Weber 2018 - Chapter 16: Saudi Arabia PDF

Chapter 16 Saudi Arabia Alan S. Weber Abstract This chapter surveys the development and current state of e-learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The author surveys the general social, economic, historical, and demographic background of Saudi Arabia and provides a review of its educational system. Analysis and statistics on the information and communica- tions technology (ICT) infrastructure, usage of ICT in the country, and challenges and barriers to ICT implementation in education, business, and government are also provided. The chapter further explores in detail the major e-learning platforms, ini- tiatives, and projects throughout the country. Information is additionally provided on accreditation, teacher training programs, and the regulatory framework of e-learning. Finally, the author speculates on the future development of e-learning in Saudi Arabia. A comprehensive bibliography on e-learning scholarship related to the country, including government reports and websites, appears at the end of the chapter. Keywords Saudi Arabia · E-learning · Web-based learning · ICT · Internet · Education · Distance learning A. S. Weber (*) Weill Cornell Medicine, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 355 A. S. Weber, S. Hamlaoui (eds.), E-Learning in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68999-9_16 356 A. S. Weber Source: CIA World factbook, https://www.cia.gov Country Profile Saudi Arabia (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – KSA) occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula and is the largest (est. population 28 million in 2016, with 30% immi- grants) and most powerful member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (CIA 2017). The United States is the major ally of KSA and its largest trading partner, due to billions of USD in arms sales since the 1950s – 14% of all defense imports interna- tionally are purchased by Saudi (Janes 2015). The modern Saudi state arose in 1932 after Ibn Saud unified the peninsula, creating another Saudi kingdom after the defeat of the House of Saud at Riyadh in 1818 by Egypt’s Mohammed Ali, backed by Ottoman forces. The rivalry of the House of Saud and the Sharif of Mecca led to complicated political maneuverings during WWI, in which Ibn Saud rose to power after the failure of Hussein bin Ali’s British-backed Pan Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, and Saud’s subsequent suppression of his Bedouin allies the Ikhwan. The 16 Saudi Arabia 357 Ottomans were permanently expelled from the Gulf in 1918, and the British became the dominant ruling power in the region. Despite the key role that the United States played in developing Saudi Arabia’s vast oil resources by forming the Arabian- American Oil Company (now Saudi Aramco) circa 1938–1944, Saudi has remained more independent from British and American cultural and political influence than the other Gulf states, many of whom were part of a nineteenth-century British secu- rity network based on the “maritime truces” and later the Political Residency system of the Persian Gulf. KSA is ruled by a direct descendent of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud in consultation with the Al ash-Sheikh dynasty, descendants of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the conservative Wahhabist (Salafist) sect of Islam, who form part of the ulema or Islamic religious scholars who exert strong control over education and social and religious affairs. The Quran and Sunnah (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) are the basis of law, and the Basic Law of 1992 places some restrictions on the monarch and functions as a constitution as well. Sharia law fol- lowing the Hanbali school is enforced, and legal cases are decided individually by qadis (judges). Saudi Arabia has been accused by critics of spreading the intolerant Wahhabist strain of Islam – which declares different sects of Islam heretical – by funding mosques, publications, and schools throughout the Muslim world; Saudi was urged to review its educational curricula and textbooks by the US government after the 9/11 attacks since the majority of the attackers were Saudi nationals. Although Saudi Ambassador Turki bin Faisal stated that disparaging references to kuffar (non-believers) were purged from educational materials, a 2006 Freedom House report uncovered passages in textbooks urging disassociation from and ostraciza- tion of Jews and Christians, despite their special Quranic status as Ahl al-kitab or people of the book (Freedom House 2006). Salafist views dominate cultural and religious life, and strict public morality is enforced by the Mutawwi’un or religious police. The country is the birthplace of Islam where the Prophet Muhammad first received the revelation of the divine Quran from the angel Jibreel, and KSA con- tains the two holy cities of Medina and Mecca and the Ka’aba, the destination for the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all Muslims. Women face legal and cultural restrictions and limited opportunities in government, and