into 7 sections, we studied the material from different

points; historical, theoretical and even we collected actual responses of Saudi learners

about E-learning as for the historical part which constitute the first section in our paper

we discussed the idea in general and in a specific way in Saudi Arabia, we included the

development of E-learning throw different decades.

While for the first three sections we examined the different types of E-learning,

the needs and the disagreement with the idea, also we examined the effects of E-

learning in Saudi learners.

In the last part we talked about the obstacles for E-learning from different points,

and they are:

Technical obstacles .

Material & Financial obstacles.

Obstacles associated with educational society.

Organizational and Administrative obstacles.

As we ended our paper we showed the impact of Saudi learners toward E-

learning.

Keywords:

General concept of e-learning, short history in Saudi Arabia, short history

in the world, need in Saudi Arabia, effect's of e-learning, advantages of e-learning

,disadvantages of e-learning , obstacle faced by E-learning in Saudi Arabia obstacles , E-

learning challenges, Difficulties faced by E-Learning in Saudi Arabia , technical, finical

obstacles , administrative obstacles, educational society , obstacles associated by educational

society .


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INTRODUCTION:

As we move into the 21st century, a number of innovations that were once

merely ideas are now becoming reality. One of these is Electronic learning (E-learning).

E-learning is a part of virtual organization, briefly virtual organization means where

organizational members are geographically separated, but work together through

computer technology, but in our paper we are not going to discuss the general term of

virtual organization, we are going to focus on E-learning how it was originated,

developed historically. In addition to that we will discuss how it was introduced to

Saudi Arabia discuss its status, also we will discuss about different types of E-learning

like: synchronous and asynchronous and we will define each one separately. We will

talk about the advantages of E-learning “needs” and the disadvantages of it.After this

we will show the effects of E-learning in Saudi learners and the obstacles from different

points.

We will end our paper by some suggestions, recommendations and problem

solutions in way to help development and rising E-Learning in Saudi Arabia.

General Concept of E-learning:

Concept of e-learning include its definition and nearest term , disagreement

terms and type of it. In a simple and short way to be clear in your mind.

Definition:

E-learning defined in many way because it is a new technical in learn .However,

this definitions some of it are complex ,longer or maybe disagreement with the nature of

e-learning .In this research we include the definition that is cover all said of e-learning

and the clearest one. E-learning is the method that use the modern technology of

communication such computer, its network, multimedia in all its type and internet

doors. Whether it distance or in class room the important is the use of technology to

junction the information to learners in short time, less cost ,less effort and in biggest

benefit ,and in a way can manage and control the process of education ,and evaluate the

performance of learners[B11][B2].

Term Nearest and Disagreement with E-learning:

There are some terminology nearest to e-learning we consider are. One from this

term is the distance learning, it is a term overlaps with e-learning because some call it e-

learning and some say e-learning is a form of distance learning .Another term is the

web-base education. In other side there is an expression disagreement with the character

of e-learning and it’s applied. Here is some of this expression: "It's not just web-casting

1 The number in brackets corresponds to those in the bibliography in Annex B.


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lectures"[B3] the lecture without attractive activities and meaningful opinion is not

successful learning that what is happen in a video talking lectures ."it's not training

material dumped online"[B3] one of the fake e-learning kind is to translate of the

booklet or slide presentations to HTML or some other Web-viewable format . This

translate can't be good and succeed.”It’s not limited to formal courses "[B3] thinking

that learning is like parcel course is the think of most people .The e-learning sure bring

in courses, but it accept other type of learning. “it’s not computer teaching people"[B3]

people who disagreement with e-learning find accusation to e-learning and they say:

computer can't teach people then e-learning can't work .This accusation is wrong

because computer and network are part of learning not base of It, but they are

intermediate whereby teacher use it to conductivity the learning material to student like

chalkboard [B3].This is some of the expression of wrong e-learning that maybe

somebody don’t know it.

Types:

E-learning comes in many types such as e-learning stand on computer, and

direct learning, but all this type can be categories into two main categories that cover all

type, synchronous and asynchronous. In synchronous student who common in this

program must be access in determine time to become online with teacher .In

asynchronous students can access in the time who need according of their ability

[B4][B5].

History of E-learning

Like any new method or innovation e-learning had story of begin and long

history .In this section we include short history of e-learning in the world that consists

the person who innovate use of e-learning in teach and who this idea developed. Then

the history of e-learning in Saudi Arabia that is signifies us that consist some of the

administrations Initiative.

