Dr. Bakri bin M'atooq Assas, Umm Al-Qura University President, received today the excellence award for the open education, which the university lately received with the Saudi universities. He received it at the library of the University City in Al-Abediya. It was attended by Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Rashad Srougy, the Vice President for the Educational Affairs; Dr. Khaled Al-Mutairi, the Dean of the Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education; and the Deanship Vice Deans. The UQU got the award in the ceremony organized by the National Center for E-Learning recently, under the auspices of Dr. Ahmed bin Mohamed Al-Issa, Minister of Education, for launching the Saudi resources network “SHMS”,  as a part of the  Open Educational Resources national program, and handing the excellence award in the E-education “fourth edition” at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education. The award was handed by Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Asemy, the Deputy Minister of Education.

The UQU President lauded the achievements of the university, represented by the Deanship of E-learning, including its participation in this leading program and getting this award. He added that the Deanship contributed through its programs to enriching the knowledge content for the university students through the electronic network. He also thanked Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Rashad Srougy, the Vice President for the Educational Affairs, and Dr. Khaled Al-Mutairi, the Dean of the Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education, and all who exerted these efforts.

Dr. Srougy and Dr. Mutairi thanked the UQU President for his support to the Deanship of E-learning and Distance Education and to the Open Educational Resources Program, and for his encouragement to the university’s heads and teaching staff members for their effective participation in SHMS Platform, which is considered one of the leading projects.

Moreover, Dr. Mutairi highlighted that the Deanship will launch soon a training program about the participation in drafting the open educational resources in the framework of SHMS Platform.

It is worth mentioning that the UQU has participated in a number of programs and events that are related to the Open Educational Resources National Program, organized by the National Center for E-Learning, during the period between Jumada II 16-18, 1439H. This participation is represented in a program that aimed at training the members at the educational institutions on producing multimedia, in addition to another one that sought training members on leadership in the open resources and training the educational departments on posting the open educational resources on the Saudi resources network “SHMS”, as well as a workshop for presenting and discussing the national program strategy for the open educational resources. The UQU had an outstanding participation in this program through a delegation from the male and female sections that participated in a variety of events.