Online Higher Education – A lifecycle from Students'

Perspective

Salman S. A. Butt IT Strategist, IT Center

Umm Al-Qura University Aziziyah, Makkah

Mobile +966568685555

ssbutt@uqu.edu.sa

ABSTRACT

A regular, traditional, higher education lifecycle from student's

prospective can include the following steps, which starts from the

last year of the high school period: (1) Major selection: either via

placing a search in the local market to define its future needs, or

by following an area of interest to gain more knowledge in the

field, (2) Exploring and defining available study options in the

authorized universities, (3) Aligning the selection with the

available option and getting the admission, (4) Being enrolled into

the education process until the study finishes and getting the

degree, and finally, an optional step of (5) Start taking benefits of

the degree held.

Most of the higher education decision makers and advancement

influencers did focus onto the enrolment of the student into the

study process and getting the knowledge and the degree by

implementing the e-learning methods and techniques which

included providing e-curriculums and taking the benefit of ICT in

the process of knowledge transferring.

Such as JUSUR e-learning system which is being provided by The

National Center for E-learning and Distance Learning in Saudi

Arabia [1]. While other e-education leaders supported those items

with some e-forums for their students open discussions and other

public issues, such as Arab Open University [2].

The research will high light an idea of a complete virtual online

high education environment, or an e-campus, which includes

everything usually available in any regular traditional university

but in an electronic form and able to be accessed online. The idea

will include virtual hallways, classrooms, libraries, café shops and

play grounds (or lobby places). It will also cover the supporting

services required by those items to support their electronic

versions too, such as students' attendance system, lecture

recoding, book borrowing and returning system, etc.

The research will also cover other points mentioned in the

lifecycle above. An approach of providing all kind of help

necessary for students in general, and especially for those who

targeting an online higher education. This will include a

discussion about methods to provide online help for students in

selecting their majors, or identifying their basic skills and/or

natures on which they need to focus and gain more knowledge.

A unique approach of connecting the market leaders in each field

of possible interest of students in one virtual place, online, to

provide their visions and their part of help which will be useful

for students in their starting stage of higher education and for

graduated students too who gained particular degrees which can

be hired by some specific market leaders, will be discussed too.

A final part will discuss a mutual working area of both the

governmental academic authorization agencies and the

universities to provide students with the necessary information

required and/or need to be in their consideration while they are

exploring and defining available study options from the

universities.

Categories and Subject Descriptors

H.1.0 [General],

H.1.1 [Systems and Information Theory]: Value of information,

H.1.2 [User/Machine Systems]: Human factors, Human

information processing,

H.3.4 [Systems and Software]: Information networks,

H.3.5 [Online Information Services]: Commercial services, Data

sharing, Web-based services,

H.5.3 [Group and Organization Interfaces]: Theory and

models, Web-based interaction,

J.1 [ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING]: Business,

Education, Government,

K.3.1 [Computer Uses in Education]: Collaborative learning,

Distance learning,

K.6.1 [Project and People Management]: Life cycle, Strategic

information systems planning,

General Terms

Management, Performance, Design, Economics, Reliability,

Experimentation, Human Factors, Standardization, Theory, Legal

Aspects, Verification.

Keywords

E-Learning, Online Higher Education, High Education Student,

Awareness.

1. SOCIETIES, UNIVERSITIES, AND

HIGH EDUCATION Higher education is provided by either standalone colleges or

university based colleges. Universities and/or colleges provides

two types of products in the society, a certificate, degree, and/or a

research [3]. The research usually comes to the direct benefit of

the society, or group of concerned people within it, more than

individuals, while certificates, degrees, come to the direct benefit

of individuals who then becomes beneficial to their societies [4].

Students, as society individuals concerned about involving into a

process of gaining a degree from a university providing it, involve

into the higher education process for either a targeted benefit from

gaining that degree (such as a job) or for the knowledge and self

advancement and self satisfaction as social creatures.

Those who targets benefits from their degrees they will gain after

graduation either look for a job at a private sector or at a public,

governmental, sector. For public sector they need to know the

demands which will be raised in the future, before they start their

studies, or at least a prediction study from the past experience and

the advancement the market facing. That prediction is actually

what makes them attracted to a particular subject than another.

