Dubai kick-starts regional e-learning association

More than 300 leading practitioners from all over the Gulf, Asia, Europe, and the USA were delegates to the inaugural conference that took place at Dubai's Madinat Jumeirah Convention Centre.

Conference director Sally-Ann Moore, one of the worlds' leading experts in e-learning - the $23-billion industry that is the fastest-growing sector in international education, says the decision to set up a regional professional body will give a further boost to Dubai's acknowledged status as a world leader in on-line learning.

"There are now about 130 million on-line learners across the world and the new association - in conjunction with Dubai and MELT - will have a vital role in shaping the next phase of development," she predicted.

"The response from delegates was so positive that Dubai has already been confirmed as the host for MELT 2006 in preference to other candidates, underlining the city's leadership in a region that is already at the international forefront of e-learning advances.

"The new professional association will foster international and regional cooperation between industry players and give a huge boost to adapting global initiatives to match local requirements."

Conversely, leading regional players used MELT as a platform to bring local initiatives to a global market. Dubai-based Universal Knowledge Solutions chose the event to launch its Learn Exact programme, that allows any organization to speed up the process of creating, indexing, storing, revising and managing e-learning content.

And Jordan's Integrated Technology Group (ITG) presented its international award winning EduWare web-based platform, hailed as the most comprehensive in the global market for multi-lingual tool for different grades of e-learning, integrating learning systems, content, students, and management.

More than 500 e-learning professionals, VIP guests, and delegations from seven educational ministries across the region took part in MELT workshops or visited the exhibition that ran parallel to the two-day event that for the first time in the Middle East brought together specialists, vendors and users of e-learning and knowledge management.

"The Europe and Middle East e-learning market is alone estimated at more than $6 billion this year," said conference director Moore. "The Gulf region represents the fastest-growing e-learning market in the world today, and Melt has demonstrated how regional expertise can have a global impact."