NEWS
“Arts” Of UoB Expands Its English Courses
Dr. Bulaila: E-Learning Enhances Lifelong Learning Strategies
“Arts” Of UoB Expands Its English Courses
The Dean of the College of Arts at the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Abdulaziz Mohammed Bulaila, stated that “The Corona pandemic has helped everyone integrate into e-learning, even those who were hesitant,” stressing that general impressions indicate that the education process is continuously progressing.
Also, he stated that the College is heading towards benefiting from the references and e-books offered by international publishing houses, and expanding the courses offered in English in various programs.
Dr. Abdulaziz Mohammed Bulaila stressed that distance education helped in achieving the scientific concept for university students on the ground, which is a concept that makes the student an effective center in the educational process, as he learns through several methods, the most important of which are reading, investigation, inference, interpretation, and others.
Also, he believed that “e-learning enhances lifelong learning strategies and keeps pace with modern learning methods based on digital sources and books,” noting that “the University has provided electronic tools to help students learn, such as the Blackboard platform, and the Microsoft 365 package, which includes several electronic programs that facilitate the learning process, storage and display.
The Dean of the College of Arts summarized the results of e-learning by saying: “E-learning has contributed to saving time, paper, and reducing costs associated with electricity and water, in addition to reducing crowds, accidents, car emissions, and more.”
And regarding the (Lock Down) exams monitoring application, he stated “I think that the application has proven its effectiveness, as it provided a semi-normal atmosphere for exams, and helped achieve social distancing to limit the spread of the Coronavirus, in addition to the ability to give the exam to a large number of students at the same time.”.
Dr. Abdulaziz Bulaila indicated that ” the capabilities provided by technology and electronic tools to students and professors make the teaching process run smoothly. For example, a teacher can use an electronic or regular blackboard and photograph it, or photograph and record lectures and revise them at any time according to student needs.”
At the same time, the Dean announced that the College of Arts is heading for more communication with international publishing houses to benefit from their curricula and electronic references in English, pointing out that this comes in conjunction with the College’s endeavor to increase the number of courses taught in English, such as what has been done in the master’s in Media program.
Furthermore, he said “We have known that illiteracy is the inability to write and read, but the lack of knowledge of the English language and the ability to deal with technical means is a type of illiteracy in this century. Therefore, we want to increase the courses taught in English.”
He further added that “Recent studies are written in different languages, primarily English. For example, the King Faisal Prize for Arabic Language and Literature is given this year for research written in English.”
Regarding scientific research rates, the Dean of Arts stated that the rate of scientific research production has recently increased, evident by the steady increase in scientific promotions in the College, noting that one of the factors that contributed to the increase in research production is e-learning, which gave professors more time to research, especially in light of the lockdown and social distancing.
Also, regarding the priorities of the College of Arts in the next stage, he stated that the College is moving towards developing the work of refereed scientific journals and converting them to the electronic format, and to open new programs in English such as the Bachelor’s in Diplomacy and the Master’s in Women’s Sciences, in addition to the expansion of the accreditation of the College’s academic programs.
Dr. Bulaila announced that the College seeks to hold a remote scientific conference entitled: “Speech of Disease and Treatment from the Perspective of Ethics and Humanities” soon, and to reactivate the programs of the cultural committees in the College, to organize seminars and meetings via video communication.
After his speech, Dr. Abdulaziz Mohammed Bulaila called on students and partners to think positively of e-learning, which makes the student the main party in the interactive learning process and helps him in developing if he wishes so, stressing that teaching methods will not be limited to traditional methods, but will take different forms in light of the rapid technological and cognitive development.
It is worth noting that the College – which includes about 5,500 male and female students – offers fourteen undergraduate and postgraduate programs, with eight programs in the undergraduate degrees and six in postgraduate degrees.
