Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works

Considering the education-to-employment system as a highway with three critical intersections -- enrolling in postsecondary education, building skills, and finding a job -- this research has determined places where students take wrong turns or fall behind, and why. With increased data and innovative approaches, employers, educators, governments and youth can create a better system

Universities in Arab countries

Half the Arab universitiies in existence today were established after 1970. Enrolment has increased rapidly, leading to overcrowding, unqualified faculty, and insufficient equipment and facilities. Several Arab nations have moved to control (in some cases, to reduce) enrolment. They have done this partly because of the fall in oil revenues, and partly in recognition of the problems related to the rapid growth of the university systems. As student enrolment expanded rapidly, the quality of education suffered and many universities became less attractive to highly trained faculty. This pattern has contributed to the national and regional brain drain. The cost of underwriting university education at a time of slow economic expansion raises the issue of whether it is better to have unemployed high school graduates or unemployed university graduates.Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education,Girls Education,Curriculum&Instruction

Factors that affect faculty attitudes toward adoption of technology-rich blended learning

Universities worldwide are transitioning to blended learning where technology is used to enhance and augment traditional face-to-face instruction. Investigation of how well blended learning strategies are accepted and adopted in multicultural settings is needed to facilitate this transition. This study investigated factors and barriers that influence faculty attitudes toward the adoption of technology-rich blended learning at Jazan University in Saudi Arabia. The influence of faculty incentives, faculty's technology experience and demographic variables including gender, academic rank were important considerations. In his Diffusion of Innovations model, Everett Rogers identifies five stages in the adoption process: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. The amount of time that transpires before adoption is influenced by several factors including readiness of the adoptees, perceived barriers and incentives. Knowledge of technologies may influence readiness for adoption of blended learning. This study employed a mixed method approach using quantitative and qualitative data. Participants were 303 faculty members (234 male, 69 female) from 36 departments. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, simple and multiple regression analysis, and correlation coefficients were employed. Faculty reported positive attitudes toward blended learning (M=3.94) on a five point Likert scale. Female faculty (M=2.88) reported more barriers to implementing blended learning than male faculty (M=2.49), (t 301=-4.43, p<.05). Female faculty also reported less experience in using educational technologies (M=3.54), than male faculty (M=3.95), (t 301=3.76, p<.05). Faculty experience with educational technologies was a significant predictor of attitudes toward adopting blended learning, F (1,301) =32.55, p<.05. Faculty attitudes toward adoption of blended learning were negatively correlated with perceived barriers (r= -.30, p<.05). There was a positive correlation between attitudes and perceived incentives for adopting blended learning (r=.72, p<.05). This Saudi university is making progress toward adopting blended learning. Female faculty members appear to be at the beginning of the Rogers implementation stage while male faculty may be approaching confirmation. Male faculty may be further along in adopting blended learning because they perceive fewer barriers and they have more advanced technical skills. Adequate technical support is important for implementing blended learning. Also, professional development programs are needed to support faculty competencies on current and emerging technologies. This support should benefit the faculty's willingness and ability to support blended learning. Future research might consider the impact of various professional development support strategies and infrastructure support on the adoption of bended learning in diverse cultural settings

Self-Identity and Community Through Social Media: the Experience of Saudi Female International College Students in the United States

This study examined the role of social media in the lives of Saudi female international college students as they faced issues related to adjusting to living and studying in a culture vastly different from their own. Social media is an increasingly important consideration in literature on self-identity, education, and community. This study employed qualitative interview methods to explore this topic. Fourteen Saudi female international college students living in the United States for three to nine years answered questions about their personal identities in Saudi Arabia and in the United States, their social media use in Saudi Arabia and in the United States, their experiences with online communities, and their experiences with educational social media. Of the 14 participants, nine were married and five were unmarried, nine were graduate students and five were undergraduate students, and all ranged in age from 18 to 40. Major themes that emerged were identity as a Saudi, female, Muslim, and student; identity changes after arriving in the United States; social media and the expression of identity; the role of communities in the lives of Saudi female international college students; and educational social media and Saudi female international students. Recommendations developed from this study’s findings aimed to help U.S. professors better understand their male and female Saudi students, how Saudi cultural and religious factors impacted these males and females differently, and how to effectively use educational social media in a way that acknowledged Saudi culture but still encouraged participation by all Saudi students. Limitations of this study, recommendations for future research topics, and a conclusion are also provided. The findings of this research further point the need for educators to understand how to implement social media in the classroom in a way that serves students of all cultural backgrounds as the U.S. educational system continues to receive large numbers of Saudi international students each year. Overall, this study found the experiences of Saudi female international college students studying in the United States impacted their identities, their use of social media to connect with their communities, and how they interacted in a culturally diverse classroom through educational social media

