The Colleges of Technology affiliated to the Ministry of Manpower have initiated technical solutions that contribute to students’ communication with the academic staff to complete the remaining curricula through online learning, in a response to the decision of the Covid-19 Supreme Committee on the suspension of studies in all educational institutions in the Sultanate.
This comes within the framework of the Ministry’s efforts, represented by the colleges of technology, since their establishment, to develop the infrastructure for information technology by providing all systems, applications, services and networks that support the educational process.
The colleges of technology are also distinguished by being the main center of the Cisco Academy in the Sultanate. The academy provides students with the practical skills necessary for networking, through obtaining professional certificates issued by the company.
To achieve the goals of online learning, these colleges use different applications, including Moodle (as a main window of interaction between students and e-learning systems). The lecturers were provided with three systems, namely (Microsoft Team), (CISCO WEBEX) and (Big Blue Button).
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has made available other application that can be used by lecturers to enable them to download or broadcast educational materials for students as well as to interact with them directly, including ZOOM, Skype and Hangout programs.
It is expected that these systems and programs will enhance the capabilities of young people, enable them to have future skills and transform the traditional educational process from dictation to interaction and creativity.
Nearly 40,000 male and female students in the seven colleges of technology were instructed to start interacting with these platforms and applications. The colleges transmit online live lectures in the fields of (engineering, information technology, business studies, applied sciences, photography, fashion design and pharmacy). Some lectures were uploaded on the platforms so that students can have access to them.ONA