In The World:

E-learning seam as a new technology in learning, but e-learning had its root in

early of 1840's when Sir Isaac pitmans create the Postal correspondence courses in a

shorthand courses. He used the penny post to teach his phonetic shorted system across

England. This course conformation the first attempt of use the communication

infrastructure to broaden the training beyond sound of humans voice. The many

essential concept of e-learning was provided by Postal correspondence courses. Because

students develop rapidity with won learning, that is can be done without face-to-face

contact. Many students can learn offensively with separate schedule.

A collaboration between Stanford University and IBM in late 1950's is existed

the first use of computer in teach technical. Mainframe computer is effectiveness to

manage drill-and-practice exercise in elementary school children proved dubious, but it

potential was clearly perceptible. From that basic experiment the PLOTO system was


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cultivate with more complex assessment ,which use to deliver more than 40 million

hours of instauration in varies complex subject from the mid-1960's through the mid -

1980's.

Coming PC evasive the obligation for an expensive mainframe computer and

escort terminals. In addition, its added possibility of advanced graphs, animation, sound

and other media. Development of CD-ROM storage expedited the mission of housing

distribution considerable course.

In the 1990's new technology added by develop the World Wide Web. This

technology, which additional removed to effective distance learning by computer.

Hypertext markup language (HTML) provide easy standardized to computer display

."Internet, e-mail, news group and other collaboration media all showed that e-learning

need not be the lonely. Slow-paced effort of postal correspondence courses 160vears

earlier "[B3]

In Saudi Arabia:

E-learning start in Saudi Arabia in the last few years to cover some problem that

face the traditional way of education. However, no clear history or start point we have

about e-learning, so we consider some field of e-learning.

Initiative of university:

There is initiatives on the varies level in Saudi university to entrance e-learning

.From these university that active in this scope Aum Alqura university and king Fahad

University of petroleum and minerals calibrated to establish "e-learning center " under

the deanery of academic development in 9/2/1424 H to be the main task help academic

population in university to benefit from learn technology to develop the process of

education. Also, KAU is considered as the first university that put kernel of distance

learning [B4].

Girl students department:

Because girls in Saudi Arabia face some difficulty in college the public

administration of students college (girls) resolve to apply e-learning in colleges

beginning from 2006 Am .That project its aim was to put design for the determinant

studious and display it by Internet to benefit more than 300 thousand students and 40

thousand irregular student on the level of administrations colleges in Saudi Arabia and

its number is 102 colleges .From another way the administration appeared specific

accessory for distance learning was applied on 36 colleges in regions and conservatism

in Saudi Arabia[B4].

The last stage of e-learning that Saudi Arabia do it is the specialty to establish

the National Centre of E-learning & Distance Learning, known as the ELC with cost


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greater than 47 millions Rails [B6]. This center minister and mange the schools and

university that insert e-learning in its teaching system. All this experiment to

aggiornamento the education system was to handling the problem faced it. In other word

insert e-learning to Saudi Arabia is for needing that we discus in the following section.

Need of E-learning in Saudi Arabia:

E-learning enters Saudi Arabia as a result of need of it for some varies reasons.

Here are some of these main reasons.

Education capacity and the Saudi population is one of the problems that faced

process of education because it grows up year by year. According to a studying that

KFU for petroleum and minerals do it in 2003 there is a strong relation between need of

e-learning and Saudi population. It result that in the last 10 year Saudi population under

20 growth by 52.88% that mean increasing in the number of student in educational

institutes by 48.57 .This result crammed in classrooms and reduce the goodness of

learning .Then, the number of student they not presence school is increasing by 60.18%

[B7]. The successful solution of this problem is the workable e-learning in school and

university. Also, applied e-learning solves the other problem of e-learning.

Related to the above reason another problem appear that is rising cost of

university and school .As a result of crowded class room university solve this problem

by increasing the time of permanence hours in university and divide time of student

schedule in morning and in night[B4].This way maybe looks good, but it affect badly on

student and lecturer and increase budget of the university because it need to more

lecturer more equipment and other requirement things .so Saudi ministry of education

thinking to reduce this cost in which is in his assimilation of its budget .

Other reason of need e-learning is the population in remote areas. Because Saudi

Arabia has a wide area the government can't establish university in all conservatism for

little population .In addition, if people who live in this area move to city there is a

problem happen. Because they work in agriculture and cultivate cattle, this avocation it

will be deserted [B4]. Also, parents don't want to send their son remote from his village

and the son him-self see the life difficult in city far from his family, and female student

can't travel in this area that has university. People who life in remote area are among

two hard obtain don’t' complete their education or travel far from their family.

There are other reasons to need e-learning such as shortage of instructors,

sparsely located schools and other subsidiary reasons that is different from side to other

and not affect the same as the main reasons we consider it above .

