Title: An overview of the current state of OER movement in Saudi Arabia and the Arab World

Authors: Hend S. Al-Khalifa

Addresses: Information Technology Department, CCIS, King Saud University, P.O. Box 26964, Riyadh 11496, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Open educational resources (OER) is currently a worldwide growing trend fuelled by the advancement of the web. The wide adoption of this movement in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and many others shows how powerful and influential this movement has played. On the other hand, the Arab World suffers from a significant digital gap, and a serious shortage of Arabic OER that serve their educational and cultural needs. In this paper, we shed the light on the current movement of OER in the Arab World in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular as well as discussing the challenges and opportunities facing this movement in the Arab region.

Keywords: OER; Arabic language; learning objects; open educational resources; Saudi Arabia; Arab World; digital divide; education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJACMSD.2010.037141

International Journal of Arab Culture, Management and Sustainable Development, 2010 Vol.1 No.4, pp.309 - 317

Published online: 26 Nov 2010 *

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