Amidst international participations
PNU wins the Blackboard Catalyst Award for the Leading Change
Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University has received the Blackboard Catalyst International Award 2020 for the Leading Change. The award includes 7 different categories:
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Leading Change
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Community Engagement
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Teaching & Learning
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Inclusive Education
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Optimizing Student Experience
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Training & Professional Development
- Blackboard Catalyst Award for Student Success
The award honours the institutions that have developed practices or technologies to have an impact on learning outcomes, student performance, or academic progress.
The conference, which is held annually by Blackboard since 2005, aims to recognise innovation and excellence in the global community of practice, highlight the successes of users of the "Blackboard" system, and raise awareness through the educational industry by celebrating the achievements in the field of e-learning.
In its participation in this competition, Princess Nourah University was keen on highlighting the university's role and experience in the e-learning teaching through the e-learning management system (Blackboard) and enhancing the efficiency of the educational experience for the students.
In this regard, the university's Vice President for Educational Affairs, Dr. Nawal AlRasheed, said: “The process of transferring the academic courses started by specifying the courses that are traditionally taught which could be converted completely to be electronic and available via the e-learning system, then a committees was formed which included number of academics, content experts and educational designers to work in planning, consulting, writing content and designing, in conjunction with the training of faculty members involved in teaching e-courses widely in delivering curricula electronically".
AlRasheed added that a training and awareness campaign has been placed at the university for the students and a high-quality system for monitoring and technical and academic support has been established to ensure a rich e-learning experience for both faculty members and female students. Since this experience began, nearly 18 thousand students are enrolled every semester to study these virtual courses, which helped the university to reduce the number of members who are obligated to teach courses from 175 members to 38 members of the teaching staff and the capacity of the courses have increased from 50 students/class to 150 students per class.
AlRasheed pointed out that the university obtained a Quality Matter Certification for all courses for its international quality standards for designing the e-courses.
On the other hand, the director of the university's E-learning Department, Eng. Manar AlMuhaimeed, stated: “This new global achievement for the university confirms the excellence of the e-learning system at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University and the leadership support we receive because e-learning is one of the university's priorities."
AlMuhaimid added, "We have worked in the past few years to plan for the development and improvement of the e-learning through a set of programs to raise the rate of activating e-learning based on the performance indicators that are related directly to the university's strategic plan and support its vision to be a technology-enhancing university, so the result of those efforts from the faculty and staff of the e-learning department, the activation rate for e-learning has been achieved in the previous period (during the pandemic) approximately 99%, and this is an evidence of the university's success in leading change and raising awareness of e-learning for the university community at all levels. "
This comes in the light of Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University's keenness to contribute to build a knowledge society and strengthening the community with the best e-learning practices locally and globally through scientific research, while enabling students and employees of the university and society to acquire the skills and knowledge of the twenty-first century in the field of e-learning.
