Umm Al-Qura University
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 23-24 Jumada Al-Awwal, 1440 A.H., corresponding to 29-30 January, 2019 A.C., a training workshop was held on how to develop model e-courses. It was presented by Eng. Nu`man Ghanim on behalf of Blackboard Middle East Company (BME), and was attended by the deanship staff from the academic and technical teams. The workshop was held in the deanship training hall at Al-Abdiyyah Campus. The female staff of the deanship from Al-Zahir Campus also attended via live webcast. The meeting was held under the supervision of His Excellency the Vice Dean of Technical Affairs Dr. Ahmad Hamid, His Excellency the Vice Dean of Academic Development and Community Service Dr. Yasir Al-Hazimi, and Her Excellency the Vice Dean Dr. Hanaa Yamani.
It is worth mentioning that the Blackboard Company prepared standards and criteria for the model e-course, and training in the program has continued since it first started in the year 2000, with the aim of identifying and spreading the best practices for designing high quality courses. This training course comes within the frame of this program to introduce the major features of high quality courses in terms of design, assessment, support, communication, and interaction.
The course aims at enabling the deanship staff to acquire additional skills, and supporting their practices in the field of designing and developing educational courses using Blackboard tools. The major features in designing model courses can be divided into four points:
The attendees, male and female students, collaborated with the trainer, and there was a rich discussion on the features that could be utilized to arrange the e-courses in terms of quality. Participants also agreed that categorization of courses could be done in terms of quantity or quality, and that visions vary from one academic member to another.
All participants praised the deanship for holding such courses. They expressed their thanks to His Excellency the Dean of E-Learning Dr. Khalid Al-Mutairi, and to Their Excellencies the vice deans for providing them with opportunities like this for training, building up their expertise and exchanging experiences.