control by their male guardian, the wali. Oil production and export dominates the economy since Saudi possesses the world’s second largest proven oil reserves. Saudi is also the world’s largest oil exporter at 10.4 million barrels per day and is also one of the most influential OPEC members (EIA 2017). Like other hydrocarbon-rich GCC nations, Saudi nationals enjoy many state benefits including education and high-paying government jobs, although the large population, in contrast to the similar oil-based economies of Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE, dilutes the extent of benefits and billions of dollars of state oil revenue funds (exposed by secret US cables on Wikileaks in 2011) provide direct stipends for thousands of royal princes and princesses of the House of Saud. Like most of the GCC nations, Saudi supports a national priority hiring program called Saudization, to replace foreign expatriate workers (who make up about 80% of the private workforce) with Saudi nationals. The low-productivity public sector and 358 A. S. Weber entitlement culture similar to the other oil-rich Gulf nations is a constant economic problem, contributing to high youth un- and underemployment. Most of the country’s interior consists of arid and hyperarid sand and rock des- ert with summer temperatures reaching 45–52 °C Celsius. Much of the Arabian Desert is uninhabitable due to lack of water and infrastructure, particularly the southern Rub’ al Khali Desert, known as the Empty Quarter. The country contains large underground water reserves which have been seriously depleted by wide- spread irrigated grain and livestock production beginning in the 1980s – the coun- try now employs seawater desalination plants to meet domestic water demands (Elhadj 2004). Most Saudis are Sunni Muslims speaking the Najdi, Hejazi, or Khaliji Arabic dialects. Between 10% and 25% of the population are Shiite, concentrated in the Eastern Province of KSA – the site of the world’s largest oil field, the Ghawar Field. Saudi Shias claim they are persecuted in their country and the execution of Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr in 2016 caused international concern. Islam is the official state religion and the only one that can be publically practiced – proselytizing for other religions is punished harshly as is theft and sorcery. Education System in Saudi Arabia The Saudi government spent 5.14% of GDP and 19.26% of total government rev- enues on education in 2008 (UNESCO 2017). However, serious challenges in education which impact the economy as well as the wider society are the lack of STEM graduates and the misalignment of education and the labor markets. The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) (formerly the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training or GOTEVOT) was formed in 1980 to establish and govern technical colleges, technical colleges for girls, secondary industrial institutes, and technical education programs in Saudi. TVTC implemented online training courses in 2014, and by 2015, there were 47,711 technical students enrolled in 1191 virtual courses (Tago 2015). Thus e-learning has been proven successful and economically viable for technical training of national students. Before unification of the Saudi peninsula in 1932 and the discovery of oil by the predecessor of Aramco in 1938, education consisted of the traditional kuttab or maktab attached to mosques for basic education, with a few advanced madrasahs, as a substantial percentage of the population were nomadic Bedouins or oasis dwellers without a pressing need for education. Now education is available free of charge to all citizens and includes overseas government-supported scholarships. In 2004, the first 6 years of compulsory education was enforced on citizens to encourage school attendance (Alfar 2013, p. 670). The Ministry of Education (MOE) administers male education, and the Presidency General for Girls’ Education oversees female education. The Ministry of Higher Education administers higher education insti- tutes in KSA, except for KAUST. 16 Saudi Arabia 359 Primary (elementary) school education lasts from age 6–12 years and is compul- sory and then intermediate education (not required) from 12–15 years after com- pleting the general elementary education certificate, and finally secondary education extends from ages 15–18. At the secondary level, students may choose the general education track or specialized tracks in business, technology, agriculture, health sciences, etc. Holders of the General Secondary Education Certificate (GSEC) or a specialized Diploma may proceed to a higher education institute. Elementary school teachers are licensed after a 2-year program of junior college following their GSEC, and at the intermediate and secondary levels, instructors may teach with a B.Ed degree or a specialized bachelor’s degree plus 1 year of additional teacher training. A separate Philippine school system exists in Saudi due the large number of foreign workers from that country, and many international schools are licensed as well in which some of the MOE’s rules are relaxed. Religious conservatives protested when the first girls’ private schools opened in Jeddah in the 1950s, arguing that education beyond basic religious training was inappropriate and unnecessary for girls, but in 1960 the General Presidency for Girls’ Education was established to develop state-supported schools for females. Ironically, female enrollment at Saudi universities is now much higher than males, a trend seen in other Gulf nations as males opt for high-paying jobs in the military or government immediately upon graduation from high school. Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) was opened in 1970 solely for women and is one of the world’s largest female-only universities. In the last two decades, Saudi has experienced rapid growth in all-female higher education programs. As in other Gulf nations, educational disparity and consequent perceived incompatibility between spouses are cited as a cause of recently rising divorce rates. Religious curricula are integral to the Saudi system as compulsory subjects and 25% of students were enrolled in religious institutions in the 1990s (Prokop 2003, p. 78). The Basic Law of 1992 states “education will aim at instilling the Islamic faith in the younger generation, providing its members with knowledge and skills and preparing them to become useful members in the building of their society, members who love their homeland and are proud of its history” (ICLP 2010). At the elementary level, in addition to standard topics such as basic sciences and math, civics, art, and physical education, the curricula emphasize moral education and ethics centered on the Quran, ahadith (sayings of the Prophet), Arabic culture, and Islamic theology. At the intermediate level, more advanced Quranic topics such as intonation (tajwid) and interpretation (tafsir) and sharia law and advanced Arabic language studies are included; English is also introduced as well along with history and geography. In 2017, the MOE agreed to gradually introduce sports and physical education into girls’ schools, but women participating in sports in Saudi Arabia is controversial, with some conservatives arguing that it interferes with femininity and religiously sanctioned fixed gender roles. The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Project for Public Education Development or the Tatweer (“Development”) Project was inaugurated in 2007 in part to create more autonomous and technology-based pilot schools (Tatweer 2017). In addition, after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, educators and government leaders both within 360 A. S. Weber KSA and internationally called on King Abdullah to coordinate efforts to reduce extremist views within the educational system. One of the goals of the project was to harness ICT to help students learn and develop a national identity and forge com- munity social relations and transition the educational environment from traditional memorization-based instruction to an atmosphere of inquiry and discovery. For example, Internet-based courses could foster collaborative online learning, flipped classrooms, autonomous and lifelong learning, etc., and contribute to greater gen- eral digital literacy. However, Phase I of the program which supplied hardware and other e-learning resources including training to pilot schools was found to be too costly for nationwide adoption; thus ambitious plans for nationwide technology adoption in the classroom were abandoned: according to Alyami, “programme one was extremely costly; accordingly, programme two was established as an amend- ment of programme one. In the programme two, schools were not supplied with advanced technology as in programme one. Officials realized that applying ideal technology at schools would cost a huge amount of money, which was one target of programme one. Therefore, Tatweer Project modified programme two to be more pragmatic. Namely, programme two has focus on internal capacity where schools will be able to manage itself” (Alyami 2014, p. 1520). The first university in Saudi, and the first among the Gulf nations, was Riyadh University (now King Saud University) founded in 1957; there are 26 state universi- ties in Saudi, many established since 2000, and a marked proliferation of private and for-profit institutions has occurred in the past two decades (MOE 2017b). Schools are segregated by gender at all levels in the country including universities, except for KAUST, which was a revolutionary departure from customary practice. