Open Education Consortium to offer comprehensive eLearning courses for women

The Open Education Consortium, a global organization of hundreds of higher-learning institutes, announced a partnership with the National eLearning Center of Saudi Arabia to offer a comprehensive, year-long eLearning Pioneers Program.

The program is built on American principles of online learning and is intended to give female faculty and university leaders skills in online and blended education. With a strong foundation in eLearning tools, techniques and mentoring, teachers will have the opportunity to incorporate U.S.-based pedagogical strategies into their institutions.

The goal is that eLearning techniques will be used to provide better educational opportunities for Saudi girls and women.

"Higher education has not yet fully embraced all the opportunities that the digital information age provides to students and faculty," Manal Al-Dahash of the National Center for eLearning said. “The eLearning Pioneers program will help our female faculty and university leaders embrace technology-enhanced education, which will better prepare our students for the twenty-first century."

Participants can specialize in either leadership or instructional excellence. The leadership track is designed for administrators and faculty who develop and implement curriculum, assess teaching and learning goals, and make decisions about online learning.

The instructional excellence track is geared toward those who incorporate online learning and technology into their established teaching programs.

"The impetus to bring Saudi Arabian female teachers to the U.S. to learn our teaching strategies is strong,” Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the Open Education Consortium, said. “For the first time in history, we can give [female] teachers the opportunity and the edge that they need to lead education practices in Saudi Arabia.”