Readiness For Shifting From A Traditional Higher Education Learning System To An E-Learning System: A Case Study From The Sultanate Of Oman

Abstract

The Ministry of Higher Education in the Sultanate of Oman initiated recently a restructuring program for the General Directorate Colleges of Education aiming to replace the existing six colleges with more applied and highly IT assisted institutions. A particular emphasis is directed towards improving the learning methods by developing and implementing a unified Learning Management System (LMS), which will serve the new form of these colleges. Such system is particularly intended to improve the e-learning skills in the six Colleges of Education. Each college has a Learning Resource Center (LRC) that provides IT services for about 1500 students and 150 staff members. During the past few years, the LRC at Nizwa College of Education (NCoE) has exerted many efforts in upgrading such services to the benefit of the college community. The discussion in this paper will be based on Nizwa LRC as an example, reflecting uniformity among the six colleges of education. This paper analyzes the readiness of the current learning system for the gradual shifting to a more IT assisted teaching system. First, the paper describes the evolution of the Intranet and Internet services in the college. Second, the steps realized in expanding and upgrading IT are described. Third, an evaluation of the available services and users is presented. This is supported by the analysis of the experimental implementation of an open source LMS, the "Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment" (Moodle) to assess the effectiveness of Moodle as a learning facilitator. Finally, recommendations on how to improve the outsourcing of these services are given. Aspects of the services provided by the LRC will be discussed through different users’ perspectives.