E-Learning in Saudi Arabia:

E-Learning is still in its infancy in Saudi Arabia. Currently the emphasis has

been to improve the use of information technology in curriculum and resource


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development and establishing electronic communities. In this regard a project has been

launched to connect schools and educational directorates by means of a wide area

network covering the entire country .This project is known as WATANI Schools’ Net

project. The project is also going to establish local area networks within every

educational directorate. The Schools' Net Project will provide every student, teacher,

parent and educator with a multitude of services and a huge source of reference

information. The resources will be mostly developed in Arabic Language and involves

the technological training of more than 300,000 male and female teachers and other

support staff. This phase of the project involves use of on-line training for teachers and

support staff.

During the course of Saudi standing project entitled “Use and Effect on Internet

in Saudi Arabia” we conducted a web-based survey to solicit responses from users to

determine use and effect of Internet in Saudi Arabia. In the following paragraphs we

report results and analysis of user views in response to questions related to distance

education.

When asked about their preferences for taking a diploma/degree at home or at

class, almost 35% of the respondents either definitely or probably prefer taking the course in a

class. Around 29% of the respondents prefer otherwise i.e., definitely or probably at home. A

large number of respondents were uncertain (36%). This can be attributed to the fact that the

idea of distance learning is new in Saudi Arabia and large portion of respondents are not aware

of importance or significance of this medium.

Figure 1: Preferred venue for on-line courses that help finish a diploma or degree.


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The most compelling reason for taking courses on the Internet is that the users

like computers. Almost 41% of the respondents have selected this option. The other

major reasons (in order of importance) are: learning from own home/own place,

promotion, fun or experience, non-availability of course in school, and to get higher

degree.

Figure 2: Reasons for taking courses on the Internet.

The non-accredited status of on-line courses over the Internet in the Kingdom is

the known major reason for not taking on-line courses. The other reason is the non-

interaction with other students and faculty. Figure 3 summarizes these findings. In light

of these findings, we can say that in order to promote distance learning, the government

should come up with regulation and accreditation plans so that companies/universities

willing to offer distance-learning courseware can start planning for offering such

courses.


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Figure 3: Reasons for not taking courses on the Internet.

We try to identify the types and levels of courses in which users are interested.

According to our survey, users are interested in online courses to upgrade their skills

(40%), special training courses for jobs (28%) and for University degree (23%). On the

other hand they are not at all interested in high school (43%), home schooling whether

schools are available (35%) or not (33%). These results are tabulated in

Table 1. In accordance with the user responses, we can say that the first segment

where distance learning can be used is adult education for on-job training. This

education is meant for those who have already gone through the traditional education

system. This education will upgrade skills of the participants for advances in their field

and will cater for job oriented training courses. Private companies can take advantage of

these findings to come up with solutions related to distance learning for professionals.

Generally it is believed that Saudi Arabia being a segregated education system

where male and female students take their education in separate institutions, women

will prefer to take distance learning classes at home than men. However, according to

our findings gender doesn't affect user responses. Only 30% male and 26% female users

prefer to take distance-learning courses at home.


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Table 1: Types of on-line courses users intend to take on the Internet.

Type of Course Level of Interest in Taking The Course Online

Ver

y Interested

Little

Interested

N

eutral

Not

Much

Interested

Not

at all

Interested

Remedial education 12.6 10.2 3

8.4 7.2 31.3

High school 5.6 4.2 3

4.9 7.7 47.3

University degrees 18.4 9.3 3

3.8 5.7 32.3

Home schooling (instead

of attending school) 7.4 6.8

3

7.6 8.2 39.3

Home schooling (where no

schools are available) 8.3 4.7

3

9.3 7 40.1

Special training courses

for jobs 27.7 11.9

3

4.5 4.4 20.7

Telemedicine 10.9 10.5 4

3.8 7.5 26.5

Learn new household

skills 14.7 13.2

4

1.7 6.3 23.2

To upgrade my skills 40.1 15.9 3

2.7 1.7 8.6

Other reasons 5.6 3.7 5

7.9 2.6 28


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Figure 4: Effect of gender on preference of venue for taking on-line courses.

Similar results are observed while analyzing the effect of gender on types of

courses to be taken online or otherwise. Responses of male and female are more or else

identical on this issue.


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Figure 5: Effect of Gender on Reasons for Taking Courses on the Internet

It is observed that residents of rural areas are more inclined to take remedial and

high school education through distance learning means than their counterparts in big

cities. Analyzing the respondent’s interests in different level of education through

distance learning and their place of residence makes this observation.


