Another Trip to Saudi Arabia

I have spent the past week in Saudi Arabia, again. I have been working with faculty and administrators in Saudi Electronic University. The last time I visited Saudi Arabia I worked with these faculty was in Jeddah, and this time I have been working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The creation of SEU is a strong step toward the future of education in this part of the world. They have embraced new technologies and formats with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for men and women all across Saudi Arabia. They have opened 6 campuses so far and plan to open a dozen more in the next few years.

The Faculty
Again, this has been an outstanding experience. The faculty members at SEU are of a very high quality. They have a sense of excitement about teaching at SEU and many have plenty of experience teaching in higher education. My role is to help them bridge from their more traditional experience to the hybrid (mostly online) format, and the curriculum focuses on technologies and strategies for teaching and managing their work effectively.

Participants in the course Strategies for Teaching in a Hybrid Learning Environment.

The Strategies for Teaching in a Hybrid Environment Course.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with these faculty and have great confidence in their ability to move forward in their work. I am hopeful that I will be able to interact with them again in the future.

Seeing Riyadh
Riyadh is the capitol of Saudi Arabia, and about 6 million people live in this sprawling city. We were blessed with the opportunity to go and see some very interesting sites some of the evenings we were there. I've shared some photos below with descriptions.

Me on the bridge of the Bridge at the top of the Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. About 100 floors up. This was a great way to see the size of the city while at the same time enjoying the incredible view.

A panoramic photograph of the bridge on top of the Kingdom Tower.

We visited this castle, which is a historically significant location in Riyadh. The first king of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lived here after naming Riyadh the capitol.

This is the door of the castle.

Window shutters inside the castle.

New Podcast: Collaborating in Saudi Arabia

I recently visited Saudi Arabia with several colleagues to work with faculty members of Saudi Electronic University. I specifically worked with DiAnna Palmer in the city of Jeddah, and after our visit we recorded the following podcast on Collaborating in Saudi Arabia.

Podcast: Collaborating in Saudi Arabia

Summary of Experiences in Saudi Arabia

I have spent the past week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia working with faculty at Saudi Electronic University. The university offers education to thousands of men and women in Saudi Arabia, and I am excited to provide support the university's mission. It was an outstanding experience, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity and to meet and know the faculty members.

Below I link to the posts describing my experience.

• Arriving in Jeddah and First Evening in Jeddah 
• Visiting Old Jeddah
• More Photos in Jeddah
• An Evening in Jeddah
• Working with the SEU faculty
• Podcast: Collaborating in Saudi Arabia

Working With SEU Faculty

As I have written about in the last few posts, I have been in the town of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia working with faculty of the relatively new Saudi Electronic University (SEU). SEU has formed a partnership with Franklin University, and I am one of 6 instructors from Franklin who traveled to various cities in Saudi Arabia to teach. My role was to share best practices and technologies for effective teaching in a hybrid environment in higher education. The specific focus is promoting active learning in an online and hybrid environment. The class was scheduled over 4 days, and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. I will share highlights of my experiences with the faculty in this post.

This is the door to the building where we held the class. Because the university is so new, they are using classroom and office space in another school until their own building is ready for them.

The Faculty
First I will write about the faculty at Saudi Electronic University. These faculty come from several countries in this region of the world. There were faculty from Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia in the class. From memory, I believe that among the faculty were professors of Management, Accounting, Discrete Mathematics, Healthcare Informatics, and Economics.

Members of the Class Strategies for Teaching in a Blended Learning Environment. From left to right: Dr. Moin Uddin, Dr. Shahid Husain, Dr. Muhammad Mansoor Alam, Dr. Joel Gardner, Dr. Ahmed Albarrak, Dr. Mohd Saeed Khan, Dr. Saad Alnefee, Dr. Fahad Sikander, and Dr. Khaled Alghamdi. Mr Fahad Saeed is not present in the photograph but also participated in the class.

Many of these faculty members have a great deal of experience as faculty members and as travelers. Some of them had taught at multiple universities and in multiple countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They all brought their experience to the classroom, and it really made the class more exciting and engaging.

I was very impressed with the dedication and purpose of these faculty members. Several of them left their home countries to come and teach at SEU. Some had been there only a few days while others had been at the university for only a few months. A few had had to leave their families at home to make preparations to have them come with them to their new home. The class that we held lasted all day, and several of the faculty members would then hold several classes in the evening, making for a very long day. And yet they were all quite present and engaged in the course. It was clear that they were thoughtful and reflective about their learning and were beginning to bridge our class topics to their own classes.

The Course
As I mentioned, my role has been to share best practices for engaging students in a hybrid learning environment in higher education. I also shared many of my own experiences and expertise in effective teaching and instruction. Because of my educational and professional background in instructional design, instructional technology, and learning sciences, as well as teaching and training, I was able to draw on my own expertise as these faculty members extended their expertise in hybrid teaching.

