The College of Languages and Translation (COLT) at King Saud University has announced the launch of an e-learning program for English. The e-learning facility for English will be the first of its kind to be offered by any university in the Gulf region, said Dr. Nasser Saleh Al-Mansour, Chairman of the Language Unit Department at COLT. COLT has been a major teaching unit for English, and is currently engaged in conducting classes for more than 10,000 students of various colleges of the university in Riyadh. The English language distance learning facility will be a comprehensive program, expected to be completed in two phases, said Mansour, adding that it is expected to broaden opportunities for college-level Saudi students, who could log on to the university's program from anywhere and at any time. He said the networking and installation of software are currently ongoing. “The e-learning project is a computer-assisted communication and distant learning facility,” he said. “In the first phase of the project language laboratories and e-learning software networking are being installed.” “Our programs are all-encompassing. Once the system is in place, it will enable the students at King Saud University to log on anytime and from anywhere,” he said. A distant learner might engage in a number of e-learning activities through online chatting with those enrolled for the course, both old and new entrants, he said. “The e-learning facility will offer feedback to the students on the mistakes they make, thus giving them an opportunity to improve English language skills,” he said. “E-learning would broaden a student's understanding while sharpening his or her computer-assisted language learning skills from the comfort of home,” he said, adding that the user could download the assignments and upload the answer sheet for online group evaluation from his or her online classmates. The program is designed in a way that a group of online users (classmates) could assess each other's assignments before being uploaded for the teacher's review and evaluation. “The system is well equipped with examination modules to cope with online assessments of test papers,” he said. “The unit includes a facility for instant evaluation and notifying the students of their mistakes. It would provide feedback on correct answers, mistakes and final evaluation, enabling good coordination between instructor student.” He said COLT has a scholarship program, and currently two Saudi students are pursuing their higher studies in universities abroad in various fields including Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). “Two students, a man and a woman, are now studying at Queensland University in Australia and Durham University in England, respectively,” Mansour said. He added that both of them would soon complete their doctoral programs in CALL and join the e-learning section at the college. The college has recently employed 15 Saudis this year to work as teaching assistants, compared to none two years ago, he said. Mansour said the launch of English e-learning is just the beginning, while regular classes for English continue at the college. The unit has specifically designed general English programs for the colleges of Arts, Education, Food Sciences, Agriculture, Law, and Political Science. “We implement intensive English language training programs for the students of the Colleges of Medicine and Science, which are not e-learning courses,” said Mansour. A specialized English language course was launched for Computer Science students, which is aimed at teaching English-to-Arabic translation. “This was prompted by the fact that Arabization of computer science in the recent years has taken priority, and hence the launch of this course,” he said. Upgrading the Department of Archaeology into the College of Archaeology and Tourism two years ago was aimed at providing trained Saudi graduates for the Kingdom's tourism industry. “Just after three semesters, the first batch of graduates from the College of Archaeology and Tourism will graduate,” said G. Hamdoun, English program coordinator. The college, under the patronage of the Supreme Commission of Tourism (SCT), plans to produce a large number of well-trained graduates, who can find jobs as tourist guides in the Kingdom's burgeoning tourism sector, he said. COLT would offer English courses for students of the college. Currently, the Language Unit Department has set up a four-component program that includes courses in attentive listening, reading, grammar and writing skills for the students to be well acquainted with terms used in tourism and hospitality industry. However, he said the pre-university level (Secondary School) syllabus for English language should be revised and upgraded. __