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was built in 2009 at Thuwal on the Red Sea and was the first coeducational government school in Saudi and is supported by a 20 billion USD endowment (waqf). The university was designed as a top tier graduate research institution of science and technology, spe- cializing in materials science, engineering, environmental technologies, modeling, and supercomputing – KAUST runs the Shaheen II, a Cray XC40 supercomputer, the fastest in the Middle East (KAUST 2017). Numerous opportunities for nonfor- mal and informal learning are available from a wide range of institutions in Saudi, ranging from clubs, associations, and private charitable institutions. E-Learning in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia was a late adopter of the Internet due to lack of infrastructure as well as religious, political, and cultural concerns about content, which also arose in the 1950s and 60s with the introduction of cinema and television. Public access to the Internet was allowed by the government in 1997 after research and medical institu- tions were first connected. However, infrastructural issues do not completely explain the slow adoption of e-learning and technology in the classroom in KSA. According to Xanthidis and Nikolaidis, “in Saudi Arabia for example there are no visible 16 Saudi Arabia 361 reasons for the slow progress of eLearning performance. No serious weaknesses in established procedures or facilities have been detected. Also, no financial shortcom- ings seem to be the problem. Saudis believe that problems exist mostly in the rela- tively slow improvement of local telecommunications and other infrastructure operations” (2014, p. 2). By 2008, however, an estimated 125 million USD was invested in the Saudi e-learning industry (MENAFN 2008). Al-Asmari and Khan provide a brief summary of the origins of e-learning in Saudi: “the use of computers in teaching and learning in schools in KSA began in the 1990s. In 1996, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) established the Computer and Information Centre (CIC) that provides a range of ICT services to schools and educational centres. In order to design new curricula and develop the capabilities of both teachers and students, MOHE launched an ambitious computer project in 2000 that aimed to cover all schools in KSA. It was followed by the WATANI Schools’ Net project that was launched in 2001, to connect schools and educational directorates by means of a wide area network (WAN) covering the entire country. Semanoor, a local software company specializing in education, in collaboration with Intel, produced an electronic version of curricula of all official government K-12 public and private schools” (2014, p. 2). Semanoor also devel- oped interactive online tools and platforms to facilitate the building of e-learning courses for teachers who were not specially trained in electronic pedagogy. The Saudi Arabia government Ministry of Communications and Information Technology initiated the Home Computer Initiative (SaCHI) or “Tawasul” project (http: www.tawasul.com.sa) in 2005 with the goal of providing a high-quality PC to 1 million Saudi citizens and services to access the Internet in order to create an information society. However, according to Dr. Al Turki, the project closed 1 year later, with none of its goals completed and no government official has been able to explain the circumstances of the program’s closure (Al Turki 2017). Thus in gen- eral, the development of e-learning in Saudi has been uneven, with some schools struggling to provide basic ICT infrastructure, while other universities are begin- ning to experiment with advanced m-learning technologies and virtual reality learn- ing environments, such as Second Life (Alenezi and Shahi 2015). To facilitate e-learning, the KAU Deanship of Distance Learning was established in 2007: “establishment of the Deanship and Faculty of Distance Learning at King AbdulAziz University in Jeddah (http://elearning.kau.edu.sa/), [was] designed to provide distance learning in the western region of the country. Its first academic year of operation was 2007–2008 and its programs are offered by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Faculty of Economics and Administration. These programs involve blended learning, the Virtual Class Room System (CENTRA)” (Al-Khalifa 2010c, p. 751). The Strategic Plan for E-learning Project began in 2009 at Al-Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMAMU), and according to the development plan “in light of the inputs of the first phase, the Executive Strategic Plan of the e-learning will be built within 5 Georgian [calendar] Years besides a comprehensive learning model to explain how learning and education in e-learning at the university might be; in addition to its psychological and educational basics and moreover the regula- 362 A. S. Weber tions and structure charts that organizes E-learning at the university, (Second Phase). In the third phase the Request bid documentation will be formulated and announced in a general bid of invitation of e-learning project for the companies in the coming years, which will be divided into two stages the first one lasting Three years, and then the other stage would be Two years” (IMSIU 2017). E-learning and electronic media are particularly important to this institution (which offers degrees in media studies, computer science, information science, and translation) since the university translates and publishes Arabic language materials in its goal to disseminate Islamic knowledge. The university houses its own publishing press and is affiliated with the UNESCO/US Library of Congress’ World Digital Library. The