Transforming Education in the Gulf Region

This book focuses on the role of emerging technologies and innovative pedagogies in transforming education in six Gulf countries. It has become increasingly evident in recent years that countries in the Gulf region need to use emerging learning technologies to cater for the needs of learners and to provide maximum flexibility in learning.

Khalid Alshahrani has a PhD in e-learning from Monash University and MA in TESOL Studies from the University of Queensland, Australia. As an Assistant Professor, he has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses - including at the Saudi Naval Academy and Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University (HBMSU) in the Gulf region - related to e-learning and language teaching since 2003, both face-to-face and online. He is currently leading the National Academic Talent Development Program (NATDP) at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. His current research interest lies in the new and emerging technologies and how it plays out with the existing practices and norms of teaching and learning. Dr Alshahrani has published a number of book chapters and articles and actively participates in local and international conferences.Mohamed Ally is Professor in the Centre for Distance Education and Researcher in the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University in Canada. He was Director of the Centre of Distance Education and Director of the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University. Dr Ally obtained his PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada. His current areas of research include mobile learning, e-learning, distance education, problem-based learning and use of emerging learning technologies in education and training.

Foreword Preface Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives 1. Adapting Technology Enhanced Learning to Students' Culture: Faculty Perspectives 2. Situated Learning, pedagogic models and structured tasks in blended course delivery 3. Technology-enhanced language instruction: Are we in the loop? 4. Blended Learning: A promising Learning and Teaching Approach for Higher Education Institutes in the Arab States of the Gulf : A Proposed Open System Model 5. A Conceptual Model for the Effective Integration of Technology in Saudi Higher Education Systems Section 2: Practical Applications 6. Mobile Learning in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: Theory and Practice 7. PresentationTube: A Network for Producing and Sharing Online Video Lectures at Sultan Qaboos University 8. Initiatives to Innovate Education to Prepare Qatar for the Future 9. Use of Social Media in Technology Enhanced Learning 10. Student Centred Learning Analytics Dashboard to Empower Students to take Responsibility for their Learning 11. Flipped Classroom as a Form of Blended Learning 12. Managing the Change During E-learning Integration in Higher Education: A Case Study From Saudi Arabia 13. MOOC in the Arab World: A Case Study 14. Smart Classrooms in the context of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) environment: A Holistic Approach Section 3: The Future 15. Towards Teaching and Learning Mathematics using Mobile Technology 16. The Future of Mobile Learning and Implications for Education and Training Epilogue: Looking to the future