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Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580

1st International Conference on Energy and Power, ICEP2016, 14-16 December 2016, RMIT
University, Melbourne, Australia

Prospect of eLearning in higher education sectors of Saudi Arabia:

A review
Abdulaziz Aldiab, Harun Chowdhury*, Alex Kootsookos, Firoz Alam
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia

Abstract

The number of internet users in Saudi Arabia has increased rapidly from 7.7 million users in 2008, to 21.6 million in 2015. This
is a result, in part, of the Saudi government’s investment in information and communication technology infrastructure. In
addition, the Saudi government spends between a quarter and a third of its budget on education every year. However, even with
the number of Higher Education institutions increasing in Saudi Arabia, a significant number of students miss out on a place at a
University. ELearning is one way to provide accessibility to more students and to overcome cultural barriers which may prevent
some citizens from perusing a university qualification. This paper will focus on higher education in Saudi Arabia, in particular,
the advantages and advances which are occurring in this country in terms of eLearning. Supportive departments created to help
the educational processes to move toward eLearning, such as the National Centre of ELearning and Distance Learning and the
Saudi Digital Library will be described and examined. Challenges in the field of education will then be examined and whether
these challenges can be overcome by utilizing effective eLearning.

©
© 2017
2017TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published Ltd. Ltd.
by Elsevier This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 1st International Conference on Energy and Power.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 1st International Conference on Energy and Power.
Keywords: eLearning; Saudi Arabia; Tertiary Education

1. Introduction

Within the literature of learning and teaching, the term “eLearning” is often used interchangeably with other
terms such as “online learning” and “distance learning”. Clark and Mayer [1] define eLearning as “Instruction

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61399256103; fax: +61399256108.

E-mail address: harun.chowdhury@rmit.edu.au

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 1st International Conference on Energy and Power.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.187
 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580 575

delivered on a digital device (such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet or smart phone) that is intended to
support learning”. This clarifies what eLearning actually is and shows that eLearning can indeed be different from
“distance learning”, which can also be performed using paper communication [2-3]. Other sources show that
eLearning can be categorized by its primary purpose as technology-driven, delivery-system-oriented,
communication-oriented or educational-paradigm-oriented. Similarly, Garrison [6] points out that it is not easy to
provide a complete definition of eLearning due to (in part), the rapid improvement of technology. For example, he
even refers to the idea that the letter “e” can refer to “extending and enhancing” the learning experience rather than
just meaning “electronic”.
With a substantial increase in both the number of internet service providers in Saudi Arabia and the number of
imported mobile technological devices purchased, the Saudi Arabia government has set as a priority the use of new
electronic systems, to replace the old paper systems. There is clear evidence of this in the way government
departments work. In addition, the Saudi government requires that all higher education institutions, whether public
or private, establish a deanship of eLearning and distance learning. In addition, the ministry of education has created
the National Centre of eLearning and Distance Learning in order to support progress in this area. The establishment
of the Saudi Digital library by the government is another support mechanism aimed at modernizing the information
systems in Saudi Arabia. The “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program 2020” also
places emphasis on national plans to provide a variety of learning methods in the higher education sector, including
eLearning [5]. For the residents of Saudi Arabia, eLearning is seen as one way professionals can improve their
employability, remain current in their field and achieve their career aspirations. eLearning can be designed to be
flexible, without the barriers of set time and location [6]. Currently, eLearning in Saudi Arabia is either completely
“distance mode” or embedded in a “blended” delivery style. This paper will examine the advantages of eLearning
for Saudi Arabia and examine the challenges the implementation of eLearning will put on education institutions
within that nation.

2. The current status of higher education in Saudi Arabia

2.1. Education Providers

Higher education in Saudi Arabia is provided mainly by public and private universities and colleges including
some other higher education institutions such as Technical and Vocational Training Corporation. The term “Public
universities” refers to universities that are funded by the government and in most cases they are free for the citizens.
Private universities and colleges may be options for students who could not find an opportunity in public
universities; could not choose a specific course; or for foreign students.
The qualifications in Saudi Arabia can be divided to 7 levels as the National Commission for Academic
Accreditation & Assessment (2015) refers[7] to them:
x Entry. Completion of secondary education;
x Level1. Associate Diploma;
x Level2. Diploma;
x Level3. Bachelor;
x Level4. Higher Diploma;
x Level5. Master;
x Level6. Doctor.
Most of the institutions offer a variety of courses starting from basic sciences such as Physics, Chemistry and
Mathematics to a number of specialized courses such as Engineering and Medical Science. In Saudi Arabia, there
are 29 public universities with more than 133 campuses distributed across the whole country. The number of
campuses was calculated by counting one campus per city; however, some universities have more than one physical
campus in the same city. Moreover, there are 10 private universities located in six different provinces. In addition,
public colleges can be divided into four main categories which are: (a) Technical and Vocational Training
Corporation with more than 56 colleges, (b) The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu with 5 colleges, and (c)
Institute of Public Administration (IPA) with 4 campuses and Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences
576 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580

Dhahran as a specialized collage. Finally, there are 20 private colleges, with most of them providing specialized
courses for higher education.

