The Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education held a training course for the academic staff on the Open Educational Resources Platform (SHMS), under the supervision of the Vice-Dean of Academic Development and Community Service, Dr. Yasser Al-Hazimy. It was presented by Dr. Al-Asaad Al-Samirani and Dr. Mundhir Al-Hamzawy.

The course was held in the training hall at the headquarters of the deanship in University City in Al-Abdiyyah, on Tuesday, 5 Rabi` Al-Awwal, 1440 A.H., corresponding to 13 November, 2018.

The course included a theoretical aspect that touched on the importance of open educational resources and gave an explanation of the creative community licenses that protect the rights of publishers and authors. It also introduced the most important supporters of the OER platforms and the world's leading educational sites.

The course also included a practical part that explained the SHMS platform, how to register in it, and how to participate by sending books or educational resources from different sites.

It is worth noting that the SHMS platform offers many tools for use by the faculty members, who can create new OER content to meet the needs of the students. It also helps them find educational resources, and amend them to create their own content. SHMS also provides its practitioners with the ability to create groups for those who have similar educational subjects, so that teachers from different educational institutions can publish in the same specialization group.

His Excellency the Dean of E-Learning and Distance Education, Dr. Khalid Al-Mutairi, pointed out that the deanship has prepared a rich program that includes training sessions to introduce the open educational resources, in general, and the advantages of the SHMS platform in particular, for the male and female sections.

At the end of the course, the participants extended their thanks and appreciation to His Excellency Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, the UQU President, and to His Excellency Dr. Abdul-Aziz bin Rashad Al-Surujy, the University Vice President for Educational Affairs, for their support of the Open Education Resource Project, with Umm Al Qura University's involvement in the leading project of the SHMS platform.