Bridging E-Gaps at PNU by using Alternative Energy

In the last decade eLearning has proven to be a flexible and time-efficient means of studying and achieving continuing professional development. Shift from the traditional instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm is needed in higher education and lifelong learning. These days learning and development professionals are therefore continuously looking for new ways of mobilizing and sharing information and knowledge between colleagues and communities in an online environment. Many Saudi higher education institutions have adopted e-learning in some form as part of their curriculum offering. According to 2011 Webometrics ranking King Saud University ranks first in the Arab world, 21 among all Asian universities and 212 worldwide with regard to Web visibility and impact.Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) is the first women's university in Saudi Arabia and largest women-only university in the world. Science school at PNU is moving to a new campus next summer, the existing old building and time limit are not suitable for building e-classrooms within the old campus. However, Mobile learning can form another online learning option overcoming the perceived inadequacies of the existing infrastructure of conventional e-learning. mobile network also provides unique advantages or features such as the position or location of the device and personalization (both user preferences and device capabilities). When wireless or mobile phone networks combined with renewable energy systems such as photo-voltaic solar panels or solar chargers they can be stand alone systems. The exploitation of ubiquitous handheld technologies, together with wireless and mobile phone networks enable faculties and students at science school at PNU to construct mobile learning within an old campus. The purpose of the present work is to design and implement Mobile-classrooms at PNU old campus using renewable energy resources, and then to study the effect mobile learning has on academic student learning achievements.