For those who targets governmental sectors they need to make

sure that the degree they will gain after studying for that long time

will be approved and granted from their governmental authorities,

or simply will be accredited officially. Only the knowledge and

the professional practices in the field of degree is not enough for

them, as it is enough for the private sector to some level [5].

2. REGULAR HIGH EDUCATION

LIFECYCLE There are three main parties involved into the regular higher

education lifecycle for a student, which includes: (1) Universities

and colleges as education providers, (2) Benefit exchanging

parties who takes students for jobs and/or other benefits and

provide them individual benefits for themselves, and (3)

Governmental Accreditation Authorities, such as ministry of

higher education in several Arab and Gulf countries and the

accreditation universities in UK [4].

A lifecycle can be summarized and simplified as follow [6]:

Figure 1: Regular High Education Lifecycle

Where the governmental accreditation authorities answer to the

call for accreditation received from a university or a college by

providing the curriculums and subjects related to the

specializations specific for subjects the college will be teaching

and providing certificates in. Besides that, these authorities also

provides accreditation standards and teaching methodologies they

are authorized in, such as the labs and how is the attendance

system works, etc.

Those accreditation authorities gain their base knowledge of

required subjects and/or skills which universities must teach or

provide to their students of a subject, or a degree curriculum, from

the benefit exchange parties. Those parties are the actual workers

on the area of the growth of the market and the future needs based

on it.

The universities and/or colleges takes the curriculum and the

accreditation requirements and standards from the accreditation

authorities and assure their commitment to them on one side,

while on the other side they provide the education to the students

based on their accreditation area.

Education providers must assure their adherences to the

accreditation authorities for their education system and must

assure to their students that their education is by the accreditation

and they will be able to take other benefits from their degrees

when they will be granted for that.

After the journey of taking the education and following the

university's consultancy and guidance toward graduation; students

who wants to take personal benefits of their degree can apply for

their related sections at any of the benefit exchanging parties

(either in a private or public sector). Then, the specific

organization to which a student is attached, or affiliated, must

exchange the benefit with that student.

3. ONLINE HIGH EDUCATION

LIFECYCLE From student's point of view, to provide a genuine online higher

education, all necessary information required by a student from

the three parties mentioned above to fulfill all his/her needs at the

internet. To make the student live a virtual online student life; a

complete virtual reality based environment must be arranged on

the web representing the three parties related to the high

education, i.e. Governmental Accreditation Authorities, Education

Providers, Benefits Exchanging Parties.

Simply we can say that this lifecycle is about making an online

interfaces for all three parties mentioned above, which can be seen

in the following example:

Figure 2: A Sample of an Online High Education Lifecycle

3.1 GOVERNMENTAL ACCREDITATION

AUTHORITY An online high education student must find all necessary

information may become required for him/her to carry on the

study using the online virtual environment. One can think of this

as an outstanding step to make such interface for students while

this party has no direct interaction between them and the student

in the regular lifecycle.

However, it's not an outstanding step, it is required based on the

nature of the relationship will be placed between the student and

the university he/she will study in using the online environment.

As in the regular lifecycle an official approval and/or accreditation

letter provided from these authorities to the university can be seen

by the students physically in front of them while they are

submitting their admission papers in a facility of a particular

university or college.

While in the online environment this feature if difficult to provide

and/or to be checked by the student, as their relationship may be

exclusive via the virtual interfaces available online. Instead of

students to become relied on the words of such universities or

colleges about the accreditation in a specific subject area, it

becomes necessary for those authorities to participate into this

lifecycle by providing all kind of necessary information may

become required from any kind of students.

These required information can include for example:

- List of authorized online education providers

- Criteria or points need to be focused on if an online

education will be gained from another party than those

authorized ones

- Communication service to provide live help for students

who want to ask about any issue related to the online

education, or need clarification about any matter

Providing all necessary information is a responsibility of these

authorities, but to run, operate and manage the interface is not

necessary by them, as they might be already being busy in their

regular business and work activities. A unique approach of

managing and controlling an online interface for them will be

provided later in this research.

