Arab News, Sunday, Sep 13, 2020 | Muharram 25, 1442
Distance education will contribute to developing digital economy, say experts
Saudi Arabia: Distance learning will push Saudi Arabia forward
on the path to digital transformation, experts say.
It is one of the innovative learning methods being used in Saudi Arabia to help
curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but education officials also believe that
distance learning can improve the level of education, reduce spending on
education and increase users’ satisfaction.
Experts told Arab News that they are hopeful that distance education will
contribute to developing the digital economy, provide equal opportunities for
everyone, make education available indefinitely, provide learning opportunities
for employees, improve the financial efficiency of the education sector, ensure
that graduates meet the demands of the labor market, and create modern and
innovative trends in the education sector.
Prof. Saad Haj Bakry, the author of “Knowledge Society Ecosystem,” said: “We
live in the physical space that is the whole world around us.
However, many of our activities in the physical space are done through what we
now call the cyberspace that is the digital world of the internet and its
various applications and services. Cyberspace is becoming increasingly involved
in enabling information-based activities in all fields to be performed
remotely.”
After the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the early years of
the 21st century, many information-based activities were transformed from being
performed in the physical space to becoming performed through cyberspace, he
explained. This is usually called “digital transformation,” and the fields that
responded to this transformation include government services, trade, banking
and, to a lesser extent, education, mostly at the higher level.
With COVID-19 invading the world, using digital transformation for performing
activities remotely was an essential resistance tool for facing the virus, Prof.
Bakry said. Learning, at all levels, had to respond and become remote, he said.
Where education was concerned with theoretical subjects that involve knowledge
transfer and knowledge-sharing through dialogue with students above the
elementary level, quality could easily be maintained using cyberspace
technology. However, for practical subjects that involve lab work, and for
younger students who need special attention, maintaining quality is
questionable.
He said that cyberspace was rapidly increasing its capabilities. Intelligent
devices performing intelligent functions are becoming part of cyberspace,
opening the way for solving problems in different fields, including education.
If COVID-19 pushed education to go remote, it also pushed artificial
intelligence toward a new future dimension that enables quality education to be
performed remotely at all levels and in all subjects.
Dr. Rafiq Jamaldeen, a professor at College of Computer and Information
Sciences, King Saud University in Riyadh, said that distance education offered
several advantages, such as health quarantine during pandemics.
As a professor who has spent more than 20 years teaching computer science,
Jamaldeen believes that distance education’s most important advantage is its
ability to offer flexible alternatives and better opportunities for students to
learn, and also enable the physically challenged to enroll in schools.
Distance education saves students money because they do not have to be
physically present at the college and offers them a variety of options in
choosing courses and programs of study. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made millions
of students around the world resort to distance education and invest in this
type of education. The distance education applications offer advanced technology
for students to help them learn. But for primary grade students, distance
education faces some challenges, such as the difficulty teachers face in
controlling students,” he said.
Distance education requires strict control of virtual classes and commitment on
the part of students, as well as computer literacy.
Prof. Jamaldeen called on those among the general public who view distance
education negatively to reconsider their views and try to take advantage of this
great tool.
He said that he also understood that some families could not afford high-speed
internet subscription charges and might find it difficult to use distance
education.