JEDDAH, 2 March 2004 — Effat College’s seminar on e-learning is attracting a great deal of interest. Some 500 people have already registered for the Second Annual Learning and Technology Symposium, which starts today.
“We encouraged those interested in attending to register early but we will keep registration open until Tuesday morning,” said Dr. Haifa Jamal Allail, dean of Effat College and head of the organizing committee.
Following the success of the first symposium, which was much smaller, the second symposium will feature local and international professionals in the field of e-learning and appeals primarily to teachers in private and government institutions.
Princess Lolowah Al-Faisal, the vice chair of the board of trustees, will preside over the opening ceremony tonight. Suad Al-Juffali will be the keynote speaker.
An open discussion on the application of technology in Saudi Arabia’s education institutes follows, where Dr. Ahmed Al-Saif, director of Prince Sultan Private University, will chair a panel consisting of Dr. Mazen Balilah, dean of business administration at the University, Hussein Shobokshi, president of Hussein Shobokshi Research and Consultation Center, and Kerry Laufer, assistant to the dean at Effat College.
The theme of the symposium is “Technology: the Way to Global Learning.” It will see two full days of interactive presentations, workshops and panel discussions.
The presentations will focus on the essentials of e-learning and its potential for improving teaching and learning as well as suitable online teaching methods and how to incorporate them in the learning process.
They will be integrated with workshops on how to research, find, analyze and apply information, designing effective e-learning, the skills needed for learning facilitators and many others. A final panel discussion on Thursday will conclude the symposium.