3.2 EDUCATION PROVIDERS From all three parties related to the high education lifecycle; the

education providers needs to pay the highest effort in providing an

online environment for the students. They will not only use the

information and communication technologies to enhance or

materialize their teaching ways and methods, they will be required

to provide every single part of their regular university campus in a

virtual, online, environment.

There are several parts of the regular university or college

campuses which are necessary for any organization to provide

such education, which are necessary to be provided in the virtual

environment, while other parts of such campuses which can be

useful in both the regular campuses and the virtual ones are

required too.

An admission office with all necessary staff, i.e. clerks and

admission advisors, students affairs office with necessary student

supporters and advisors, hallways, classrooms, meeting point

areas, general and public chatting areas, library, and other

optional social activity areas can be included into the necessary

parts of an online campus which must be available there as parts

of the e-campus of an online high education provider.

The supporting parts can include a document management service

to handle all documents either received from an online student or

a regular student, and general communication services for advices

in several subjects related to the students life, i.e. social advices,

professional advices, selective subjects advices, and others.

Class/Student attendance services, researches and homework

submission services, citation and referencing evaluation services,

e-library, e-books, and e-books readers services, also can be a part

of such supporting areas for both the regular and the virtual

campuses.

To differentiate the online education from distance and other

irregular learning; all above mentioned areas must be covered and

taken care of. Yet, the approach of controlling and managing the

virtual environment will be provided in coming sections of this

research.

3.3 BENEFTIS EXCHANGING PARTIES Based on future plans these parties knows to where they are

heading and what will be their human resource requirements in

the near future. A careful research being placed and a nice plan

being prepared for the knowledge areas required by those parties,

and the results are passed to the accreditation authorities to take

the necessary action to provide enough human resources to fulfill

those needs on time. In the online environment, this information

must be exchanged over the Internet.

Graduate or certified students usually goes to the offices of the

human resource departments of those parties, either a private or a

public sector, unless there will be some central controlled bulk

hiring in an organization, to submit their papers including a

summary paper with some copies of their certificates and/or

degrees. In the online environment, this operation must be

handled using an online recruitment services.

3.4 A PRACTICAL APPROACH All parts of the high education lifecycle are busy in their usual

daily work, which prevent them from spending more time and

effort to build or participate in the online education, which is the

base of the approach presenting in this research.

Accreditation authorities will participate into this portal by

providing a list of accredit online education providers and their

programs and degrees they do provide, their specialization and

strong points, the rules and regulations for such accreditation, and

some other information which can be helpful and/or needed for

students. Even if the participation of these authorities seems to be

very small, but it’s one of the most valuable information in this

whole education system.

Those authorities can participate themselves in this portal or they

simply can provide this information to one of the other parties of

the lifecycle, i.e. a private company, or the universities

themselves. A small example of this approach, not totally as it

must be maintained and took care of, can be seen as the Higher

Education Academy [7], and Study in Sweden Portal [8].

Building an online parallel campus, or virtual environment,

requires the same effort as they are already spending for their

regular daily works, but in much more technical and professional

way.

The idea may become not a new one, as parts of this approach can

be seen here and there in the world nowadays, but not all the parts

of this idea are being implemented anywhere yet. Implementing

this ideas requires a higher approach from the top level decision

makers to build a strategy for a country or a region and then

influence development and advancement specialists to work on

the implementation part of it.

The whole approach must be seen as a single strategy for the

region want to run a healthy and accurate online education, and

must cover all parts of it to make it easy for students to access it

and gain confidence in their study and future, as they are the base

of nations (Figure 3).

Education providers needs to build a portal to provide access for

online students to their profiles and other administrative sections.

One of the administrative-academic activities can include in this

portal is the enrollment into study subjects, as it shows the

schedule of each subject available and students can enroll

themselves for studying them.

One of the good examples of this portal can be seen in the

Liverpool's Online High Education Campus, which included

Grades book, Personal Information, Financial Information and

Payment methods and mechanisms, Enrolments and modules

calendar, Books list, and some other informatics sections such as

Students Handbook [9].