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Figure 6: Effect of region on respondent's interest in taking remedial

education through distance learning means

Figure 7: Effect on region on the respondent's interest to attend high school

through distance learning means


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Figure 8: Effect of respondent's education level on their preference to

attend university degree through distance learning means

As the education level of respondents increase they are less interested in taking

distance learning means to improve their education level like getting university degree

or taking remedial education on-line. This is probably due to the reason that distance

education degrees are not accredited in the country therefore already educated

respondents are not very keen for distance learning. However, those who are less

educated or missed formal education are somewhat interested in advancing their

education level through these new avenues. Figure 8 plots these results.

E-Learning Around The World:

E-learning, tricky to implement in the best of circumstances, gets even more

difficult when you go global By Dawn Gareiss it ton PRC, an IT consulting and

systems integration subsidiary of Litton Industries Inc., has a global E-learning

program that trains 5,400 employees in 80 offices worldwide.

What started six years ago with 150 technology courses on CD-ROMs is now

1,500 online courses on everything from interpersonal skills to Java. There's even 24-

hour access to online mentors."We have people with varying degrees of access to the

corporate infrastructure, but all have access to the Web," says Kent Schneider, president

of Litton PRC's defense-systems division in McLean, Va. "We have people across 16

time zones, and they need access to learning at various times. This gives us that

flexibility." E-learning's greatest selling point--flexible, round-the-clock online access to


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any number of courses--makes it especially attractive to multinational companies. But to

reap the benefits, companies must overcome several challenges. The most obvious

challenges for any global E-learning implementation center on language and

localization issues.

Many companies offer courses only in English or in English and one other

language, usually Spanish. An English-only focus works for them, because they conduct

their business all over the world in English. But others need courses in more than one

language. Companies that want to offer courses in several languages usually turn to

translators. Financial-services provider GE Capital relies on translation companies to

offer Web-based courses in English, French, German, and Japanese. But it's not enough

just to convert a course from one language to another, says Mike Markovits, manager of

the Center for Learning and Organizational Excellence for the Stamford, Conn., General

Electric Co. subsidiary, which earned $5.19 billion last year. "Globules requires

localization or ways to ensure the learning makes sense in local context," Markovits

says. "The translation company may not be up to speed on GE language, so we have GE

employees in each local language review the translation to make sure it's GE-correct."

For example, as part of an E-business course that GE Capital offered last year, students

had to visit specific Web sites. But the assigned sites were from the United States,

appropriate for English-speaking students. To make the course more relevant for other

students, localization experts identified Web sites in various languages that were just as

useful. Bryan Chapman, an analyst with E-learning research firm Brandon-hall.com,

cites Cisco Systems as an example of a company that's done a good job implementing

global E-learning. "About five years ago, the company was doing 80% of its training in

instructor-led classes and 20% in a technology-based format. Now that's flipped, and

80% of the company's training is via the Internet and 20% is in the classroom." Cisco

"sets the standard for the rest of the industry," Chapman says. It has a centralized pool

of courses customized for specific regions of the world and individual students. The

Cisco Networking Academy Program trains hundreds of thousands of high school and

college students around the world, offering courses in 11 languages via software from

Lion bridge Technologies Inc. The Lion Access module lets Cisco upload and download

files for translation; Lion Path routes new and changed files; Lion Linguist lets Cisco

leverage previous translations; and Lion View is a portal that Cisco managers can use to

track globalization projects Cisco has been an industry leader with its work on learning

objects--small modules of online content that can be reused and personalized for

specific students. Cisco's big push is providing metadata tagging--bits of XML code that

identify types of content--that can be matched with employee profiles. Only the most

relevant tagged content will be delivered to employees' learning home pages.

Cisco says it plans to roll out customized home pages by year's end. Aside from

the language and localization issues, companies need to decide whether to post the E-

learning content internally or use a hosting service. GE Capital selected the external

hosting option, whereby employees connect to courses via a URL. "That simplifies the

process for me and for our tech organization in terms of dealing with bandwidth issues

and our own network," Markovits says. E-learning provider Digital Think Inc. hosts GE


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Capital's E-learning application. In addition to Webcasts and workshop simulcasts

augmented with local facilitators, Arthur Andersen relies on global E-learning to train

77,000 employees in 83 countries. The professional-services firm has installed a

common user interface on employees' notebook computers and uses English for most E-

learning content, says Kathy Dressel, director of E-learning, assurance, for Arthur

Andersen's Performance and Learning unit in St. Charles, Ill. "Like all global

companies, we have problems in developing countries," she says. "The infrastructure

may not be what it should be, and there are bandwidth issues." That's because

employees in some parts of the world have slower connection rates, as low as 9,600

baud. Browsers can also be a problem. In the United States, most browsers are

equivalent to Internet Explorer 5, but for much of the rest of the world the norm is IE or

Netscape 3.0 on a 486 computer.

