85 Papers Discussed at The Sixth ECONF

85 Papers Discussed at
The Sixth ECONF

President of UOB:
Digital Transformation Has Become A Priority and A Necessity

The President of the University
of Bahrain (UOB), Prof. Riyad Yousif Hamzah, confirmed that e-learning has
become a priority for the survival of higher education institutions, according
to many international reports, indicating that digital transformation is not an
option in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, but rather a necessity.

This came during a speech he made
yesterday (Sunday) during the opening of the Sixth International E-Learning
Conference (ECONF) organized by UOB in cooperation
with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with the
participation of experts and researchers from 40 countries.

Moreover, Prof. Riyad Hamzah
stated that “We firmly believe that all higher education institutions and
research centers must realize that a new era has just begun, an era
characterized fundamentally by new capabilities for learning and communication due
to modern technologies, as millions of people are connected by mobile devices
with unprecedented processing, storage capacity, and access to knowledge,” noting
that “ these capabilities will be doubled through technical development in
areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of things,
nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials sciences, energy storage, cloud computing,
and others. ”

Furthermore, he added, “We
are confident that the University will continue to advance through e-learning,
the intensive use of information and communication technology, the continuous
production of knowledge and the embrace of twenty-first-century skills,
especially innovation, creativity, problem-solving, flexibility and
entrepreneurship.”

Also, Prof. Hamzah said, “We
will continue to support our students to become global competitors ready to
achieve the highest levels of competitiveness in all economic sectors.”

The conference was held through visual
communication technology and lasted for two days, with the participation of 300
researchers, experts, and technicians in the fields of distance learning,
teaching methods and learning technologies from about 40 countries in the
world.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that
the conference was organized by the Deanship of Postgraduate Studies and
Scientific Research and it discussed 85 research papers on several topics,
including sustainable higher education, learning at home and workplaces,
distance education, co-education, return on investment on distance learning,
e-learning models and theories, learning management systems, information
literacy, and ethical issues in e-learning.

For his part, the Dean of
Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, Dr. Mohammed Redha Qadir stressed
that ” After all that we have gone through, e-learning has currently confirmed
its position as a vital strategic tool that has sufficient potential to achieve
sustainability, whether in the educational, administrative or economic
dimension.”

Moreover, he said that the
educational process continues as efficiently and effectively as we really want,”
pointing out to the students’ wonderful efforts to learn at home. As nearly the
whole world works from home these days, and in many cases, it is proving to be
a very productive and effective method, especially in terms of cost.

The conference sessions were held
on its second day, yesterday (Monday – 7 December 2020), within three periods of
six simultaneous sessions, before the activities of the international event
were concluded with discussion sessions for case studies from different
countries.

 

Sustainable Development Goals:

 (4) Quality
education.

 (11) Sustainable
cities and communities.

 (17) Partnerships for
the goals.

 

Keywords

University of Bahrain,
e-learning, the sixth international e-learning conference, digital
transformation, the era of the fourth industrial revolution, global growth,
COVID-19, students’ right to sustainable quality education