Tadarus

A new generation of e-learning systems

 

Comprehensive administration of e-learning

Tadarus system is a pioneer in e-learning systems. It combines keeping pace with the state-of-the-art technologies and international criteria, and also taking into consideration the Arab environment and culture.

Tadarus is a unique system, which has been especially developed in order to keep pace with the new generation of learning and education. It is available on the different browsers and handheld devices at any time and place, and it is designed for the blended learning environment in order to support the activities of learning, training, collaboration, and assessment. Tadarus has achieved a turnaround in the methods of teaching and the display of content; it has helped improve the methods of communication and interaction between instructors and students, and manage the learning processes efficiently. In addition, Tadarus is characterized by being able to build different learning units, publish assignments, build and publish exams, provide communication services, and follow up on learner’s performance.

Moreover, it has employed the second-generation internet technologies to form an interactive environment between the instructor and his students. It has also created other dimensions to be able to integrate social media into the learning and education system; hence, it has professionally managed to integrate the social media into the different parts of the system.

 

Full support for Arabic language and the Hijri calendar

The e-learning system “Tadarus” is characterized by its full and intrinsic support for the Arabic language, and the faultless language in terms of structure, meaning, format, right alignment, punctuation, and vocalization used in all its interfaces. It also supports the Hijri calendar (the general Islamic calendar, Umm Al-Qura calendar) and the Gregorian calendar, and provides an option to convert each one into the other.

 

Consideration of the rules of Shari`ah

Tadarus is characterized by its consideration of the rules of the Shari`ah, which are derived from our sound religion. This is represented in the provision of an option to separate males from females in all the learning activities, not to display the female students’ photos and data, and not to permit the publication of any document without it being approved by the system administrator and course supervisor. Furthermore, Tadarus does not permit side conversations between male and female students, and takes into consideration that the course content should be suitable to the male and female learners.

 

Administration of courses

Tadarus permits the import of a ready-made SCORM 1.2, 2004 content, and provides an option to specify start and end dates for reviewing the content and to link the course content with a specific forum.

Tadarus also provides an option to introduce the courses using learning tools that employ various methods of display (tools, chronological learning units, and linear learning units).

Moreover, Tadarus provides an option to upload many different types of files for the students while controlling when they will appear. In addition, it provides an option to add video files or Youtube links, and to display them on the page, as well as an option to add external links for the course.

 

Building and administration of exams

The system provides an option to create question banks that cover many types of questions, such as true/false, multiple choice, short answer, matching, and supply the missing word questions, in a form compatible with the international IMS QTI specifications. It also provides an option to import and export questions compatible with the IMS QTI standard specifications. The exams are built from the questions stored in the bank according to the conditions specified by the instructor. It also permits specifying the time and duration of the exam, and the time it is displayed to the student.

The system also permits automatic and immediate correction of the exams, and submission of exams via the system or a safe browser, or by printing them on paper. It also provides many reports on the questions, exams, and the students’ results.

 

Interactive lessons

Tadarus provides “the interactive lessons” tool, which enables the instructor to publish the learning content rich in multimedia, and to display it directly on the course page (in the form of audio, video, PDF, or Google maps, etc.). In addition, it provides an option to specify the targeted category of students. Tadarus also allows for interaction, as it provides the students with an option to add comments on the displayed content.

 

Discussion forums

Discussion forums create a suitable environment for indirect interaction between the instructor and the students, and between the students with each other. They also permit the instructor to control the nature of participation in the forum, and to create sub-forums for cooperative learning besides the general course forum. This is in addition to many other functions relevant to discussion forums..

 

Administration of assignments

The system permits the instructor to establish assignments on the course page, and to upload the documents relevant to it. In addition, it permits the instructor to specify the time an assignment will be displayed to the student, the time available to answer it, and the time permitted for any delay in delivering the assignment. It also permits the student to send/deliver the assignment and to notify the instructor of the time of sending/delivering the assignment. Moreover, the system permits the instructor to correct the assignments, record and comment on the scores, and to send them to the students via email or the students’ personal pages.

 

Record of scores

The record of scores provides an option to create different evaluation activities for the course (exams, assignments, attendance, etc.), and to record the students’ scores in these activities. It also provides an option to control the score weights, statistically process the data, and to use the addition and multiplication factors for the scores. In addition, the system permits the provision of many reports on the scores..

 

The student’s portfolio

Tadarus system provides an option to display the student’s portfolio, which includes all his activities in the courses he has studied. Moreover, it includes data of the student’s performance in each course, his personal data, and comments from his instructors.

Furthermore, the system provides, through “the student's portfolio”, reports pertaining to the course outcomes, including the student’s achievement rates in the course learning outcomes and details of the achievement of every outcome for every item and its related activities. The display of the student's assignments and related uploaded files are also provided by the system through “the student's portfolio”..

 

Administration of learning outcomes

Tadarus provides an effective tool to measure the extent to which the learning outcomes have been achieved. This entails being able to specify the categories of the learning outcomes and also the main and subsidiary outcomes of each course. Next, it links the course’s activities (exams, assignments, lectures, forums, etc.) with the course’s subsidiary learning outcomes, and calculates the student’s achievement as a percentage of the learning outcomes attained. This information will then be displayed in reports.