Georgia-Pacific Corp. opted to offer its E-learning courses on the Web, in part

because the programming languages used by its E-learning provider, SmartForce plc,

conflicted with the security features Georgia-Pacific uses on its intranet. "We can't

compromise security for learning," says Wendy Wheeler, manager of training and

development at the Atlanta paper and building materials manufacturer and distributor.

Georgia-Pacific has also struggled with the issue of employee identifiers, Wheeler says.

U.S. employees use Social Security numbers to access E-learning programs. But

employees in other countries don't have those numbers, so the company may implement

an in-house employee-identification system. Pricing varies widely for implementing E-

learning globally. Learning-management systems platforms that manage Web-based and

classroom training--start at $200,000; costs associated with third-party content programs

vary widely, Chapman says. All told, global E-learning initiatives can reach the million-

dollar mark. Sun Microsystems' Sun University expects to spend about $1.1 million this

year on its E-learning efforts. Georgia-Pacific signed a $1 million, four-year contract

with Smart Force that provides IT-related content to 1,000 users and user-skills content

to 10,000. "In the short run, it's very costly," GE Capital's Markovits says. "But the size

of your audience determines how you getthe return on your investment."

The effects of E-learning on Saudi Students:

The Ministry of Higher Education and The Ministry of Education on Saudi

Arabia applied e-learning programs in some Saudi universities and schools, but the

effectiveness of this step on students became a controversial .There are varies

opinions on the effects e-learning in different aspects .Some believe that e-learning is

the magical learning process that can improve the learning in Saudi Arabia .While

others standing hesitate to go ahead with e-learning in the Kingdome. Each of these

gropes has their reasons and respectable point of view. Therefore, many studies have

been made in Saudi Arabia in order to see the advantages and disadvantages or we


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can say the reasons that mute or inhibit using e-learning in Saudi Arabia for students

to assess the effectiveness of this educational system in the kingdom.

The Good impact of E-learning on Students:

E-learning have a good impact on Saudi student’s on many aspects: On their

achievement, interests on their subjects, knowledge, social life, physical health,

money consuming and there time. Here we are going to discuss these point in order

to know who cold e-learning do that on Saudi students.

Applying e-learning on the Saudi students has a good impact on students

achievement and their interests on their subjects .To support this idea, a study done

by Mr. Khalid Alhothayfe on junior secondary students in Riyadh city shows raising

on e-learning students achievements and interest on the subject as was expected. This

study focused on the science class and found that the average mark of e-learning

students is 16.97 while the average mark for traditional learning students is 10.56.

The study shows a big different in the average with the benefit of e-learning. In

addition, the study shows a different on student interest in the subject by 2.74% also

with benefit of e-learning students. However, the study didn’t show any increasing in

e-learning student IQ .This result might be due to the short duration of this study

[B8(p705-706)]. Mr. Khalid Alhothayfe study explained the advantage of using e-

learning on student achievement and their interest which is very important because

its means better education.

E-learning can provide better education for student due to its powerful tools

and applications. The most important tool that give e-learning its power is the using

of multimedia. Maha Rammey claim that e-learning program use multimedia such as

pictures, sounds and videos which keeps the student interested in the subject without

losing his attention, in addition, the multimedia provide an infinite number of

repetition while it may not all teachers can do this .Other reason is that the

multimedia help the student to understand the subject in many different applications

and ways [B9].According to Maha Rammey the multimedia in e-learning is one of

the reasons that allow it to provide a better and more interesting way to learn.

An important advantage of e-learning is its flexibility for student. To prove

that, Tim Roberts say that e-learning not force the student to study a fixed type of

knowledge that considered important in his major or that his teacher want him to

study. E-learning sensitive to students need, preferences and what suitable for

them[B10(57-58)]. An additional advantage to some students includes the secluded

and private nature of the e-learning environment. According to Turban, e-learning

can provide an isolated environment for who prefer studying in their own way. In

addition, it is perfect for students who do not like the class discussions, or who fear

from the teacher questions. Also it is great for self-initiated learning [B11].For these

reasons e-learning can give student a larger space of freedom than the traditional

learning do. This freedom is considered as a heal to some character who need to


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study in their way. The e-learning flexibility don’t stop here, it can take another

forms like time.

E-leaning has the advantage of accessing the internet witch considered as

important tool in e-learning. This access keeps the student up to date with the latest

changes in the science. This also will teach the students the continues self-development

which considered as the secret of the successful worker in all life fields. Additional

feature is the type of liberty that its provide to students by allowing them to join

discussions in the bulletin board threaded discussion areas at any hour, or visit with

classmates and instructors remotely in chat rooms[B12]. Therefore, we can say that

using e-learning in the Saudi schools and universities might create a well

knowledgeable and open minded generation which can lead the Kingdome to the

success.