Figure 3: The Approach of Online High Education Lifecycle

Figure 4: University of Liverpool's Online Portal

While other parts which are required from the education

providers, including the virtual campus with all its parts

mentioned earlier in this research, can have a hyperlink in this

portal and can be hosted into a separate complete section which

can be under control of a third party. University of Liverpool

(UoL) prepared a partnership with Laureate Online Education for

the same purpose, which were using a software called Embanet

First Class [10]. Then they did change it to Blackboard Academic

Suite [11], which they did customize to fulfill their student's

requirements.

Figure 5: Blackboard Academic Suite of UoL

For the virtual environment implementation, third parties can use

Web Forum applications, which can be a humble implementation

but can be so rich and helpful in establishing an initial approach

for an online campus for an education provider.

Other important parts of the gateway is the participation of the

benefit exchange parties which includes an online recruitment

service, future studies about the skills and knowledge's demands,

and some other personal development services.

This gateway must be prepared to be a "hub" for all education

providers and benefit exchange parties to participate into it and

pay an effort to maintain it and keep it up-to-date to let the

students take real benefit of it, and of the online high education.

Responsibility of running and managing this gateway can be on

the shoulders of a third party company specialist in this field, i.e.

Laureate Online Education, or a governmental authority who

becomes responsible for attaching all online high education

providers and benefit exchange parties from the market and all

governmental organizations to be part of it and to influence them

to participate in making it an informal and much more beneficial

gateway for students. Such a governmental entity can be The

National Center for E-learning and Distance Learning in Saudi

Arabia, yet they are not functioning as mentioned in this paper,

but they can and that will be a wonderful turn in their and Saudi

students' lives.

4. CONCLUSION A theory and a systematic approach of a complete online high

education lifecycle for online education students which included

all parties involved into the high education process from the

accreditation parties going through the education providers and

ending up with those parties who exchange benefits with

graduated, or certified, students.

An approach of a central online gateway for a particular country

of region, where all those parties do participate and exchange data

and information which are in benefit or necessary for online

students, was discussed and overviewed.

For future work, this approach can be translated into a pure

technical codes and a pure software gateway which becomes an

information and data "hub" to connect all related parts of the

online high education into one electronic place, which will be this

lifecycle.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks to my wife for supporting me at home where I did

write this paper and made my researches most of the time.

Also, thanks to Dr. Basem Al-Kazimi, Deputy Director of ITC of

Umm Al-Qura University, for providing me an opportunity of

writing this paper and introducing me to the conference.

6. REFERENCES [1] National e-Learning Center KSA, n.d. JUSUR LMS,

available at:

http://www.elc.edu.sa/jusur/english/jusur_advanced.php.

[2] Arab Open University , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2008.

Arab Open University Students Forums, accessible via:

http://www.arabou.org.sa/en/forum.php.

[3] WordNet of Princeton University Online, n.d. Glossary,

available at:

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=university.

[4] Butler, N. 2006. "What are universities for?" a speech at the

Foundation for Science and Technology, available at:

http://www.foundation.org.uk/events/pdf/20061025_Butler.p

df.

[5] Barrett, M. n.d. Accredited vs. Nonaccredited Colleges,

Hobsons and Educational Testing Service, available at:

http://www.toeflaccess.com/articles/ETS/us/study/what_stud

y/ed_sys/accredited_vs_non.html.

[6] The Higher Education Academy, n.d. Student Lifecycle,

available at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/institutions/wp/lifecyc

le.

[7] The Higher Education Academy, n.d. About Us, available at:

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/aboutus.

[8] Study in Sweden, n.d. available at:

http://www.studyinsweden.se/.

[9] University of Liverpool, n.d. an informatics portal of online

higher education, in partnership with Laureate Online

Education, available at: http://my.ohecampus.com/.

[10] Embanet.com, n.d. First Class Orientation, available at:

http://www.embanet.com/fc/application/FC-

orientation_v8_T5.html.

[11] Blackboard.com, n.d. Teaching and Learning, available at:

http://www.blackboard.com/Teaching-

Learning/Overview.aspx.