Education is the key to the growth and improvement of any country, according to Grainne Conole, professor of learning innovation at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

Conole was speaking at the third international conference on quality assurance in post-secondary education, which ended in Dammam yesterday.

“The negative connotations associated with distance-learning at Saudi universities must change,” she said.

She added that the labor sector must also accept distance-learning graduates and support them because “there is no difference between distance-learning and face-to-face learning.”

In her paper about skills-based courses as a means of enhancing curriculum effectiveness, she gave a broad overview of e-learning.

According to Conole, e-learning and face-to-face learning systems of education are both important.

However, the most important aspect of learning is preparing well-designed lessons that give students the best possible learning experience.

Conole said that those who cannot attend regular schools for reasons such as looking after children can benefit from online learning.

She stressed the fact that the conference shows the Kingdom’s commitment to education and to the role of high-quality learning and technology in particular.

New technologies offer new ways to communicate and collaborate and provide a valuable environment notwithstanding face-to-face sessions.

She denied that distance-learning was founded purposefully to serve as a money-earner. On the contrary, distance learning saves money. “The responsibility to create awareness on distance-learning falls on universities and educational institutions,” she said.