Acting Vice President for Academic Support Dr. Abdullah Al-Mutawa stated that the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) was launched on cloud technologies to ensure continuity and availability of service regardless of the number of users. He also indicated that Moodle has been linked to the unified documentation system of Office 365 and integration with the Microsoft Teams system, so that the student is shown all the resources and activities of the synchronous and asynchronous course, including the tests and assignments in one platform. Moodle has also been linked to the student information system in order to enable the system to display the courses offered to each faculty member and students enrolled in those courses according to the academic schedule.
Dr. Al-Mutawa clarified that during the launching ceremony held on Saturday August, 22nd, 2020 on the Microsoft Teams platform that the decisions of the University Distance Learning Committee, identified the approved platforms for asynchronous remote education and limited them to the Blackboard System and the Moodle for Learning Management System. Since the Blackboard system is supported by the University's E-Learning Center and is used By 200 faculty members based in two colleges, according to 2019-2020 statistics. He pointed out that the Moodle system is used by more than 600 faculty members from seven different colleges and uses four different versions, the centralization of the Moodle system under one operational environment at this address https://moodle.ku.edu.kw and its support by the E-learning Center, Information Systems Center, Technical Support Center, and Al-Khwarizmi Center, each according to its specializations, has a great impact in ensuring that the best services are provided to faculty members and students alike.
Dr. Al-Mutawa mentioned that the central Moodle system is also equipped with automatic monitoring techniques for tests using artificial intelligence without human intervention, and unified tests can be created that accommodate the testing of all people simultaneously and without interruption, with the ability to customize and personalize test questions.
In the end, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mutawa, Acting Vice President for Academic Support, expressed his thanks and gratitude to all work centers of the Information Technology Sector and the University Distance Learning Committee for the success of this project. He also thanked the colleges participating in the Moodle system experience before the launch, especially College of Engineering and Petroleum, College of Business Administration, and Health Science Center.
For her part, the Director of the E-Learning Center, Etemad Al-Kandari, stated at the launching ceremony that the e-learning center is one of the specialized centers at Kuwait University, which works to implement the e-learning strategy and plans at the university through an integrated system that includes the management and operation of academic systems that support the educational process, such as management systems Learning (Blackboard and Moodle) and educational content management systems, by providing support and training for the beneficiaries and users of these systems in cooperation with the departments of the Vice President for Academic Support.
Al-Kandari added, "Today we are witnessing the result of cooperation and coordination efforts through the launch of the Moodle Central System. The center is pleased to add Moodle system to the systems supported by the center, as the it contributes to planning, implementing and evaluating the educational process electronically. As well as providing teachers with electronic means that help in monitoring and evaluating students' performance and measuring skills and interaction through the tools available in this system.”