virtual institution Arab Open University (AOU), a branch of the UK Open University, is a project of Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – he is the twen- tieth son of the founder of the modern Saudi state and serves as AOU’s Chairman of the Board. The UK’s Open University started as a traditional distance education institution and has evolved along with technology in education, originally employ- ing techniques such as television broadcasts, radio, recorded lectures on CD-ROM and DVD, snail mail correspondence, and telephone tutoring. Now the institution additionally employs online resources with a mixture of blended (physical resi- dency required for some programs or face-face meetings by videoconferencing) and purely online courses. Both OU and AOU endorse the same goals that generally underlie e-learning pedagogical philosophies – for example, providing greater edu- cational access to a wider range of learners for lower cost not only to promote national economic goals (more highly skilled workforces) but also for personal sat- isfaction and well-being. In addition, the AOU and OU promote the lifelong learn- ing paradigm, which many professional organizations, specifically medicine, are embracing throughout the Gulf region. Saudi has a large continuing medical educa- tion industry which employs e-learning and e-training for medical and health pro- fessional licensure. AOU opened in 2002, with its headquarters in Kuwait instead of Saudi Arabia, partly to emphasize its intended role as a pan-Arab institution. The KSA branch of AOU reports 15,455 current students, and 14,590 graduate students, studying in 130 courses in 2017 (AOU). The AOU Saudi branch offers courses in Business Studies, Computer Studies, Language Studies, and Education Studies. The AOU has estab- lished branches in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Sudan. The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (http://www.kacst.edu.sa), a science and technology consortia established in 1977, provides information tech- nology research essential to e-learning, such as the Center of Excellence for Wireless Applications (CEWA) and Center of Excellence for Software Development, as well as the Information Technology Program. KACST reports directly to the prime min- ister of KSA and “operates the internet backbone in Saudi Arabia as well as the local registry address space, and through its BADIR-ICT project, provides a national ICT technology incubator” (Al-Khalifa 2010c, 758–59). The King Abdullah Initiative for Arabic Content originated at KACST and was designed to produce Arabic lan- guage publically-available online educational resources. The lack of high-quality 16 Saudi Arabia 363 Arabic language learning objects, particularly in advanced subjects, has been fre- quently noted in MENA e-learning research and government reports. The initiative successfully launched an online Arabic version of the widely read science journal Nature (http://www.kacst.edu.sa), with a free online version and a paid paper version. KACST also coordinated the Arabic language instance of Wikipedia, also freely available online, by sponsoring and encouraging the translation of important Wikipedia articles originally written in other languages (http://www.kacst.edu.sa). The gender-segregated nature of Saudi education at all levels underscores the need for further development of distance education, virtual education, and e-learning. A shortage of qualified female faculty means that some women will need to be taught by male professors for the foreseeable future, but new technologies can maintain the desired gender separation while still allowing equitable access to con- tent and instruction (Mirza 2008). According to Al-Khalifa, “distance education is primarily applied where gender segregation is required in the various levels of pub- lic and higher education. Male instructors are only authorized to teach female stu- dents through distance learning technologies such as closed-circuit television, one-way video and two-way audio and broadcast” (2010c, p. 751). Female instruc- tors, however, seem to favor online pedagogies and technologies more than male faculty. A study by Al Ghamdi and Samarji reported that “female faculty members perceived less e-learning barriers than their male counterparts” (p. 27) and also identified lack of resources as a significant barrier to e-learning adoption in general. Alodail at the Albaha University confirmed these results with a survey of 45 instruc- tors, indicating that females had more positive attitudes to e-learning than males (2016, p. 126). The National Center for e-Learning and Distance Learning (NCeDL, also called NCeL) accessible at http://www.elc.edu.sa/ was established by the late King Abdullah. According to the Ministry of Education, “establishment [of the NCeL] also came due to overpopulation, lack of quantity and quality faculty, and to reduce wastage of funding (in the areas of accredited programs coordination, training methods, and production of educational aids etc.) and to satisfy the need to enhance the progress of education and