An international specialized study has included the Saudi Arabia electronic learning platform, Madrasati, among the best seven global platforms in 174 countries.
The study showed a promising future for e-learning in the Kingdom and was conducted by the Online Learning Consortium.
Madrasati was a successful e-learning solution used in developed countries during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as it attracted more than 6 million users worldwide with an access rate of 98 percent.
The International Society for Technology in Education, the World Bank Group, the Association for Learning Technology, the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements in the US, the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, the European Distance and E-Learning Network, and the OER Advocacy Committee were among the organizations that participated in the study.
Online Learning Consortium issued the second international developmental documentary study for e-learning in Saudi Arabia during the pandemic and it included 453,879 students, teachers, parents and faculty members. Of that figure, more than 387,000 participants were from general education and more than 65,000 participants came from higher education.
A number of reliable international educational organizations praised the pioneering Saudi model in the field of e-learning worldwide, given the Kingdom’s distinctive capabilities and rapid response to changes and its contribution to offering innovative solutions to provide e-learning with high efficiency.
They also hailed Saudi Arabia for its continuation of the educational process despite all the challenges imposed by the pandemic on the educational sector. The study recorded a significant increase in the levels of satisfaction with e-learning in the Kingdom among the educational system’s employees.
It also showed a significant development in the digital skills of employees of the educational system, the contribution of the shift towards e-learning in showing and improving their digital skills, and strengthening the institutional culture on the importance of e-learning.
Moreover, the study confirmed that the outcome of e-learning is equivalent to regular education and highlighted the high efficiency of teachers through e-teaching.
It recommended the continuous updating of policies and educating students and parents on how to have access to e-learning. It also urged for adaptive education, support analysis and infrastructure development in the sector.
The link to the Madrasati platform — used by over 5 million students in more than 22,000 schools — saw some 489 million visits in nearly four months starting from September 2020.
The platform also made it possible for the students to attend 86.2 million online lessons during the first semester of the last academic year.
In addition, the educational platform still provides more than 62,000 diverse educational resources and interactive experiences that support both the synchronous and asynchronous learnings.
Through the platform, more than 2.5 million exams forms were created and sent to the students during the first semester last year.
Moreover, the platform supports the teachers with more than 100,000 questions in most courses, and allows the teachers to create their own questions for their students.
Through Madrasati, school principals and supervisors can closely monitor the students’ learning process as well as the performance of their teachers, provide support, and take corrective actions, based on reports and indicators.
The Madrasati platform is supported by six educational channels for elementary school students, three for intermediate school students and 10 channels for secondary school students.
Moreover, there are three channels for private education students with impairments.
It is noteworthy that the National Center for E-Learning has supervised the implementation of the study in all its stages, in coordination with the international parties participating in its preparation.
UNESCO chose the Kingdom among the top four international models in the field of e-learning, along with South Korea, China and Finland. It also adopted the evaluation framework prepared by the National Center for E-Learning, through the international study carried out by the organization for the best global practices in e-learning.