RIYADH — The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), in cooperation with several international institutions, has issued the second developmental international documentary study of e-learning in Saudi Arabia during the coronavirus pandemic, with the participation of 453,879 students, teachers, parents, and faculty members, including more than 387,000 participants from the public education sector, and more than 65,000 participants from the higher education sector.

Several international educational organizations praised the pioneering Saudi e-learning model, due to the Kingdom’s rapid response to the challenges imposed by the COVID-19, as well the Kingdom’s contribution to providing innovative solutions to provide high-quality e-learning, and the continuation of the educational process despite the repercussions of the pandemic on the education sector.

The study compared the Saudi Madrasati platform with the best seven global platforms and 174 countries, concluding that the Saudi platform outperformed its international peers and proved to be one of the best responses taken to address the pandemic challenges. Also more than 6 million users subscribed to Madrasati with a penetration rate amounting to 98%.

The study also recorded a clear increase in the levels of satisfaction with e-learning in the Kingdom among the educational sector staff, an indication that e-learning has become a strategic option for the majority of parents, students, teachers, and administrators.

This is in addition to their adaptation to the e-learning teaching pattern, recommending the sustainability of updating the relevant policies, regulations, and standards as part of an ongoing improvement process, in addition to providing professional development programs in e-learning, and educating students and parents on how to obtain e-learning, and support analysis and infrastructure development in the sector.

The National Center for E-Learning has supervised the various implementation stages of the study, in coordination with other international parties involved in the preparation process.

The study was implemented by OLC, with the participation of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the World Bank Group, the Association for Learning Technology, and The US National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA), the UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education (IITE), the European Distance and E-Learning Network, and the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee.

UNESCO chose the Kingdom among the top 4 global models in the field of e-learning, along with (South Korea, China, and Finland). —SPA