At the start, e-learning in Saudi Arabia was considered the future of education in the Kingdom. However, the coronavirus pandemic made studying online a vital aspect of learning today.
The option of distance learning is now available for primary courses that will launch this school year online before students go back to attending their classes in person.
While many countries struggled with the repercussions of the pandemic in the past academic year, Saudi Arabia fell back on all modern tech means available and the Kingdom’s remote education infrastructure to allow its students to keep learning.
This prompted the Kingdom’s remarkable success in overcoming education challenges posed by the pandemic.
Muhammad Al-Hejailan, associate professor of information technology and e-learning management at King Saud University in Riyadh, explains that the Education Ministry’s response to activating e-learning was swift and efficient.
The ministry, according to Al-Hejailan, launched its e-learning department in alignment with the Kingdom’s national vision for transformation, dubbed “Vision 2030.” The vision promotes across-the-board digital transformation in Saudi Arabia.
“This move stemmed from Vision 2030,” Al-Hejailan told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that the ministry’s administrative structure helped in planning and supporting the success of quality digital progress.
Despite all its negative fall-out, the coronavirus pandemic did manage to speed up digital transformation in the education sector.
“The pandemic abridged a multi-step process into a short step,” said Al-Hejailan, considering the matter positive for any future plans.
Al-Hejailan highlighted that high-quality Saudi human resources, compared to other countries, prompted this digital movement’s success.
Previous scholarship programs have created great potential in areas that help e-learning, from both the technical and educational aspects, added the academic.
Saleh Al-Atiwi, a professor of educational technology and software project management at King Saud University in Riyadh, confirmed that Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries to apply information and communication technology in all fields, including diverse learning environments.
