Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization

While massive research has been conducted to see how remote learning and teaching is conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, less focus has been paid on remote special education for students with disabilities. Therefore, it is still not clear how those students learned and what types of challenges they faced. To fill this gap, this study first collected data from the literature via a systematic literature review, and from both 51 teachers and 21 students with disabilities who were involved in this remote teaching and learning experiences via surveys. It then conducted bibliometric, content and thematic analysis to draw conclusions. The obtained findings highlighted that online and offline remote teaching methods from home were applied. Additionally, different learning assessment methods, such as mini-projects and simple quizzes were adopted by teachers to assess the gained knowledge of students remotely, but none of these methods relied on emerging technologies, such as big data and learning analytics. Finally, parents were a core actor to maintain remote learning from home for students with disabilities.

The review of existing literature, surveys and studies on the status of smart learning and ICT use in education in Arab countries uncovered disparate levels of readiness and preparedness, embracing both strategic and implementation sides. In that regard, a set of key elements meeting the demands of smart learning in the Arab region need to be defined, namely: policy development, raising awareness and capacity building, technological infrastructure (mobile technology, cloud computing, and smart classroom infrastructure) and open learning. These key elements encompass the basis of the proposed ALECSO Smart Learning Framework. This paper gives an overview of that framework and presents its related projects and activities towards supporting and developing smart learning in Arab countries.