The benefits of using internet in e-learning don’t stop on the studded material

but beyond that, they include social side. These huge sources that e-learning provides

can allow students to meet people from other countries and know about their

cultures, also its help the student to make a new friendships on the biases of the

ideological compatibility regardless the age or the nationality.

Using e-learning in Saudi Arabia can play an important role in reducing

student’s wasted time. This can be very obvious for students who lived in Saudi large

cities. To support this idea, Abdulrahman Mirza said that in Saudi large cities

students spend about an hour to reach the university or school and another hour to go

back home because of the traffic. In addition, many of university students suffer from

the long breaks in their schedules witch waist their precious time [B13]. Therefore, e-

learning can save the student’s time because in e-learning students don’t need to a

transport which also can reduce the traffic congestion. As well as in e-learning

students can take lessons in suitable times without brakes. This flexibility in time

can’t found in traditional learning.

An additional feature of e–learning is its ability to reduce money consuming.

Money is a preoccupation for many Saudis students, especially for the university

students. Abdulrahman Mirza claim that students spent lots of money on the petrol,

food and beverages in the university, university dormitory…etc. E-learning can

alleviate the burden of these expenses [B11]. Not only that, it’s helps the student to

work during their studying years. Therefore, e-learning can really save the students

money by reducing their consuming.

E-learning can have a good impact on student’s physical health because it’s offer

a great substitute for the heavy bags carried by school students. These bags are a source

of concern to many Saudi parents who are scared from its bad effects on their children’s

health. According to some medical professionals, the heavy weight of the school bags

put a lot of pressure on nerves at the nape of the neck which might cause muscles

spasms, neck pain or shoulders pain. Not only that, Dr. Talal Ahmadi report that the

heavy weight of these bags can pressure on growing bones also they make the


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shoulders muscles in tension for a long time which is not good. In addition, according

to Dr. Atta said these bags have physical and physiological side-effects. The physical

effects can be asthma, diabetes, and anemia while the physiological effect might cause

the child to heat the school [B13].These medical professionals stressed that the heavy

bags used in traditional learning might lead to health problems .E-learning avoid the

student all these risks and make the parents not worried about their children health sense

it doesn’t require handing these heavy weight witches considered as a great advantages

of e-learning.

E-learning can open a wide range of knowledge for Saudi ladies in the kingdom.

According to Mohammad Alrohely, many scientific conferences are done in Saudi

Arabia but most of them don’t provide seats for women to participate. Using e-learning

will allow the Saudi woman to participate and penitents from these conferences same as

men [B14]. E-learning will help the Saudi ladies to improve themselves.

The Bad impact of E-learning on Students:

After all of these studies and arguments about the positive side of e-learning

there are some voices in Saudi Arabia with different opinion. These opponents

believe that e-learning is like anything in the word has a positive side and negative

one which cannot be ignored .This kind of education has a detrimentally impacts on

student unlike what appears especially for Saudi students ,also it is not able to

provide all expected features.

E-learning might deprives the student some important skills which might help

him in the future. This idea could be clarified by Maha Rammey’s claim .She said that

student’s writing and reading skills might reduce in e-learning duo to the research

method that e-learning provided. In this way if a student wont to know about some

information he don’t have to go to the library and read all the book which reduce his

reading skill .In addition, he don’t have to rewrite these information, he just have to

copy these information which reduce his writing skill [B9]. This considered as a bad

impact can’t be avoided in this kind of education and feature that traditional learning

provides to the student without his conscious.

It’s true that e-learning could provide interesting way of education, however; it

has lots of things that attract the student from focusing in the subject. A study done by

Mrs. Maha Al-Abdu Al-Kareem on Albayan Model School for girls in Jeddah proved

the validity of this point. She report that the teachers on this school faced a difficult on

keeping student attention on the subject sense the student were playing games and

having chats which is not available for traditional learning students [B15]. The tools and

applications that used in e-learning could have an opposed effects than what should they

do. For this reason some considered theme as disadvantage of e-learning.

E-learning might reduce the communication between the teacher and his

students. In traditional learning the teacher play an important rule, he is the only one


21

how lectures to students, answer the student’s answer and provide scientific content;

therefore, he is in a continues contact with his students. While in e-learning he is

standing on the side as a guide witch reduce his communication with the

students[B16].That’s why e-learning deprives the student the requester benefit from

the expertise of his teacher unlike the traditional learning students whom take full

benefit from their teachers.