Building Community
I realized as time passed that this course provided a way for these faculty members to really build unity and form a sense of community amongst themselves - a professional community. As I mentioned above, these faculty were all relatively new to the university, and they hadn't had the time nor the format to really get to know one another. The workshop format was an outstanding way for them to build their relationship around their common roles at the university: teaching their students effectively.

The Food
One of the highlights of this trip was the excellent food - so delicious. This is my style of food - it seems to usually include a meat, rice, bread, and sauces of some kind such as Hummus or Ganoush. There was always an excess of food, and it was absolutely incredible.

I absolutely loved Cabsa, a favorite Saudi Arabian dish that includes rice, meat (chicken in this case), raisins, and several spices including Cardamom. It was very impressive and I certainly ate my fill. :) The portions of food were generous, and I ate with gratitude.

Saudi Electronic University
I am very impressed by how quickly the university seems to be moving forward in their goal to extend education to the men and women in Saudi Arabia. From what I gather, their plan is to significantly increase the number of students in their university each year for the coming 5 years. The faculty are dedicated to their students, the administrators that I met were also very impressive and quite qualified to lead the university forward. I will be excited to see the university continue to progress and move forward.

This is a photograph of one of the posters for the university.

I am extremely grateful for this opportunity. I  am humbled by the excellence of the people and the culture in Saudi Arabia. Everyone was kind, thoughtful and giving, and the land is beautiful. I am also pleased that my university gave me the opportunity to be there and serve. I am grateful that I have spent the last 8 years studying and applying the technologies, theories, and models that will hopefully benefit these faculty and their students for years to come.

An Evening in Jeddah

Last night our wonderful hosts from SEU took us out in Jeddah, again. It truly is a beautiful city with lovely people. It is great to see families out at night much later than in my hometown. The weather is probably much more tolerable in the evening, and it is a clean, safe city. I'll share some more photos below, complete with descriptions.

This is a photo of one of the larger buildings in the newer area of Jeddah. (Actually, most of Jeddah is newer as it has seen incredible growth over the last 50 years or so). This building was pretty impressive because the building actually became a giant photo display used for advertisement. Pretty mind-boggling.

 

We went to an aquarium that is housed right on the edge of the Red Sea. It was really cool - we saw several sharks of may varieties. Here is a school of fish.

And here is another fish. (Yes, that is about as technical as I can get in my description. I don't know what it is called - I just liked it).

While in Jeddah, we had two excellent young men serve as our drivers. I was driven most often by Yaser, and this is Ayup - he accompanied us on our trip to the aquarium. We also saw a dolphin show after this, which was pretty awesome. I don't have photos of that but will see if DiAnna, the other instructor working with SEU faculty, has some that I can use.

As we were leaving, I saw this sign right at the edge of the sea. I liked it and thought I would take a picture.

So far I have been very impressed with the generosity of the people I have met, worked with, and been served by. They are exceedingly polite and respectful, and I truly appreciated their generosity. There is a certain sense of security and peacefulness here in Jeddah. The police are present and provide a sense of security. Families, women and children walk freely, and as I have become more familiar with the environment, I have felt more peaceful and comfortable.

Working with the SEU Faculty

I will soon post about my experience working with the SEU Faculty. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been blessed with the opportunity to share my knowledge and experiences related to teaching in an online and hybrid environment. I have been working with this faculty for the past four days and concluded my work with them this afternoon. It has been sad to say goodbye, and I truly hope the best for them. I will post about the experience today or tomorrow on the flight home.

More Photos in Jeddah

Working with SEU Faculty

I have been working with the SEU faculty for the last couple of days and will write about our work together sometime soon. In short, these faculty members and staff are of a very high quality. I am impressed with their commitment to their students and to learning new technologies and teaching approaches. I am grateful to be working with and learning with each of them and consider it a great opportunity. 

Some More Photos from Jeddah

I thought I would share some more photos of my experience in Jeddah. There are many interesting things to see, and I will share some few images that share my experience.

This is the young man (Yasser) who has been driving me from the hotel to the university and back each day. He has been very professional and negotiates the roads with deft skill. He took me to the airport today so that we could pick up my luggage (which was somehow left in Washington D.C. for the last 4 days and finally arrived today, thankfully). He has taught me a little Arabic over the last couple of days, though I am a slow learner. :)

A photo of Hardees from the car. I find the Arabic script to be quite beautiful and it is strangely interesting to see it on the side of an American fast food restaurant.

All throughout Jeddah there are interesting and beautiful sculptures. This one is in the middle of the roundabout that is near our hotel. I'll try to share some more if I can pull my camera out quickly enough to photograph them.

Here is the diet 7UP that I drank this past evening. Again, I find the lettering to be lovely and I thought this was a pretty cool design for the 7UP can.