2.2. The infrastructure & internet users

Saudi Arabia has invested in the infrastructure needed for Information and communication Technology (ICT),
with the result that the number of internet users in Saudi Arabia increased from approximately 200,000 users to
around 7.7 million users in 2008 [8]. Indeed, a recent report from CITC (Communications and Information
Technology Commission) in Saudi Arabia [9] shows that the number of Internet users in Saudi Arabia reached about
21.6 million in 2015. In the same year, there were more than 53 million active subscriptions to mobile services. This
had produced a positive effect on the ICT industry, with strong competition between the different
telecommunication operators.

2.3. The National Centre for eLearning and Distance Learning

One of the earliest steps the Saudi government took to promote eLearning was the establishment of the National
Centre for E-Learning and Distance Learning (NCeDL) in 2005. Its major objectives are to promote e-Learning and
distance education of a standard which complies with all quality requirements; provide support for research in the
fields of e-Learning and distance education; and to encourage and coordinate significant projects in e-Learning and
distance education [10]. One of the most significant outcomes of (NCeDL) is Jusur, an online application that was
created in 2007 as Learning Management System (LMS). Since then it has been developed, maintained and
controlled by the NCeDL. In addition, NCeDL is responsible for providing training courses to academic staff
members at the Saudi universities in order to utilize eLearning in their courses, especially how to deal with Jusur
[10].

2.4. Saudi Digital Library (SDL)

The Saudi Digital library is a part of the Ministry of Education which was previously the Ministry of Higher
Education, before they merged in 2015. The main purpose in creating this library was to support eLearning in the
tertiary education sector and the Saudi Digital Library is currently the largest digital library in the Arab world, as
shown in their official website [11]. It has more than 310,000 digital books and receives the support of more than
300 global publishers [11]. The library provides information resources and services via the digital library portal,
thereby meeting the needs of both students and academic staff in Saudi Arabia. The library is also developing a
“speed digital environment” which both allows academics to publish faster and have access to the most recent
scientific discoveries. The electronic resources cover both books produced by global universities and books
produced by commercial publishers.

2.5. Saudi Electronic University

Within Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Electronic University (SEU) is committed to deliver most of its activities online.
(See Figure 1) [12]. The University was established in 2011, in the capital city, Riyadh and it now has ten campuses
in different cities in Saudi Arabia. SEU ensures that most of its courses are delivered via eLearning, distance
learning and Blended Learning and one of its important goals is to provide a sustainable eLearning environment to
the whole country. The university provides programs for undergraduate (bachelor degree) and postgraduate (master
degree) qualifications, for both male and female students. The university has increased its popularity among new
graduations as it has in 2015 more than 19,000 students, including around 7,000 new students [12]. As of 2015, the
university provided 6 bachelor programs and 3 master programs, mainly in administration and finance; computing
and information technology; health sciences and art. Additionally, Figure1 shows the technical environment of the
SEU and clearly demonstrates that the student is the centre of the whole process and that there are many
technologies involved such as a Learning Management System (LMS) (i.e. Blackboard); email; and online videos
which can be viewed from different browsers and from different operating systems. Surprisingly, although
 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580 577

engineering and its related courses are popular in most of the Saudi universities, the SEU does not provide any
engineering courses. This may be due to a lack of understanding of how best to apply eLearning concepts within an
engineering curriculum.

Fig. 1. The technical environment of the SEU [12].

2.6. eLearning status in Saudi universities

One explicit government policy has been to require that Universities appoint a Dean of eLearning and Distance
Learning. These deans are required to develop the institutional capacity for eLearning and to transform both courses
and programs so that these can be delivered via distance learning, online learning or via a blended learning
environment [13]. The deans are also responsible for ensuring the University has a stable and sufficient
infrastructure to support productive and high quality delivery of both courses and programs [13].

