Designing an e-course in arabic as a foreign language : issues and challenges

This paper reports on an e-learning course Media Arabic'. It describes the issues and challenges associated with the design of the course for non-native speakers of Arabic and the technological tools used in its development. To create instructional materials, the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) has been adopted. The course was integrated on the freely available Moodle learning management platform. Most of the teaching materials are based on actual TV news. These are supplemented with instructive podcasts to guide students throughout the material when used on-line. This newly designed course permits students, not only to improve their listening skills but also their vocabulary, note-taking, and communication skills. This paper presents the objectives of this web-based Arabic listening course, explains its online structure, and discusses the development problems encountered.