learning, and to move these from outdated/traditional styles that fits in with some learners but not for others into a multitude of delivery options and aid resources facilitating learner comprehension whereas the learner is to choose his or her suitable learning style and immerse in it” (MOE 2017a). The goals of NCeL are listed as: 1. The promotion of e-learning and distance education applications in compliance with quality standards 2. Raising awareness of proper e-learning culture and understanding 3. Quality assurance of projects and programs for e-learning and distance education 4. Support for research in the fields of e-learning and distance education 5. The creation of national quality standards for the design, production, and pub- lication of e-learning practices 6. The provision of consultancies to other partners relevant to NCeL’s areas of specialization 364 A. S. Weber 7. The launch of national e-learning initiatives 8. Encouragement and coordination of distinguished projects in e-learning and distance education 9. The organization of meetings, conferences, and workshops that contribute to the development of e-learning and distance education 10. International cooperation with similar global organizations and bodies (2017). NCeL supports its own LMS called Jusur. Although new e-learning initiatives and research have now largely shifted to universities and individual schools them- selves, NCeL can serve as a clearinghouse and information resource for digital con- tent, technical content, training services, and advisory services. Jusur has also been adopted as the LMS at some Saudi schools and universities instead of options such as Moodle and Blackboard. Several studies on this LMS have been carried out, with Al-Khalifa (2010b) reporting high student satisfaction with ease of use, access, and user-friendliness. Al-Salum (2009) reported on language deficiencies (only Arabic and English support), and a study by Al-Judi (2011) found that faculty were not using it to design interactive online courses. Asiri et al. found that Jusur was tech- nologically viable and had experienced moderate usage rates in Saudi universities by 2011 and that the use of Jusur was strongly correlated with acceptance of new technology by faculty members (2011, p. 532). Albarrak et al. rated Jusur high in localization features, but Moodle and Sakai ranked higher in content creation and other features; the authors recommended the use of open source LMSs for Saudi education (2010, p. 672). The Saudi Electronic University was established in 2011 in collaboration with one of the earliest virtual universities in the United States, the University of Phoenix, along with universities in Minnesota and Ohio. SEU, operating on a blended model, offers bachelor’s degrees (and one MBA) in Computing and Informatics, Administrative and Financial Sciences, Health Sciences, and Science and theoreti- cal studies. According to its website, “the SEU is the only specialized university in distance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that offers both graduate and undergraduate degree programs along with life-long education [with an] environ- ment based on information and communications technology, e-learning, and dis- tance education. It will award academic degrees in programs and specializations compatible with the needs of the labor market and the requirements of development and lifelong learning, and will participate in building a knowledge-based economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and assist in conveying the Kingdom’s cultural message worldwide” (SEU 2017). Another entirely electronic university, Knowledge International University, was founded in 2007 by Sheikh Dr. Saad bin Nasr Ash-Shethry (former member of the Council of Senior Scholars, KSA). With programs in English and Arabic, the university offers a 4-year bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies (English) and bach- elor’s degrees in Sharee’ah and Quranic Studies (Arabic) (KIU 2017). The univer- sity does not accept students residing in KSA since it is not accredited by the Saudi Ministry of Education and students may take up to 12 years to complete the degree through part-time study. The course of study involves watching online videos, com- 16 Saudi Arabia 365 pleting reading material, and then passing online multiple-choice tests. No informa- tion on enrollment figures or number of graduates could be found on the Internet. Although a nonprofit university, KIU charges 975 USD per semester. Both religious scholars and researchers have demonstrated considerable interest in using e-learning for spreading knowledge of the Quran and Islam in the form of international elec- tronic proselytizing and as an effective means to train students in religious studies (Elhadj 2010; AlZoubi 2013; Basuhail 2013; Nada et al. 2013). Geographic disparities between modern urbanized cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah and rural desert areas, some of which are still close to the original Bedouin lifestyles, create opportunities for e-learning to provide equity in educational resources, as long as the government is willing to support broadband or mobile Internet access to remote areas, subsidize telecommunications charges, and help school students buy the necessary hardware such as basic tablets or laptops. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, and it ranks as the second largest country in the Arab world after Algeria. The large geographical area of KSA and large population, therefore, make national e-learning provision and support an extremely expensive proposition. E-Learning in Primary and Secondary Education Educational websites for prekindergarten children (edutainment) are available worldwide, but “Arabic websites designed and aimed to educate and entertain [Arab] children are still in their infancy” (Alhussayen et al. 2015, p. 2319). Thus development in this area could be promising, a growth area for the ICT sector in KSA, and provide employment for youth programmers. According to Alabdulkareem, social media use among middle school students in KSA is high, with WhatsApp widely used; however, “there are agreements that the use of social media is for socialisation only. The infrastructure is available, but the comprehensive educa- tional view is absent; the researcher suggests that there is a need for training to evaluate [students’] own use of social media, and to enhance the abilities to use available properties” (2014, p. 213). The early development of e-learning at Al-Bayan Girls’ School (http://www. albayan.edu.sa/), in Jeddah, illustrates some of the challenges, specifically gender and ethics based, in e-learning adoption. This school was chosen by the government as a model school for introducing technology into middle and high schools in KSA. The first step in the project to introduce educational technology was the digi- tization of the curricula. According to Mohamed et al., “because education in KSA is gender-segregated, the e-learning solution adopted by Al-Bayan prevents students from accessing the Internet. This restriction is made because of the fear that students would be able to communicate with the opposite gender. The same restriction is also meant to prevent students from accessing sites which are deemed by the authorities as immoral and incompatible with its cultural values. Though these cultural precau- tions represent a great challenge, even restricted versions of e-learning settings are 366 A. S. Weber expected to provide greater learning opportunities for the citizens in developing countries. This includes providing education to socially and culturally excluded communities” (2008, p. 6). Interest in MOOCs at all levels of education, including higher education, high school, and informal learning, is growing not only in Saudi Arabia but also across the Arab-speaking world. However, MOOCs rely heavily on learner self-motivation and autonomous learning, and much of the pedagogy in KSA has traditionally been ori- ented toward teacher-centered learning, and concerns obviously arise about students who may not be able to learn independently of a teacher or mentor or who are not able to accept peer critique, which is a common feature of MOOCs. Thus with respect to MOOCs, “one of the biggest concerns of [the] education community is the limited interaction between teachers and students” (Brahmi and Sarirete 2015, p. 608). E-Learning in Higher Education in Saudi Arabia A growing number of universities in KSA are establishing dedicated e-learning administrative units and programs. For example, “the E- learning Centre in the Deanship of Academic Development at King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals … was established in 2003, (http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/dad/elearn/about/ elearn.home.htm)” (Al-Asmari and Rabb Khan 2014). Additionally, according to Al-Asmari and Rabb Khan (2014), “the Deanship of Distance Learning, which was established at KAU in 2005, has embarked on online course delivery on print/ correspondence-basis. KAU uses language management system (LMS) and virtual classrooms to provide extra learning support for students enrolled in the first and sec- ond year of the basic science courses. It also contains a digital library of 16,000 e-books. KKU [King Khalid University] at Abha established its Deanship for e-Learn- ing and Distance Learning in 2006, which focuses on facilitating all courses online by 2012”. Other e-learning centers and administrative units include the Deanship for e-Learning and Distance Learning, founded at KSU in 2007, and the e-Learning Unit at King Faisal University inaugurated in 2008. E-learning centers can also be found at Effat University (Jeddah) and Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University (Dammam). Early experiments with online learning in higher education, such as those carried out by Dr. Al-Jarf circa 2005, revealed serious concerns obviously related to stu- dents’ complete unfamiliarity with online modes of learning. In an online EFL instruction course involving collaboration between King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh and Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) in