NEWS
E-Learning Center: Instructional Design Includes 11 Academic Courses UoB Develops a Model for Electronic Content for University Courses
Sakhir – University of Bahrain
20 September 2023
The E-Learning Center at the University of Bahrain (UoB) has completed the second phase of the project to develop the electronic content of university courses offered through e-learning and distance education, in cooperation with six colleges at the University.
The Director of the E-Learning Center, Dr. Sheikha Fai bint Abdullah Al Khalifa, stated, “The Center has begun work on one of its most important strategic projects, to create a unified template for the electronic content uploaded to the platform for all courses offered at the University.”
Furthermore, she added that the template – which work on began two years ago – is available in both Arabic and English, and is distinguished by a unified design and structure for electronic educational and training courses, to make it easier for learners to browse and understand the content, and includes clear directions on how to use it and benefit from it.
Regarding its advantages, Dr. Fai bint Abdullah said, “The template saves instructors time and effort, so they would be able to present content without the need to build a new structure, and it maintains the quality of the content presented – through e-learning and distance education-, enhances interaction and participation remotely, and improves the user experience in general. Regardless of having the template, the instructor or trainer can customize the content and include its components in a special space when needed.”.
“The Center trained faculty members on how to use the unified electronic template, taking their suggestions, and measuring the effectiveness of the template in facilitating the educational process, as 83% of them stated that they benefited from it, in the periodic questionnaire – which the Center does at the end of each semester – to measure the satisfaction of the customers of the Center’s services.”, She added.
The second step of the project, done in cooperation with the colleges of Arts, Information Technology, Science, Business Administration, Law, and Applied Sciences, put together the faculty members responsible for 11 academic courses of common courses – requirements of the university and colleges that serve more than 32 thousand students – with specialists from the Center in intensive work teams, to help them design high-quality content, and add recorded content to academic courses, to produce model courses, as the courses will be presented in their new form within the current academic year.
Dr, Fai bint Abdullah further stated that: “The course interface was developed on the learning management platform (Blackboard), and its content was distributed in a way that ensures ease and flexibility for students to obtain information, taking into account achieving the highest levels of accessibility for students with special needs, by including alternative formats in the content, which are suitable for those who suffer from ADHD, and the feature of translating content into 49 different languages, or converting it into an audio file, or into Braille format, which is read by Braille speaking devices.”.
The E-Learning Center seeks to complete the next stages by measuring the outcomes of the project on students after the end of the current semester, and presenting the experience to other universities locally and internationally, to exchange experiences in this and field others, which contribute to developing the level of e-learning and distance education.
