Shifting focus to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Universities: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Since 2020, Saudi administrations have provisionally closed educational institutions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At the time, employing technology was imperative to accelerate learning efforts and offer methods of enhancing interactions between learners and among learners and tutors. In this review, I first describe the e-learning systems that were used in higher education before the pandemic. Then, I investigate the impact of COVID-19 on Saudi higher education and how universities and public educational institutions responded to the pandemic. In the conclusion, I argue that policymakers, university sectors, and syllabi developers should unify national e-learning strategies, integrate technology in a systematic way, and design e-learning curricula to meet the needs of an ever-advancing world and revolutionise the learning process.