E-learning affects students social live in bad way, it is deprive the student’s

from the social communication skills. Everyone knows that the life require both the

social and the experts, it’s true that e-learning expand the students friendships

however the nature of this communication different than it is in the actual life. E-

learning can’t provide these skills for the students.

Using e-learning requires large amounts of money due to its high initial costs

in Saudi Arabia which makes e-learning loss one of the most important reasons of

using it. According to Abdurrahman Mirza, the high initial consuming in the

kingdom do to the small number of students who use e-learning [B11].So if more

students get enrolled the e-learning will retrieve it’s feature. In addition, e-learning

requires a computer which is not available to some Saudi citizens especially after the

economic crisis. So we can say that e-learning reduce the money consuming in a side

and increase it in other side.

These are some of the disadvantages of e-learning on Saudi Arabia. However

there are some voices in the Kingdome oppose using e-learning not for its

disadvantages but because they believe that this kind of education can’t provide extra

benefits for students. They said that e-learning don’t have any effect on the Saudi

students achievement, physical health and Knowledge. Those opponent have

evidence to support their believes which are respected.

E-learning doesn’t improve the student achievement in all subjects. To

support this idea, A study done by Mr. Adel Alomar on a school in Riyadh city .This

study tried to test the effectiveness of e-learning in math class and the result show no

different between the two groups [B1]. E-learning can improve the student

achievement in some subject but not all.

The advocates believe that e-learning can offer a great substitute for the

heavy bags carried by school student, however; the opponent believe that this

concerning is exaggerated and e-learning don’t have any effect on the physical health

of the students. To deny this claim, a study done by The General Administration of

School Health on The Saudi Ministry of Education on 1426 found that the rate of

students who carry school bags Weight more than 15% of their weight is 10.7% of

elementary school students, 2.5% of junior secondary students and 2.1% of high

school students[B17],[B18]. Therefore e-learning isn’t needed to improve the Saudi

student health.


22

The huge number of resources that e-learning provides can’t improve the

Saudi student knowledge as expected especially for the school students. This due to

the limitation of the Arabic sources on the Internet which represent only 1% from the

internet [B19]. And the Saudi young ladies have other reasons that deprive them

from the benefit from the internet. From my experience in the studying in the e-

learning system in ALbayan School, we were not allowed to use the WWW because

it is full of inappropriate material for school student which make the school to block

the access to the WWW and use only the internal school network which cancels one

of the main motivations for e-learning. E-learning can improve only the Saudi

university students not school students.

Obstacles And Difficulties Faced By E-learning In Saudi Arabia:

Although there are many advantages and great benefits that associated with E-

learning, the Saudi educational institutions still facing many obstacles and difficulties

that impede them to apply E-learning system in different educational fields. The main

problem is based on the nature of Saudi educational society that believes on their

traditional systems and refuses anything new which may change and develop their way

in teaching and learning. Moreover, Saudi Arabia is considered new in technology

revolution and doesn't have a long history in using technology and communications in

educational field .

We analyzed these obstacles and we found some of them associated with human

and others with technical equipments. In general, we can classify these obstacles into

four types:

Technical obstacles .

Material & Financial obstacles.

Obstacles associated with educational society.

Organizational and Administrative obstacles.

In a questionnaire that we distributed to a group of academic employees

involved in E-learning in Saudi Arabia [B27], we found that the first obstacle confronts

implementing and improving of e-learning in Saudi academic institutions is related to

technical and telecommunication infrastructure .the second difficulty is insufficiency of

funds dedicated to E-learning and thus the lack of many requirements such as

equipments, books and staff. Some of the participant pointed out a very interesting issue

which is the perception of E-learning as a secondary education to the traditional

education. Figure 9 and 10 shows the results of our questionnaire.


23

Figure 9 : Quality of E-Learning in Saudi Arabia[B27].


24

Figure 10: Obstacles and difficulties Faced by E-Learning in Saudi Arabia

[B27].

Technical obstacles:

The disconnection during lectures, browsing, sending and receiving material that

is caused by technical problem is a big challenge to E-Learning institutions. This

disruption forces the user to go back to previous page and that may cause losing of the

data. Consequently, most of the educational intuitions consider E-Learning a waste of

time and money .

The main reason that causes this problem is the lack in communication and

information technology infrastructure and weakens of networks. In addition, disabling

in connecting with the Wide Area Networks (WANs) and World Wide Web (WWW) is

a constant problem. It seems a mysterious problem facing the user, either student or

teacher, when he check for errors in connecting with Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

via Local Area Connection (LANs) and find nothing. However, it is usually happened in

the connection between ISPs and the World Wide Web .