Here is a panoramic shot of the city from the balcony at the hotel. Just to the left is the Red Sea. The buildings in the far distance are the newer downtown area of Jeddah (I believe) and the building on the far right is the Hotel we are staying at. It is certainly a beautiful city.

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I will keep giving updates as time goes on and as I am able. Again, the people here have been very welcoming and kind. I feel blessed to be able to represent Franklin University and to be a part of the initiatives at Saudi Electronic University . It is exciting to be a part of the expansion of educational opportunities.

Visiting Old Jeddah

Our wonderful associate from SEU, Nourat, (I may be spelling her name wrong, here - sorry!) took us to Old Jeddah this evening. It is the area that existed in ancient times, a small city enclosed by a protective wall with 4 gates. The city is known as the gateway to Mecca, so there is a great deal of history here. Over several hundreds of years, literally millions of faithful have come through these gates on their way to Mecca. It is an absolutely beautiful city with beautiful people. I took a few photos from our excursion and have shared them below.

Keep Reading
If you look down a little lower in the post, I share pictures and write about our visit to a small, lovely museum that we visited, as well.

Jeddah Bliss Museum

We had the opportunity to tour the Jeddah Bliss Museum, which was founded and run by two businessmen who have a passion for the history of Jeddah. It was quite a lovely experience. I'll describe bits of the museum and the experience below.

The front door of the museum.

These two gentlemen are those who founded and run the museum. They've spent the last 35 years gathering artifacts from many different countries and are now sharing some of their artifacts in the museum.  The sitting room pictured above along with all its furnishings is patterned after traditional sitting rooms from nearly a century ago. These rooms were a sort of family room, for eating dinner, and for visiting with guests.

These men were very passionate about their work, the museum, and the preservation of history. They have plans to continue to preserve history through their efforts and are partnering with others in their work. It was great listening to them.

 

The goals of the museum. Very cool to see this kind of passion and clarity of purpose.

Below are photos of some of the beautiful artifacts.

Beautiful window covers. I absolutely love these - incredible color and elegant style.

DiAnna Palmer and myself. We will both work with the SEU faculty for the next four days as they continue to work through their needs as instructors at SEU. I am quite excited to meet the faculty and get to know them and their needs and see how I can contribute.

A beautiful door.

This is a jewelry chest.

Incredible tea pots.

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Again, it was a beautiful experience and I feel so blessed to be here and to work with such a great university and its people.

Arrived at Hotel and First Evening in Jeddah

Well, I have arrived at the hotel in Jeddah - staying at the Intercontinental Hotel, just by the Red Sea. It is a beautiful city and the Hotel is outstanding.

 

The Travel

The travel went very well - no hangups at customs, no layover problems, etc. - accept that somehow my bag did not get transferred from United Airlines to Saudi Airlines. I think the lady who checked me in with United didn't notice that I was moving on through Dulles Airport and I didn't make it a point to ensure that she noticed. So, I am going to be working on getting my bag back. I've talked to, called and emailed as many contacts as I can find with Dulles Airport and with United and Saudi Airlines, so hopefully someone will identify the problem, find my bag, and get it to me on the next plane from Dulles. Even if it doesn't make it, I will be just fine, here. I would rather receive the bag, of course.

It was pretty cool to fly over the Atlantic Ocean (which I couldn't see to well because it was dark), but the night sky was pretty amazing. I woke up in the morning and realized that we were flying over a giant dessert, likely African. The city of Jeddah is quite pretty, and the weather really is quite pleasant. Reminds me of Las Vegas in the wintertime.

It sounds like tomorrow we will have some time to see parts of the city and the region. We will then work with the university Monday through Thursday. I am quite excited to meet the SEU faculty members and see how we can learn together!

This Evening
Had some time to rest for the afternoon and then we went out to dinner with Noura who does public relations with Saudi Electronic University (SEU). We ate at a lovely cafe facing the Red Sea and learned more about the university and the area. Noura was very kind and thoughtful and is taking care of all of our needs. It sounds like tomorrow is a day to get to know the city and see some of the beautiful sites around town. I will certainly share some photos of the day.

Traveling to Saudi Arabia

I am traveling to Saudi Arabia from November 1st through November 8th to teach a graduate course in online instruction to faculty members of Saudi Electronic University. This is a new university that was recently established by royal decree in 2011. It is reportedly the first online university in Saudi Arabia, and I and several other faculty members at Franklin University will assist in training the newly established Saudi faculty members.

Image Source: Saudi Electronic University Website

This will be my first time traveling to the Middle East, and over the next several days I plan to write about my experiences in traveling to Saudi Arabia, interacting with the people, and teaching the course. I look forward to the opportunity to interact with Franklin University's international partners and my fellow-educators at this excellent institution of higher education.