ELEARNING VISION FOR Egypt: NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

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E-LEARNING VISION FOR Egypt NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

• By
• Mostafa M. Kamel, Ph.D.
• PfC-Egypt/IBM
• January 2003

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Introduction

• Egypt has a vision to become a globally
  competitive country by the year 2020.
• Egypts National ICT Plan provides the Roadmap
  for fulfilling this vision.
• Work Force Development is a key component of this
  Roadmap.
• E-Learning is an indispensable tool in this
  endeavor.

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The Strategic Objectives of Egypts National ICT
Plan

• To vastly accelerate Egypts economic and social
  development plan by turning Egypt into a
  knowledge society that produces, utilizes and
  exports ICT tools, applications and services
  through a private sector led and implemented
  program with the government acting to empower and
  facilitate private sector activities.

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E-Learning Definition "Technology-based
learning programs that are developed and managed
to be independent of the location of the learner
or the instructor and delivered with the aid of
the Internet or other electronic media"
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I. NEEDS

• K-12 Education
• Technical Education/Vocational Training
• Undergraduate Higher Education
• Post-graduate Education
• Professional Training and Certification
• Unemployment Alleviation Training
• Languages, Entrepreneur and Soft Skills Training
• Training for Women and Individuals with Special
  Needs
• Pre K-80 Learning

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• NEEDS K-12 Education
• Introduces children at an early age to the use of
  technology.
• Helps schools and teachers to integrate
  curricula and bring supplementary material to
  augment the learning process.
• Used both in school and at home by students,
  teachers and parents.
• Tool for in-service training for practicing
  teachers and school administrators.

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• NEEDSTechnical Education/Vocational Training
• High cost of purchase, operation and maintenance
  of laboratory equipment as well as the poor
  preparation of teachers and trainers yield low
  quality graduates.
• E-Learning Training of trainers and teachers
  without interrupting their teaching schedules.
• Laboratory experiment simulations can cut
  drastically the cost of procuring equipment.
  Thus, e-Learning increases the efficiency of
  utilization of laboratory equipment.

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• NEEDSUndergraduate Higher Education
• The quality of undergraduate education in
  universities and higher institutes is
  deteriorating due to the huge number of students
  imposed upon them.
• The situation is expected to get worse, since
  the government is changing the ratio between
  General Secondary School students and TEVT ones
  from 12 to 21.
• This could increase the number of new students
  seeking university enrollment by 50 in the
  2004/2005 academic year.

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• Therefore, through E-Learning
• Students may enroll, study, be examined and
  obtain degrees with minimum direct interaction
  with the university or institute.
• Different scenarios should be developed that
  take into account Egyptian peculiarities.
• Provide a fast track for curricula development
  and faculty member training through alliances
  between Egyptian and other "Brand Name"
  universities.

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• NEEDS Post Graduate Education
• Egyptian universities offer three types of post
  graduate degrees
• Diplomas, Masters of Science and Doctoral
  Degrees
• In addition Post doctoral studies, training and
  research opportunities for faculty members.
• e-Learning, coupled with university alliances,
  can be a powerful, cost-effective tool.

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• NEEDS Professional Training and Certification
• A globally competitive workforce requires
  world-class skills supplementing university
  education.
• Fast changing technology and knowledge
  accumulation define new sets of skills and make
  others obsolete.
• Local, regional and global job markets requires
  continuous honing of present skills and acquiring
  new ones which can be done through e-Learning
  which may lead to globally recognized
  certifications through universities,
  multi-nationals and specialized institutions.

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• NEEDS Unemployment Alleviation
• E-learning aimed at TEVT and some university
  graduates that have no employable skills.
• E-Learning can enhance Skills or change the path
  of graduates towards job market-needed
  specialties, such as ICT entry level skills,.

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• NEEDS Languages, Entrepreneurial and Soft Skills
  Training
• Proficiency in languages, especially English,
  entrepreneurial skills and other management and
  business skills are needed for all, especially
  those intending to start their own small
  businesses.
• Egypt may want to start its own crash mass
  English language training program. An important
  lesson here can be learned from the
  Internet-based program initiated by China.

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• NEEDS Training for Women and Individuals with
  Special Needs
• Through its inherently un-intrusive character,
  e-Learning can be used for teaching and training
  persons with special needs.
• Adult literacy education and special skills,
  especially for rural women, can also benefit from
  e-Learning.

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• NEEDS Pre K- 80 Learning
• Improving the quality of life through Education
  and the life-long acquisition of skills and
  knowledge is an inclusive birth-given right to
  citizens of all ages and in all walks of life.
• E-Learning is an indispensable tool in this
  respect.

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• CHALLENGES
• An on-going study on Egypt's e-Learning Readiness
  divides the challenges Egypt faces into
• Technology and Infrastructure Aspects
• Skills Sets for Maximum Impact Aspects
• Content Design and Content Delivery Management
  Aspects
• Social, Cultural and Psychological Aspects
• Legal Aspects
• Implementation Aspects
• Economic Aspects

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• CHALLENGES Technology and Infrastructure Aspects
• Egypt is still a low-penetration country for
  both PC density and Internet connectivity.
• A study should be conducted to determine
  technical and infrastructure needs for a large
  scale e-Learning program.
• That should include computer accessibility and
  bandwidth availability to different potential
  e-Learning users in schools, universities,
  government agencies, private enterprises,
  training centers and homes.