3. Importance of Education in Saudi Arabia

Education in Saudi Arabia is a high priority and occupies between a quarter and a third of the government budget
every year. Between 2014 and 2016, it is clear that the government increased the educational and training portion, as
it spent around US $53.9 billion (SR202b) in 2014, followed by about US$ 55.5 billion (SR 208 b) in 2015 and
US$57.3 billion (SR215 b) in 2016 [14]. Fig. 2 shows the education budget of Saudi Arabia in those years. As a
result, the number of schools and universities in Saudi Arabia increased and Universities were able to establish more
campuses. Examples of Universities established in 2015 are Jeddah University, Hafr Al-Batin University and Bisha
University.
578 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580

57.3

55.5

53.9

2014 2015 2016

Fig. 2. The Government spent on Education between 2014 and 2016 in billion US dollars.

In terms of the number of people participating in education, there are 7.5 million students currently involved in
education and training, with around 1.5 million of these in the higher education sector [14]. Of those involved in
higher education, 778,394 are male and 749,375 are female. This student population is spread across more than 60
institutions, 35 of which are public and 30 which are private [14]. In terms of future generations of higher education
students, there are currently more than 23,000 public schools and around 3650 private schools [14]. However, there
is an increasing gap between the number of students graduating from high schools and the number students being
accepted into tertiary education [15]. In 2014, the records show that there were about 491,166 students completing
high school across the whole country [16], yet in the following year, 2015, out of that number, there were around
335,250 students who found an opportunity to continue their further education which was divided by, 293,750
students studying in public tertiary education institutions, 22,500 students being accepted in private colleges and
19,000 students studying abroad [14]. This implies that over 150,000 people could not find a place at a higher
education institution. Potentially, these people may be employed and unable to attend university in a fulltime
capacity. Alternatively, it may be that the gender segregation required by culture inhibits some people from
attending University. In both of these instances, eLearning may provide a means for delivering a University
education to people who would otherwise miss out. In an effort to encourage the education sector to embrace
eLearning, the Saudi government has established several key organizations.
Recent statistical data presented in Fig. 3 shows that almost two third of the entire population of Saudi Arabia
live in three major provinces: Makkah, Riyadh and Eastern Provence. Fig. 4 and 5 show the non-uniform
distribution of campuses across different provinces in Saudi Arabia in 2015. Therefore, there are possibilities to
adapt the eLearning system to remote areas where there is no campus or a very few number of campuses in order to
provide studying opportunities to all regions.
N
Najran Aljawf AlBaha Northern Border
Tabukk 2% Hail 2% 1%
3% 1%
2%
Qa
Qassim
4
4%
Jazan Makkah
5% 26%

Medina
7%

Asir
7%
Riyadh
Eastern 25%
15%

Fig. 3. Political map and population percentage of Saudi Arabia in 2015.

 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580 579

25 9.0

Population (in Million)

8.0
20 7.0
6.0
15
5.0
4.0
10
3.0
5 2.0
1.0
0 Northern
0.0
Makkah Riyadh Eastern Asir Medina Jazan Qassim Tabuk Hail Najran Aljawf AlBaha
Border
Private College 7 6 3 1 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0
Private Uni 4 5 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
Public College 2 2 6 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Public Uni 6 8 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1
Population (in Million) 8.1 7.7 4.7 2.2 2.0 1.5 1.4 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.4

Fig. 4. Numbers of education providing campuses in Saudi Arabia in 2015.

7 140
6 120
Number of Campuses

Population density
5 100
4 80
3 60
2 40
1 20
0 0
Asir

Hail
Qassim

Jawf

Northern Border
Eastern

Tabuk

Bahah
Makkah
Riyadh

Jazan
Medina

Najran

NoC per Million

Density

Fig. 5. Population density and number of campuses in 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia in 2015.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

In conclusion, this paper presents the current state of higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in
particular the use of eLearning to deliver programs and courses. In addition, it describes some challenges in the
educational system and how eLearning could be a part of the solution. It is clear that the government favours
eLearning due to its establishment of such centers and resources as the National Centre of ELearning and Distance
Learning (NCeDL) and the Saudi Digital Library. Currently, eLearning is used to deliver information technology
programs; finance programs; and arts programs, but there are few programs based on eLearning for the engineering
discipline. Further research will be conducted to determine how to implement eLearning within the field of
engineering because there is a high demand for engineering qualifications in Saudi Arabia.
580 Abdulaziz Aldiab et al. / Energy Procedia 110 (2017) 574 – 580

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