Employee training to increase efficiency in the Saudi private sector

Saudis in the private sector tend to change employers, and this study sought information on whether training and education experience, and access to these, influenced their career choices. A study of a Saudi conglomerate was used as representative of larger firms who offered training to their employees; and the sample, 105 Saudi nationals, were self-selected for an online survey. Analysis of demographics, and the participants\u27 employment and training experience and intentions are presented. Analysis included medians and percentages of demographic characteristics and employee experiences and intentions, then descriptive analyses for relationships between the main questions and the demographic characteristics. The results were a sample median of 35.5 years of age, with 84.5 percent under the age of 41 years. The participants were well educated with 87.6 percent holding Bachelor\u27s degrees or higher; a further 80 percent had family responsibilities. The median work experience was four years; however, 33.3 percent had two years or less in the workforce, and 42.9 percent had changed their employer three or more times (median 2 employers). Over half (58.1%) attended pre-employment training comprising job skills training (31.4%) and workplace behavior training (12.4%). Upon recruitment, nearly two-thirds (62.1%) attended induction courses and 41 percent of these courses were a week or longer. On-the-job training was conducted by a supervisor (30.5%) or a team member (42.9%). A majority (76.2%) of the participants were in training, predominantly (45.7%) with their employer for promotion or higher pay (23.8%). The remainder were training in other parts of the conglomerate (16.2%) or externally (30.5%). Further, over half (58.1%) of the participants stated that their acquired knowledge and skills were portable and could be used with another employer; nearly a half (47.6%) also stated an intention to change employers. Significant relationships between the demographic variables and survey responses were that older and more experienced employees assisted recruits; whilst older employees, those with family responsibilities and those who had more employers also intended to move. Those with higher qualifications were seeking more pay. In conclusion, experience with, and access to training and education were not associated with intention to stay with their employer

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers to Use Digital Visual Media for Twenty-First Century Teaching and Learning: Practices and Visions of Teacher Preparation Programs in Saudi Arabia

With the increasing use of modern technological media in various areas of life, it has become necessary to develop teaching methods to deal with this change. One key to modernizing teaching methods is the integration of digital visual media into the educational process. The use of these visual media in programs for future teachers has become essential due to the widespread impact of such content in this digital age. Therefore, this study examines the current experiences and perceptions of five teacher educators on the use of digital visual media in pre-service teachers’ preparation programs in Saudi Arabia. The research questions addressed participants’ perspectives about the use of and practice for integrating digital visual media in university-level teacher education programs. The researcher used a questionnaire and individual interviews to collect information about the participants’ perceptions regarding the use of digital visual media in their educational practices. Data analysis led to the identification of four main themes: (a) societal demand for technology and visual knowledge, (b) increased knowledge of technology, (c) technology and digital visual media practices, and (d) developing a vision requires training and support. Results of the study indicated that overall, participants value and understand the importance of using digital visual media for educational purposes. However, the findings showed the participants’ knowledge of digital visual media was limited. Although the participants emphasized the importance of using digital visual media, they lacked experience in actual practice with how to use visual media to prepare future teachers. This lack of knowledge is interpreted as being due to a lack of required coursework focused on providing background in computer skills and a lack of support and training in the use of all the diverse visual technologies preservice teachers need to work with and understand. This study has several practical implications to guide school administrators at both university and public education levels in designing professional development for teachers

Outcome-Based Engineering Education: A Global Report of International OBE Accreditation and Assessment Practices

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a paradigm in which instructional and assessment/ evaluation are explicitly designed for ensuring the attainment and mastery of predefined learning outcomes. OBE is now the underlying paradigm followed by global accreditation efforts such as the Washington Accord (ratified in 1989). The shift to OBE is so pronounced that some education experts identify the shift to outcome-based education and accreditation as one of the top 5 major changes of the last 100 years. OBE is starkly different from the previous content-based educational approaches in shifting the aim from covering the content to a student-centric mastery that is driven by exit-outcomes and educational objectives. And while OBE is often criticized for straitjacketing education, and resisted by hesitant faculty members suspecting additional burden, studies show that the OBE movement, on the whole, has helped in improving the educational standards and outcomes by helping ensure proper planning of curriculum and assessment and their alignment with the program objectives and desired outcomes. OBE is also flexible in the sense that it does not dictate the choice of specific education strategies or teaching methods. New OBE schemes have also diversified in response to early misgiving about OBE (related to excessive paperwork, and bean-counting-like auditing) and now admit diverse types of evidence (including qualitative and quantitative, formative and summative, formal and informal assessments). In this paper, we present—as a geographically dispersed set of academics from Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia—a global international perspective on OBE accreditation standards, practices, and attitudes. We will trace the historical development leading to the great shift to OBE in recent times and also synthesize insights from our diverse transnational experience in meeting accreditation requirements in different countries