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• The mix of technology used should take advantage
  of the wide penetration of TVs and of the
  interactive capabilities of Nile Sat that can
  serve as a supplementary technology to the
  Internet.
• Locally produced CDs and video tapes can serve a
  supporting role with certified Internet testing
  centers a possibility.
• The human infrastructure components such as
  courseware scenario writers, multi-media
  developers, distance learning instructors and
  facilitators, etc.

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• Challenges Skill Sets for Maximum Impact Aspects
  
• To become a global contender in the ICT field,
  Egypt's present and potential skill gaps have to
  be analyzed.
• The analysis is to include the national,
  regional and international supply and demand for
  such skills.
• Egypt's success factors in fulfilling this
  demand are to be assessed, taking into account
  possibilities for immediate job creation as well
  as potential ones at home and overseas.

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• CHALLENGES Content Design and Content
  Delivery Management Aspects
• While e-Learning content for most topics is
  available in English on the Internet or with
  training providers, good quality Arabic content
  is hard to come by.
• Especially for K-12 supplementary material,
  localized university and culturally related
  courses, great effort is needed to develop Arabic
  Internet-enabled content.
• Content industry should be basically a private
  sector one, with minimum competition and
  interference from universities, ministries or
  other government agencies, except to provide
  needed regulatory and quality control frameworks.

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• Depending on the source of content, content and
  learning management systems may either by
  imported and, if needed, localized by
  universities or training service providers, or
  developed locally.
• Such delivery management system must include
  solutions to a wide variety of issues, such as
  training of Distance Learning Instructors (DLIs)
  and facilitators, in-service training of
  teachers, testing and certification as well as
  other technical and pedagogical issues that
  pertain to the quality control of the learning
  process.

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CHALLENGES Social, Cultural and Psychological
Aspects Egyptian students have acquired bad
study habits from their own school system. These
include memorizing expecting spoon feeding of
information, direct boiler plate testing, lack of
research and critical thinking capabilities and
over-dependence on private tutoring. Thus, the
majority of students are incapable of independent
learning and the creative acquiring of
information that is essential for e-Learning.
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• Students on all levels will first have to be
  taught how to learn independently and creatively.
  Also, society puts inordinately strong emphasis
  on degrees as status symbols, rather than as
  means of job creation and advancement.
• E-Learning in Egypthould culminate in accredited
  degrees.
• Assuring quality control over different
  e-Learning processes of certification will
  contribute to its high positioning in the job
  market which, in turn, will leverage parents and
  society at large to accept e-Learning degrees as
  well as the concept of paying tuition for
  e-Learning courses, even in governmental
  universities.

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• CHALLENGES Legal Aspects
• Legal protection of intellectual property rights
  of authors and content providers Without such
  legal protection and rigorous enforcement, local
  e-Learning content industry will never flourish.
• Degree accreditation and equivalency While the
  first may be decreed by the Ministry of Higher
  Education, the latter requires a cumbersome
  process through the Supreme Council of
  Universities.

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• CHALLENGES Implementation Aspects
• Suitable scenarios must be developed to reap the
  most benefits from e-Learning.
• A scenario that is solely dependent on the
  Internet may be less successful than a blended
  learning one that is more dependent on live
  instructors with the Internet used as a teaching
  tool.
• Instead of a live instructor, a different
  scenario may have a mix of technologies combining
  CDs with video tapes and live TV broadcast on
  educational channels.

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• Heavy use of after-hours school and university
  computer labs, NGO's technology clubs and private
  sector Internet cafés and training provider's
  facilities are options to offer e-Learning
  services to socially and economically
  disadvantaged strata of the society.
• In tackling such unconventional problems,
  similarly unconventional solution scenarios
  should be sought.

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• CHALLENGES Economic Aspects
• The financial aspects of large scale application
  of e-Learning should be considered in details.
• A business model should be developed that
  includes different cost alternatives and possible
  funding sources.
• Although the financial model heavily depends on
  the proposed technology mix and implementation
  scenario, it is clear that content development
  and intellectual property rights compensations
  will be the major running cost items.

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• Student tuitions and, possibly, government
  subsidy should offset these costs. A study
  conducted by the e-Learning committee at MCIT
  indicates that the annual cost per student would
  be quite affordable, as compared with the current
  Open University tuition.

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• Conclusions
• It is clear that Egypt needs e-Learning as a
  powerful tool in building a globally competitive
  workforce in ICT as well as other disciplines.
• The challenges outlined above are not
  insurmountable.
• Likely champions of e-Learning in Egypt appear so
  far to be the SCU, MoE and MCIT.
• The private sector should be given a leading role
  in developing and implementing e-Learning through
  alliances with international universities,
  multi-nationals and education service providers.