A new plan to develop the faculty’s efficiency

Zayed University revealed the details of its plan to improve the performance of the members of the teaching and supervisory bodies in the next stage, as it monitored a package of qualitative initiatives and developed specialized programs offered for the first time, enhancing the efficiency of its cadres, and keeping pace with educational and technical developments in higher education.

The associate professor at the Educational Innovation Center at Zayed University, Dr. Wafaa Shehadeh Zogper, told «Emirates Today» that these programs have become an urgent necessity in the era of successive transformations and developments in the higher education sector.

She added: “We focus in particular on developing the efficiency of academic supervisors on graduate students, through the (Graduate Teacheting Orientation – GTO – which is mandatory for faculty members at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and is periodically traced to ensure its compatibility with the national framework of qualifications approved by the Ministry of Education.”

And she added, “The plan includes focusing on technology topics and artificial intelligence applications in education, which reflects a development in the awareness of the faculty members of the requirements of the current and future stage.”

She talked about the spread of error concepts about the use of technology in education, saying: “The accelerated change in the tools of artificial intelligence makes it necessary for the center to remain on a permanent knowledge, and to provide modern and effective training content that is in line with these transformations.”

She explained that the center offers distinguished courses, including the course of “classroom research in higher education” and the course “educational experience using artificial intelligence tools (LX-Ei), which covers the cognitive, applied and research dimensions, and aims to enable academics to conduct solid educational research with a tangible impact.

And she added, “Despite the center’s focus on developing the quality of education, we pay great attention to supporting researchers in applying for research grants, whether by preparing them to use artificial intelligence tools in the design and implementation of research, or by organizing specialized training sessions in the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.”

Shehadeh concluded her statements by confirming that the philosophy of the Educational Innovation Center at Zayed University is based on achieving real integration between the quality of university education and scientific research, noting that all the programs and initiatives offered by the center aim to build a dynamic academic environment that supports excellence and keeps pace with future changes.