D2L cements presence in MEA with new Dubai office and upcoming online teaching and learning seminar

Brightspace creator sees MEA user base increase in line with forecasted growth of region’s learning management system market to USD 425.2 million by 2019

D2L, the edtech company that created Brightspace, has just announced the opening of its Dubai office to better support its growing operations in the Middle East and Africa. Incidentally, the region’s learning management system market is set to grow to USD 425.2 million by 2019, as per MicroMarket Monitor , at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.6%, thereby outpacing the forecasted global CAGR of 23.76% for the same segment. D2L will be following up this announcement with its first-ever online teaching and learning executive seminar in the region, designed to map out the role innovation and advances in learning management tools play in education, now and in the future. This event will garner the presence and participation of His Excellency Emmanuel Kamarianakis, Consul General of Canada to the UAE.

“Technology-driven education is a fast-emerging regional trend in the Middle East and Africa. Through user interaction with innovative online learning tools, educators can determine a more holistic view of the learner’s progress than possible through traditional assessment methods. We have therefore seen an increase in the region’s uptake of Brightspace and D2L now has over 150,000 users in the Middle East,” said Hanny Alshazly, Regional Director, MEA, D2L.

The region’s governments are working towards taking the education sector to the next level – according to an International Data Corporation study, the GCC is expected to increase its device utilisation to 100% in the coming two years. Kuwait has digitised all school textbooks and deployed e-learning across schools as part of its ‘e-education’ plan. Turkey has announced its intention to provide more than 15 million students across 40,000 schools with tablets in the next four years as part of a USD 1.4 billion-education initiative, whilst Qatar provides each student with a personal learning device as part of a series of ‘e-education’ initiatives.

“The region is increasingly turning to digital platforms, including the new wave of game-based learning and assessment tools, for both classroom and distance education. We intend to explore emerging trends such as these at our upcoming seminar,” added Alshazly.

Commenting on innovations in the Middle East’s education sector and his participation at D2L’s upcoming seminar, His Excellency Kamarianakis said: “The Middle East’s economy is growing and simultaneously diversifying, and efforts are being made to nurture the education sector in line with this, to ensure the new generation of learners are future-ready. It is important to inject a strong, comprehensive learning experience for learners into the region’s infrastructure, and this is what D2L’s seminar is aimed at. I’m happy to offer my support to this initiative.”