Internat Penetration in the Middle East as of 2007 was 17.4 percent against the global figure of 20 percent. With such high penetration levels it is assumed that the use of technology in education is high in the region.

But through a survey conducted to perceive the attitude and perceptions of Young Arabs towards Online Education (OE), it was found that 55 percent (of the respondents) described their knowledge about OE within the Arab world as 'poor', while 28 percent confessed to being ignorant of it.

Mona Abdel Fattah Younes, Managing Editor of Teachers Network at the Supreme Education Council, who conducted this empirical research believed that one of the reasons why e-learning initiatives didn't work was because project initiators were not aware of the current needs, perceptions and attitudes of the target
audience.

Speaking about this research at the "ICT in Education" Conference, she said that social, economic, physical, and learning barriers exist in the workplace and in schools with regard to technology and its use at a distance.

Qatar Today spoke to her to find out more about her research, its objective and the challenges that are faced by online education.

Alarming Conclusions
The survey was based on two tools, a web-based and a virtual-focus group tool. The web-based survey was based on Survey Consol (a software) and it was in Arabic with a youthful, creative style with 39 questions in four pages. "Of the 8,500 mails sent out, 1,004 read it, 565 started answering the questions but dropped out and only 330 completed the survey."

The survey was predominantly answered by those in the 20-25 years age group, of whom 56 percent were male, 48 percent graduate/postgraduate students and 13 percent lived outside the Arab world, says Younes.

But the web-based survey was not entirely disappointing. "83 percent said they heard about OE more than two years ago, 65 percent referred to the internet for information about education technologies though 14 percent of survey respondents indicated that no information reaches them about any kind of innovation in educational technologies."

The virtual-focus survey was less encouraging. ?The participants of this survey declared that information about the issue is 'limited' or 'poor'."

But the most disconcerting was the response to a query on expansion of OE within the Arab world. "55 percent described their knowledge about OE within the Arab world as 'poor' and 18 percent confessed to being ignorant of it." One of the respondents pointed out rightly that traditional educational institutions do not allow students, to browse the internet.

"There is an overwhelming fear that students will be exposed to unwanted ideas or concepts. That is why, in most cases, teachers try to convince their students that everything that they see, experience or read online is not true," says Younes quoting one of the survey participants.

"The real problem lies in the fact that we have never treated computers or the internet as 'learning devices'. We have not viewed ICT as a means to develop ourselves academically and professionally." The participants also commented on the accreditation of these courses and this was pointed out as a hindering factor in using OE for advanced courses. "To pave the way for wide spread acceptance of this new innovation, OE, the issue of 'accreditation' has to be resolved. Accrediting degrees obtained online, by the relevant governmental authorities, will be a great motivator," recommends Younes.

Setbacks
Younes analyses the challenges of OE on the basis of the survey. "The absence of a strategic vision, to disseminate concepts like knowledge construction via collaboration, interactivity, sharing, reflection, critical thinking, etc, is one of the foremost challenges of online education in the Arab world." The other challenges, she says, are linguistic and related to infrastructure.

"Approximately 65 percent of Arab users are not comfortable in English and only 35 percent speak it. Arabic language web pages are a dismal 0.1 percent of the entire content of the web," she pointes out. "Low international bandwidth, high dial-up tariffs, lack of careful planning, lack of quality educational material, lack of capable tutors to support online learning, absence of business plans during the funding period, and total dependence on foreign aid are other hindering factors."

Here she cites an example where a University wouldn't accept an online qualification (Masters Degree  obtained from a well-known accredited Australian institution) she had earned, as it was not considered as suitable proof of her having finished it!

"Quality assurance is the major challenge due to its tight link to the issue of accreditation. Distance education institutions are to be blamed for not having undertaken the necessary efforts to establish national standards to assure academic quality of all processes conducted by the institution. "As a consequence, almost all Arab countries do not officially recognise higher education degrees obtained by distance learning. In short, there is still a negative attitude towards the workability of not only online education, but all sorts of e-learning, on the part of many decision makers."

The Qatar Angle
"Qatar's education system is undergoing an ambitious reform called "Education for a new Era" and thus this survey will be a vital tool in making innovations for this reform. My research focused on young Arabs from the age range 15-25, because I was interested to study the perceptions and attitudes of learners at secondary school level or already studying in a university. 

 This was because these learners are the most likely to opt for online education. They tend to have (unlike young learners or primary level learners) the needed skills, are more motivated towards the use of technology and are more independent in making decisions related to their learning and education. I was amazed to find out that the quantity of Qataris responding to my survey came third in number (after Egypt and Saudi Arabia). They showed high competency in using the internet and ICT in general, although they do not spend more than two hours online each day. They indicated that they used the internet to develop their skills. 

Like the other participants, the Qatari participants were also unaware of educational online initiatives in the region, and were very concerned about the issue of accreditation. They did not see the cost, but rather accreditation as the main factor that hinders them from engaging in online education."

An Ideal mix
On the debate whether online learning methods score over the conventional methods, Younes stresses that the two are not competing delivery modes but complementary methods of learning.