The College of Shari`ah and Islamic Studies held a distance training session via the WebEx platform entitled: "Quality Challenges of Distance Education in the University Environment: Skills and Requirements". The session was presented by His Excellency Prof. Aref bin Ahmad Al-Mikhlafi, Professor of Ancient History in the Department of History at the College of Shari`ah and Islamic Studies, on Thursday, 22 Muharram, 1442 A.H.

The session was attended by a number of teaching staff via the WebEx platform. Prof. Al-Mikhlafi embarked on the session by introducing himself and commending the organizers of the event. He then touched on the main topics of the session, including:

1. The concept of quality
2. The objectives and benefits of quality in distance education
3. Quality standards in universities
4. The most important challenges of distance education
5. Does every student have the required capabilities?
6. How can I reconcile education and distance learning with quality requirements?

The concepts identified by quality specialists vary from economic, research and educational concepts, all leading to the one concept that can be summarized as "freedom from defects".

Responsibility for this in the university environments covers the following areas: institution, infrastructure, professor, student, curriculum, outcomes). Among the themes of the session that His Excellency dealt with is "Quality Standards in Universities", which are as follows:

1. Quality standard of the academic staff member
2. Quality standard of the student
3. Quality standard of the curricula
4. Quality standard of academic programs
5. The criterion of the relationship between the university and society

His Excellency mentioned the obstacles to the success of distance learning, namely: barriers when using information and communication technology, obstacles affecting the quality of the educational process, human obstacles represented in the student and the instructor, as well as some other obstacles.

At the end of the session, the college thanked and appreciated the session presenter for his praiseworthy efforts.