E-Learning Combats Corona

One positive aspect that resulted from (Corona) is that we’ve finally decided to invest in e-learning and deal with distance learning software, and actively pursue this field. We used to consider this type of software as an (accessory) of our computer devices! Corona, despite the problems it brought forth, has also brought another infection with it, which is the infection of distance e-learning, which gave citizens opportunities for self-teaching, which is the “correct basis for learning”. Now, we have entered the era of real electronic governments that serve people electronically.

This generalization does not apply to all sectors involved in education, as there are a few of them that continued with the distance e-learning system they were working with, and faced the lockdown imposed due to the Coronavirus with more online classes.
Corona is on the top of the list of daily news, as this unique infection that results from any contact with the infected person, and with it, the distance e-learning infection also tops the list, because its popularity coincidentally spread at the same time. However, we did not catch this trend from teaching methods that already existed in other places and tried to apply them here. E-learning in the civilized world is the proverbial basis for any e-learning system, and no two disagree on its importance. On the contrary, the creation of an educational program is a condition for graduation from the compulsory education stages!
As for our situation, it has become increasingly confusing, as we no longer differentiate between what we need and what we do not. We import ideas, whether they are useful to us or not. Where do we stand as far as real learning is concerned? Our countries do not even recognize distance learning, but continue to unfortunately still write in the certificates the word "distance", indicating that the recipient of this certificate received his education through the distance learning system! What kind of infection is this which has forced us to learn remotely, and what misfortune has brought us to the world of remote technical e-learning? It is the coronavirus and none else!
Today, technology proves that it has the solutions in hand, as nations use it to search for a cure for the Coronavirus, and companies use it to for their work and development. Technology has kept education going during these circumstances, and it has also helped eradicate the gaps between the haves and have nots; I mean those who have the means to purchase a library of tens of thousands of books and those who own nothing but a small device whose price does not exceed the price of twenty books out of those ten thousand, yet it enables its owner to read countless books.

I remember my old friend and we were discussing the number of times a student is allowed to refer back to an e-resource while writing his thesis, and my friend used to deplore students' reference to e-books in their theses, and described them as helpless and lazy, and even called such book fraudulent!
Disasters may ultimately have benefits, such as how we resorted to technology and e-learning, in the times of Corona. The transmission of e-learning became equal to the transmission of the Coronavirus among people, and the panic that Corona has caused in the world has put things back into perspective; from the need to take precautions and follow preventive measures, maintain our hygiene, to adopting a healthy lifestyle.
What used to be a luxury yesterday, has now become mandatory, and people often only

respond to what they are made to do. This is what happened with our return to educational technology. Just as the Coronavirus has turned into a global (trend), education technology has also transformed, as countries had two options; either to stop learning or adopt distance learning with an e-strategy, mistakenly known to the media as (alternative), while it is anything but!
The name (distance learning) is not meant to suggest inferiority or even a disorder in the system of learning methods, but on the contrary, it suggests (the ability to learn) and (lifelong learning), and we must be aware that dispensing with traditional learning has become imminent, and therefore, there will be no need for direct contact between a teacher and a learner in a school, or its equivalent, throughout the coming period.

E-learning is not (alternative) learning and is not only a temporary solution in difficult times. Rather, it is a fundamental solution for the learner who is earning a living all day and does not have time to go to the place of learning. We must provide a global technological infrastructure capable of adapting to their lifestyle at all times and throughout the year. The time has come for the student to choose between two learning systems, either direct learning or indirect learning, which we call e-learning without calling it (distance) or (alternative).
The Coronavirus has revealed the reality of our education technology, and it is time for us to establish an advanced e-education system. Not as an alternative in difficult times as is the case now, but to be used as a substitute to traditional learning methods, a learning tool, and one of the learning resources in the classroom, throughout the year, even during the summer vacation. Therefore, we have to gradually integrate e-learning technology with traditional learning to prepare the learners and to transform these difficult circumstances into a blessing.