Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University Embraces the Digital Transformation of Higher Education in a World Changed by the COVID-19 Pandemic
AL-KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, March 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Over the last quarter-century, the meteoric rise of the internet and portable electronic devices has swiftly transformed education. Over just the last two years, however, the pace of transformation has accelerated further and even more profoundly as the world has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amidst such upheaval in the education industry, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU) has agilely adapted and innovated to ensure that its student body of more than 18,000 enrollees has retained access to the best available resources and is equipped for the altered workplace of the present and future.
“The last couple of years have presented major obstacles to the enterprise of higher education as it has existed in our modern technological era,” said Dr. Issa Al Ansari, President of PMU. “Yet by embracing the power of educational technology and skillfully adapting our pedagogy, we are continuing to meet our goal at PMU as a service provider of higher education by aligning with the latest practices and advancements.”
This new era where administrators, faculty, and students engage some, most, or even all of the time in the enterprise of higher learning offsite through digital tools has required institutions to revamp their operations.
In this regard, the Information Technology (IT) Department at PMU has worked alongside the university’s faculty and staff, as well as with the students themselves, in managing to effectively stay the academic course during the COVID-19 crisis.
Among the many initiatives the IT Department pursued, its technicians proactively installed and upgraded the university information technology infrastructure in order to meet the needs of a suddenly large and long-term remote user community. Other efforts involved rolling out digital tools such as Blackboard Ultra, an online teaching application, and Microsoft Teams, a web-conferencing program, and assisting educators and students in how to use them. PMU’s technicians also made virtual private networks (VPNs) available to remote users to grant them access to vital on-campus licensed software.
By embracing digitally enhanced educational instruction and interactions, the PMU faculty have likewise adapted their teaching methods for all-remote and, when pandemic conditions have allowed, hybrid environments involving a mix of in-person and offsite learning.
“The pandemic has changed the world, and we at PMU have changed in response both pedagogically and technologically,” said Dr. Al Ansari. “We are doing our part to help usher in a bright future for our global society.”
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