Another problem is attached to computer labs in many of educating institutions.

Teachers are the most one who face this problem directly in teaching. However,

hardware and software damages are the result of the wrong use and exchanging files

with external storage devices like disks which damaged with viruses.

Moreover, fixing and repairing these problems which either related to networks

or computers consumes a lot of time because of the weak response either from the

Ministry of Education or ISPs toward the complaints and the scarcity of technicians in

educational institutes who are able to fix computers and networks damage at the time.

This is cause many problems in managing exams and lectures. Many exams and lectures

has to be cancelled or delayed until everything back. Thus, students and teachers feel

furious in arranging their agenda when these technical problems occurred. The recent

flood in Jeddah is a proof of this point. Negligence in protecting networks and servers

rooms caused the site of King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU) to be shut down for a

week and delaying in restarting the semester .

Material & Financial obstacles:

There is no doubt that implementing E-Learning in Saudi Arabia require a huge

budget and a lot of spending taking into consideration that it is newly adopted in Saudi

educational system .

From governmental side, they are obligated to provide universities and

institutions with equipped labs. Currently, most universities, institutions and schools

complain from the shortage of hardware equipments provided to them in addition to

poor maintains program for the available computer. Moreover, in programs with


25

technology nature it is required to be updated with the latest version to cope with

accelerated invention in that field; otherwise, the equipments and program will be

obsolete and traditional. Government also needs to invest in the networking

infrastructure to provide constant and stable connection which is the backbone of the E-

Learning. In order to do that, a large investment needed to the telecommunication

infrastructure in the whole country so it can be reflected on the E-Learning community.

Another government and institution duty is to supply adequate curriculum to students in

E-Learning that is include software and accessories. Those requirements are needed

presently in the universities in the major cities rather than small towns and villages

where the case is much worse. These areas need the establishment of institutions to

begin with and telecommunication infrastructure .

From students’ perspective, the subject of complaints is high tuition in addition

to high costs of Internet connection service in Saudi Arabia compared with other

countries. This is a big burden for average family in Saudi society taking into

consideration that E-Learning requires a high speed Internet. For example, the tuition of

E-Learning in King Abdulaziz University [B28] is 4000 Saudi Riyals for each semester

starting from the orientation Year in addition to the cost of DSL access [B29] .to enroll

in E-earning course at least a speed of 265kb/s or above is needed which costs from

200 to 555 riyals monthly .

Organizational and Administrative obstacles and Obstacles associated with

educational society:

Obviously, to establish an efficient E-Learning program we need qualified

teachers and instructors that can understand and implement the technology. A closer

look to the present faculty shows that the majority of teachers lack the basic knowledge

of E-Communication. Furthermore, they are reluctant to change and accept a new

method of teaching dependent on the computer. This could be as a result of the close

society they grew in, their fear of failure, and their unawareness of the importance of the

new system .

On administrative level, we find that the bureaucracy and complicated rules are

a big challenge of E-Learning; particularly, rapid changes are essential in implementing

a modern system. Another important issue is the development of the current text and

methodology to be eligible as an E-Learning material. That’s including changing the

quantity and the quality of the current curriculum.

Conclusion:

Through the last years ago information commotion was appear in application of

computer and using computer in education side still in its beginning stag that is raise

day by day. It is taken varies form from computer in learning to use internet and finally

apparition of e-learning that stand on technology to effective the content of education in

good way . in addition, there is advantages of e-learning and its major that is the saving

time and the conatus and cost. Also, the ability of computer to improve the level of


26

student study and their skills and it helpful for student and teacher to create attractive

environment for study .

Although the important of this type of learning and its primary result that

evidence the successful of it .However, the use of this way is in its beginning points

and it face many difficulty whither it material and financial obstacles, technical, Organizational and Administrative or Obstacles associated with Educational

community.

Finally we can say to insure the success in making e-learning must do the

following:

1. Reduce the cost of the Internet serves in the Kingdome in order to

make it available for all people in the society.

2. Expand the Internet and make it available in all remote aria.

3. Customize section in the Ministry of Education responsible of the

development of the e-learning cruces.

4. Increase the educational community awareness of the important of

the e-learning.

5. Increase the electronic content in the web.

6. Sensitize decision-makers to the importance of using this technique

, how it could reduce the money consuming and how its give us

good educational results specially in: the education of children in

remote areas, with special difficulties, and peoples who leave

school before completing secondary school, as well as housewives

.

7. Directing research postgraduate students in learning topics.

8. Encourage the private sector to help in this kind of education and

provide a support.


27

Annex B

(informative)---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Documents

E-Learning and Its Effectiveness in Saudi Arabia