Rabat: 30/01/2019

Announcement of winners of 1st edition of ISESCO Prize for Open Digital Educational Resources

ISESCO Prize for Open Digital Educational Resources, in its first edition, was awarded to the following software: “MaktabatyAr-Raqmia” (My E-Library) from the Kingdom of Bahrain, “Improving Oral Communication Skills” from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and “RessourcesNumériques pour Tous” from the Republic of Senegal. The Prize was set up and announced by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in 2018, as part of its action plan and in a bid to encourage digital educational innovations, urge all stakeholders to integrate ICT in education, training, scientificresearch and administrative management, and make them accessible to all. The prize also falls under ISESCO’s efforts to publicize successful innovations and spread the best digital projects reflecting the noble human values and the cultural specificities of the Islamic world,  in such a way as to contribute to providing good education opportunities to different groups, and speed up the rate of Member States’ participation in international efforts to achieve Goal 4 of SDGs for 2030, “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

The Prize was awarded to the three winning software programs in recognition of their high-quality design, technical layout, attention to educational contents likely to benefit students, and facilitated access to such contents, in such a way as to allow students and the public in general to deal with and benefit from their open materials. In this regard,MaktabatyAr-Raqmia(Bahrain)is a website designed by the E-Contents Research Group, as part of the project of His Majesty King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, EduWave Future Schools, which allows uploading and sharing open-source digital educational contents. The second winning software, Improving Oral Communication Skills,(Bangladesh) is an interactive multimedial educational initiative, which is based on a mixed learning pattern (classroom and e-learning) and aims to teach learners oral communication skills in English as a foreign

Language. As for “RessourcesNumériques pour Tous” (Senegal), it was launched at the initiative of the Senegalese Minister of Education in 2016 to ensure the exchange of the best practices relevant to integrating multimedial educational resources at the national level in Senegal.

It is worth noting that ISESCO General Directorate decided that the Prize shall be awarded annually to three initiatives representing each groups of Member States (Arabic, English and French-speaking states), one from each group.