Activating E-Learning Platforms at UOB During the Study Suspension Period

Due to the current conditions, the University of Bahrain (UOB) has finished activating its e-learning platforms, and announced that Wednesday, 11^th of March 2020, shall be the first official day for e-learning and interaction between students and their professors to benefit in the study suspension period.

The Director of the E-Learning Center at UOB, Dr. Fay Abdullah Al Khalifa, stated that the Microsoft Teams and Blackboard platforms offer the possibility to download the scientific material for the course and share it with the students registered in the course, as well as allowing communication between students and faculty members, whether through discussion rooms or the live broadcast provided by the platform.

Also, she confirmed that UOB started using the Blackboard platform since 2009 to download teaching materials and for communication between students and their professors, and this platform is available to be used for e-learning purposes along with the Microsoft Teams platform.

Furthermore, Dr. Fay Al Khalifa explained that at the current time, all theoretical courses can be offered through these two platforms, and theoretical courses are those courses that do not require laboratories, workshops or halls, indicating that these two platforms are linked to the student information management system to facilitate their use and handling.

For her part, the head of the Computer Engineering Department at the College of Information Technology, Dr. Aisha Fuad Bushager, said that she started presenting her lectures to her students using electronic platforms and described the experience as “wonderful,” noting that the students “interacted with the new teaching method, which allows the professor to write on the whiteboard.”, and that students can choose to “raise their hand” to inquire or question or participate and intervene,” referring to the wide possibilities offered by e-learning with its advanced platforms.