H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ould Omar, Director-General of ALECSO, chaired the opening of the symposium on “Promoting the use of learning analytics and big data in education in the Arab world”. The symposium was organized on December 2, 2022 at ALECSO headquarters, jointly with the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
The symposium discussed ways to keep pace with technological advances, to leverage modern technologies for the promotion of educational systems, and to scale up Arab capacities in this field.
In his statement on this occasion, the Director-General indicated that “data are the lifeblood of the decision-making process, and that whoever has information has power”. He stressed that “the information and communication revolution has led to a massive and steady increase in the volume of data in the world, as the use of electronic devices, computers, mobile phones, digital platforms, and social media platforms produces a huge amount of data, reaching up to 1,700 terabytes per minute, according to the Cloud Storage platform”. These data, he added, “constitute a significant wealth if they are properly collected from different systems, processed, analyzed, and used in various medical, economic, military, educational, and other fields”.
The Director-General recalled that “COVID-19 has had adverse impacts on the education sector in the Arab world, which prompted educational institutions to switch to e-learning as a long-talked-about alternative to be integrated into the educational process.” He underlined, in this regard, that “the use of digital educational platforms and electronic devices constitutes a precious opportunity for collecting data on the educational process, as it will help leverage Big Data and Learning Analytics to improve the educational process, by collecting and analyzing data on student performance, to the benefit of both teachers and students”.
For his part, Dr. Mohamed Zouaoui, Chief of Cabinet of the Tunisian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, indicated that “Tunisia attaches high importance to education and scientific research, and has established an advanced system in this regard covering all fields, including a virtual university and a research system with significant outputs.” Tunisia, he added, “encourages scientific research as a key means of promoting sustainable development, and is keen to build strong bilateral cooperation relations in this field with many countries and relevant international and regional organizations, such as ALECSO which works to support all fields of research, science and knowledge.”
Dr. Mohamed Jemni, Director of the ICT Department at ALECSO, offered a presentation in which he stressed that promoting the use of modern digital technology is one of ALECSO’s key areas of interest, in keeping with the current digital advances and transformations in terms of access to inclusive education for all. He highlighted, in this context, ALECSO’s initiatives in relation to global changes, the technological revolution, the knowledge society, Big Data and the immaterial economy.
The symposium was attended by university rectors, higher education officials, university professors, researchers, engineers, and experts in modern technologies.
