Identifying Good Practices And Successful Pedagogical Strategies Of Elearning In Saudi Arabia

Literature Review The definition of E-learning "Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to now the difference between light and nowledge." !lato. Such provious saying is a prophecy of what will be nown as the future e"earning. #s a matter of fact, electronic "earning $e%"earning& is a type of distance education or that is to say learning in a remote destination which utili'es the internet and online s ills as an intermediate to convey teaching. The following quote points out this meaning( "Moving from the one%room schoolhouse to the one%world schoolhouse is now a reality." )isco Systems . This quote means that learning is not *ust going to an instructor, although this is still required for getting assistance, and merely obtaining information from him+her within limited classroom walls. #s a substitute to this, one is to get nowledge outside these narrow boundaries and is no longer restricted by time or place. ,han $-../& also defined e"earning as an( "approach for delivering electronically mediated, well%designed, learner%centered, and interactive learning environments to anyone, anyplace, anytime by utili'ing the internet and digital technologies in concert with instructional design principles" $p.0&.)onsequently, his definition suggests that technology must serve the aims of conventional pedagogy. 1ence, we can say that distance learning happens when an instructor and students are separated by physical distance. 2n this case, the instructor can interact with his+her students through using audio materials, movies, documents and so on, all these presented online. Thus, the definition of education by distance or remote learning can be put as "the acquisition of nowledge and s ills through mediated information and instruction, encompassing all technologies and other forms of learning at a distance". 3urthermore, it is considered helpful for grown%ups who missed university learning, those who have restrictions and difficulties in place

and time or those who are physically disabled. This also can be pointed out in the following quote( "The best learning happens in real life with real problems and real people and not in classrooms." )harles 1andy. )onsequently, e%learning can help employees who need to enhance their awareness and increase their information to get the best training in their wor . 3rom another point of view, "e%learning is becoming a commodity. )ompanies are loo ing at e%learning programs li e a stapler or reams of paper%% it's *ust one item in their inventory." )lar #ldrich, 4artner 4roup ."ow and cheap in cost as it is it has, greater than before, made using and acquiring information technology for pedagogical aims much easier and more available. Moreover, the 2nternet helps remove the obstacles of place and time in the process of learning and teaching. 5sing the internet for electronic "earning provides numerous merits if compared with old%style methods of learning. #mong such merits are place and time elasticity6 ability to influence universal viewers6 rapid use and simple updating of content. 3urthermore, it is such an efficient e% "earning system that it can ma e a broad uprising in teaching that may give power to the public to educate the uneducated, offer *ob training courses to the inexpert, open a world of information to learners at all stages, and improve the learner understanding and awareness. 2t is a fact that "7ou can't teach people everything they need to now. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to now when they need to now it." Seymour !apert. 3rom here comes the significance of e%learning in the new era. 8n the internet, we can find information easily and at any time. 2t is always changing and growing. #s this quote implies, it is much better to eep information in an outer place that is easily reached. e"earning permits us to create this outer place for retrieving nowledge at the time of need. So we have to be in line with the new changes. 9e ought to be flexible to the new information. "earning through the internet is one of the greatest methods to convey new information to a great number of people. The significance of e"earning comes from its capacity to control results and presentations through sound pedagogical plan. Therefore,"e "earning doesn't *ust "happen": 2t requires careful planning and implementation;. #nonymous <%learning is such a flexible tool that learners can easily download and obtain information and experiences at any time and from any place. = The focus here is on understanding learning activity, moving beyond an

understanding of e learning as simply providing content and >learning ob*ects?, to thin ing about technology as central to contemporary learning and teaching processes, and seeing e%learning as part of the range of resources available to the professional practitioner.; !eter 3indlay, @2S) "earning and Teaching committee .This method has brought with it some unique merits. !ractical sessions and class lectures are turned into in%house learning matter. Modifying and enhancing e% learning content from classroom practice guarantees its significance to courses. 2n other words, it is more reasonable and much easier to moderni'e e%learning than to print resources again, train teachers again, and conduct classroom sessions again. Moreover, students can re%visit the content from time to time. 2mproved online demonstrations permit learners to thin over concepts and develop learning proficiency6 they can also ta e part in dynamical classroom activities. 3or that reason, e learning has grown to be the gigantic ob*ect to meet the demands of everyday life.