Tablet PCs and Microsoft technologies are powering the first e-learning project for students in Saudi Arabia at the Al-Bayan School for Girls in Jeddah. The project provides an outstanding electronic educational environment for Al-Bayan’s students and teachers. Features include allowing remote access to learning programs and the enabling of online collaboration between students and teachers. MGD Computer Systems, a Microsoft partner in Saudi Arabia, developed and implemented the project’s solution on Microsoft educational and platform products.
Al-Bayan School Principal Rifah Binladen said: “This project has been a great achievement, which we are extremely proud of. This is a bright example of how technology can deliver improved learning and teaching methods to help students get the most out of their education.”
Al-Bayan’s e-learning solution uses Microsoft Class Server, a powerful learning management platform, to enable teachers to deliver lessons and assessment over the web, view students’ achievement reports and target areas for student improvement. Maher Ragaa, CEO of MGD Computer Systems, said: “Al-Bayan students no longer carry textbooks and homework back and forth to school. Today, they can log on from their homes to the school server, solve and submit homework, access their textbooks, take notes, view their grades and teachers’ remarks and even have a live dialogue with their teachers and colleagues online.”
The solution also uses Microsoft Journal Note, a note-taking program that allows students and teachers to write notes, draw diagrams and copy information directly into the Tablet PC using a stylus and a touch screen. Muhammad Atef, Al-Bayan Project Manager, said: “While in a lesson, students can take notes on their digital textbooks or journals and retrieve, erase or re-use these notes as needed.”
“When I first saw the implementation, I was amazed with how Al-Bayan made such a change in learning and education at the school,” said Dr. Khaled Al-Dhaher, GM, Microsoft Arabia. “I was surprised and extremely proud that Microsoft had contributed to this learning, as development of Saudi youth is at the heart of our operation in this country. As with public sector organizations, our commitment to learning and education extends to private educational institutions that deliver such great initiatives in building the future labor force in the country. Al- Bayan’s e-learning experiment is a project that Microsoft Arabia is proud to be part of and would endorse its completion and duplication in other schools around the Kingdom.”