Welcoming Note
Dear Participants,
On behalf of the Forum Organizing Team, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the 3rd Annual Forum on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East.
For the third consecutive year, our conference is held in Dubai, but for the first time this year, it will be placed under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Patron of Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University.
'Bringing Global Quality to a Local Context', theme of the 2010 e-Learning Forum, reflects the importance we attach to building bridges to the outside world and creating connections with different cultures. The forum emphasizes systemic approaches of networked education and training where every region and culture participates in the construction of a knowledge society and economy according to global quality standards, while striving to preserve its own specificity, identity and values.
But the theme of this year reflects also the important change of scale and scope of our institution that evolved in February 2009 from eTQM College to Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University.
What a challenging year it has been for all of us…
Our focus on e-Learning excellence combines global and local expectations encompassing a wide range of the latest topics in research, design, implementation, and assessment of e-Learning performance. We are convinced that the local contextualization of global quality will depend on our capacity to bridge and balance the local to the global and to help overcome limited scale and restricted attitudes by thinking globally while acting locally.
All these complex and challenging issues are addressed in six Keynote Addresses by outstanding international researchers in the field, including on the first day of the conference Dr Narimane Hadj Hamou, Assistant Chancellor for Academic Development at HBMeU, Professor Dieter Euler, from the Swiss Centre for Innovations in Learning at the University of St.Gallen (Switzerland), and Professor Gilbert Paquette, Canada Research Chair in Cognition and Educational Engineering. On the second day of the forum, Professor Denise Kirkpatrick, Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning, Teaching and Quality at the Open University (UK) and Professor Walter R. Allen, Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA). And for the third day, Dr Julie Little, Senior Director, Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development EDUCAUSE (USA) and Professor Carmel McNaught, Director of the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (China).
Every morning, the forum offers a Discussion Panel on a topic related to the keynote addresses of the day. In a lively interaction with the keynote speakers, participants are invited to express their personal opinion on specific questions and issues related to these topics,using electronic voting devices and microphones.
The first Discussion Panel proposes to discuss ‘Bringing Global Quality to a Local Context’, the second one ‘Learning, Teaching & Quality’, while the third one addresses ‘Effectiveness of e-learning policies, implementation and delivery’.
On the afternoon of the second day, a Research Panel allowing to discuss research trends in quality e-Learning, will be chaired by Prof Mohamed Abd El Hafeez Youssef, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Scientific Research at Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University.
In addition this year, the forum will propose three Special Interest Groups in Corporate e-Learning, K12 Education and Higher Education.
During the first day of the forum, corporate best practices are showcased in the first Special Interest Group on ‘eLearning in the Corporate Sector’, involving major e-learning providers such as Xpert Learning, service providers such as Adobe and Apple, as well as organisations using e-Learning for their professional development and training, e.g. Emirates Airlines, ENOC, ADCO, Petrofac.
In parallel the same afternoon, a second Special Interest Group adresses ‘Technology in the Classroom’ issues, allowing for the discussion on Technology-Enhanced learning in the K-12 education context.
The third Special Interest Group on Higher Education, will be held during the afternoon of the third day, taking the form of a round table chaired by Professor Bruce Taylor, distinguished representative of the Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR). This round table will give participants the opportunity to outline issues of quality assurance in online education’, state of the art in UAE universities, and to discuss the way forward.
As usual, more than seventy research papers and case studies will be presented every day by the delaegates, in the context of thematic parallel sessions.
As in the previous editions of the forum, a set of six post-conference Capacity-Building Workshops will be offered on the third day, on topics such as situated-learning design, qualification frameworks or open and social learning. An innovation this is year is the availability of video clips of all keynote addresses in podcast format for display on mobile devices. And last but not least, this year for the first time, there will be four offerings of a three hours workshop for school teachers, purely in Arabic. With groups of twenty teachers at time, the workshop will discuss the integration of ICT in K12 traditional teaching set ups, using some examples of simple and straightforward technology-enhanced learning projects in the classroom as case studies.
As usual, the forum features a variety of Networking Opportunities and Special Events during which new initiatives will be announced, as well as an exclusive Gala Dinner on the second day of the forum, during which the best paper will be awarded.
The excellent conference program of the 3rd Annual Forum on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East 2010 is a result of the efforts of many individuals who contributed their time and expertise leading up to the event.
On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank all team members for their hard work in selecting an exceptional set of papers and presentations. On a personal note, I would also like to thank our colleagues of the organizing and production committees for their support and camaraderie.
We are indebted to the support of the conference sponsors including the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), our partners Xpert Learning, Arab Business Machines and Apple, GraphEastand Adobe.
Finally, and on behalf of the forum organizing team, I would like to invite you to take an active role in this forum by presenting your work, participating in the discussions, or simply honoring us with your presence. We hope you have a rewarding and enjoyable time at the 2010 Forum on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle-East.
Prof Alain Senteni,
Dean of the School of e-Education
Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University