 

Following the learner’s performance

The system provides various and detailed reports on all the learning activities carried out by the student/learner on the system. This includes the times of the visits to the system and the course made by the learner, his posts in the forum, the number of visits he makes to the lessons’ pages, the lessons he has studied, the results of the exams and assignments, and his participation in live lectures. This is in addition to many reports that cover all aspects of the learning process, which reveal indicators of each student’s use of the system and the extent to which he learns and interacts with it. This option is provided to the instructor and the student..

 

Notifications center

Tadarus provides many communication channels with the students and the teaching staff via the “notification center”, which ensures that the notifications and messages are received instantly. This can be implemented by more than one method, such as the internal and external emails, SMS, push notifications, and announcements, which appear instantly on the system’s interface. In addition, there is an option to schedule the time of the appearance of the announcements, so that they appear to the targeted category at the specified date and time.

 

Integration with Twitter

Tadarus system has added a unique feature to its new version: integration with Twitter. It links every course with a hashtag, which enables the students to follow the course updates.

Integration with Google calendar

Tadarus system provides an option to integrate with Google calendar in order to register the time of the public and personal events as well as the courses’ events.

 

E-mail

The system provides all the basic functions of emails, which enable the student to send and receive emails, attach different files to the emails, display the addresses of the registered instructors and students, and search for different topics in the emails.

 

Administration of folders/files

The system provides a tool that enables the student to store his files, exchange them with his colleagues and instructors, and review the files sent by the instructor to the course’s students or his group. In addition, the system provides all the options relevant to the administration of folders and files, such as the options to create, delete, copy, and move files and folders.

 

Calendar/Announcements

Tadarus system provides a calendar for appointments in order to help the instructors and students organize their personal appointments. The calendar automatically displays the appointments relevant to the course, such as the dates of the exams, submission of the assignments, and live lectures. The system displays the calendar in different ways (monthly, weekly, or daily), and in the form of Hijri and Gregorian calendars.

The system also provides the system administrator and the course instructor with a suitable tool which enables them to post announcements at the level of the institution or at the level of the course. They appear either on the student’s personal page or on the course’s page, according to the type of the announcement.

 

Dynamic roles

Tadarus is characterized by great flexibility in the assignment of powers and roles for the users and user groups via the “dynamic roles” feature, which enables the system administrator to create a new role and grant it different powers in the different sections of the system, then grant this role to the users and user groups.

 

Mobile application

Tadarus system provides many learning activities on mobile devices via the application available on Google Play and Apple Stores. This application provides many specifications, such as:

• Displaying events, the latest news, and circulars which are published via Tadarus.

• Providing an option to review the student’s record of scores.

• Providing an option to review the list of the courses in which the student is enrolled.

• Offering many electronic services, such as enrollment/withdrawal from courses.

• Providing an option to join live lectures and learning forums.

• Providing an option to send suggestions to the system administrators via the application.

 

Administration of admission and registration

Tadarus system manages all the processes relevant to registration for learning sessions and admission, developing academic plans for the program in which the student is enrolled. This system also enables the student to register in and withdraw from courses according to the requirements of the academic plan.

The system also provides an option to add and record all the student’s course scores and to calculate the cumulative rates. Then, it enables the student who fulfills the requirements of the plan to graduate..

It is also possible to register the students in the exam centers through this system, handle their capacities, distribute the students to the exam rooms, and generate and send seat numbers to each student.

 

Specifications:

• A national product.

• An Arabic system that supports English as well as other languages.

• Easy to use; it can be used without prior training.

• Flexibility in handling the content, operation systems, and databases.

• Easy customization of the system in order for it to fulfill the different requirements of the clients.

• Working via internet and intranet.

• Personalization of the system screens and their appearance as desired by the user.

• Compatibility with the SCORM, AICC, and IMS standards for e-learning.

• Provision of both synchronous and non-synchronous learning tools.

• Integration with the different university systems, and those of admission and registration.

• Central authentication and confidentiality system that limits access to the registered users.

• Reasonable prices for the system license, the modification or integration of the system, or technical support.

• The availability of many versions according to the size of the educational institution (basic version and comprehensive version).

 

Benefits and features:

• Providing education and academic material to the student at any time and any place.

• Providing education to the greatest possible number of learners.

• Providing the option to learn anywhere, thereby transcending the boundaries of place and avoiding problems that arise due to such a limitation.

• Reducing the financial costs relevant to the traditional methods of learning (travel, development of courses, printing, etc.)

• Providing a social learning environment via the different communication tools, announcements, and news.

• Facilitating interaction and communication between the students and instructors within the educational institution and across the world, in addition to supporting cooperative learning.

• Providing a variety of ways to evaluate the students’ learning.

• Easy measurement of the student’s learning, and allowing a follow up of their progress via the option to follow up the different sections and learning activities (reviewing the lessons, assignments, exams, etc.).

• Automating routine work in order to enable the instructor to focus on more important tasks.

 

Beneficiaries

• Ministries of education

• Governmental and non-governmental universities and colleges

• Governmental and non-governmental schools

• Companies

• Training centers and institutes

• Open universities and distance learning programs