Makkah, Al-Jarf reported “the interaction between the two groups was lacking. The students reported that they were inhibited and unfamiliar with online instruction. They had negative attitudes towards online instruction and collaboration with students from another university” (2005, p. 8). The evolution of e-learning capacity and use as well as student and instructor acceptance of this form of learning has been considerable in the past decade in KSA, although the situations and negative attitudes reported in the early e-learning scholarship still surface in recent research studies. Several universities 16 Saudi Arabia 367 have joined the OpenCourseWare Consortium, and universities such as Al Faisal University and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals share their courses online. King Abdulaziz University (KAU) (http://elearning.kau.edu.sa) has addi- tionally developed online courses for students. In medical education, specifically at King Saud University, College of Medicine, a survey by Al-Drees et al. of 341 medical students revealed poor utilization of fea- tures in the Blackboard LMS used at the school, and students faced difficulties in its use, prompting the authors to recommend mandatory training sessions (2015, p. 17). Additional concerns arose in a 2010 qualitative study of blended e-learning in Saudi universities by Alebaikan and Troudi, specifically the lack of teacher training in e-pedagogies and e-plagiarism (2010). Plagiarism was visible in student online dis- cussions in the form of “cut and paste” from the Internet. Fachartz et al. in a ran- domized controlled trial found that a blended-learning clinical course in family medicine at Taibah University medical school was more effective than the tradi- tional course (2013, p. 12). -Learning Education Programs, Degrees, Associations, E Certifications, and Accreditation The Saudi MOHE does not accredit international e-learning higher education degrees in KSA, and students cannot use these degrees for employment or applica- tion to graduate programs in KSA. However, online degrees from three Saudi uni- versities – King Faisal University in Al-Ahsa, King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, and King Saud University in Riyadh – are approved as legitimate degrees for all legal and employment purposes. As a conservative and traditional country in which all forms of change are a slow and deliberate process, KSA will undoubtedly fully adopt e-learning as a international education best practice, but regulatory frame- works, educational administration, and teacher training programs will need to be further developed. A Saudi Distance Learning Society (http://ssdl.kau.edu.sa) is headquartered at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but the society does not appear to have been active recently. Future Development Since many Saudis are sensitive about non-Muslim foreign nationals on their soil, e-learning potentially could upgrade their education systems to the standards of more developed nations while precluding the necessity of hiring highly trained for- eign teachers from abroad; however, e-learning is not a panacea for this issue, which additionally involves national development issues, negative attitudinal barriers to the teaching profession in Saudi, and the lower status of non-Quranic (secular) knowledge among the general population (Weber 2010, p. 19). Online degrees are 368 A. S. Weber not readily accepted by students and employers in KSA as they are most often not officially accredited; thus questions about their quality and value naturally arise. The autonomous learning paradigm required for self-motivation and success in purely online environments, especially MOOCs, was not a common educational philosophy in the pre-oil era in KSA as there were few books or libraries except for the Quran, and most Saudis were illiterate. With the advent of the oil era, however, the lack of technical skills among Saudis was apparent, and the government of KSA responded by building a public education system from the ground up and a technical training regime including specialized scientific universities, culminating in the world-class research institution KAUST. Al-Asmari and Rabb Khan in their comprehensive overview of e-learning in KSA (2014) identified the following primary challenges to future development of e-learning in KSA: Lack of a unified national e-learning strategy for the deployment of e-learning at schools, colleges, and vocational training centers Lack of e-learning value and benefits of new technologies in the minds of the older generation Lack of high-speed broadband access for Saudi learners makes e-learning an irritating learning experience Unfair disadvantage to the students living in remote areas compared to those liv- ing in cities Lack of sufficient e-learning resources to meet the diverse needs of the students and access to materials developed overseas Need to find a balance between quantity and quality of e-learning resources to be distributed to e-learners in all regions (p. 9). 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