ICT as Learning Tools and Collaborative Work Facilitators in the

Moroccan University Educational System: Summary, Review and

Optimization Approach

Bouchaib Riyami

1,2

, Khalifa Mansouri

and Franck Poirier

Lab-STICC Information Techniques and Sciences of Communication and Knowledge,

Université Bretagne Sud, Vannes, France

Signals, Distributed Systems and Artificial Intelligence (SSDIA), Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco

Keywords: ICT, ICTE, Mooc, Moroccan Educational System, Moroccan Higher Education, Distance Learning,

e-Learning, Collaborative Work.

Abstract: In the Moroccan university educational system, courses, tutorials and hands-on exercises are taught in face-

to-face lectures. This means that learners’ attendance is required in all training sessions. Learners do not

have access to alternatives courses, nor to the explanations and lecture notes. There is also a lack of distance

education (henceforth, e-learning system) allowing them to have flexible access to course content. For these

reasons, the learners, especially those who, for some reason or other, cannot attend the face-to-face lectures,

prefer to work in groups to re-discuss and rework all course sections not seen with their teachers.

Our contribution is to highlight the different uses of ICT tools by Moroccan university students during their

daily collaborative work in relation to projects and assignments requested by their teachers, and also to

advance a practical means to revise some sections of the course with learners with difficulties, and explain

the difficult parts to learners who have not attended the face-to-face sessions. We then unveil some

obstacles which hamper the success of "e-learning” in the Moroccan university educational system, relying

on our daily experience as university teachers for the last fifteen years, as well as on statistical data on the

appropriation of ICT by university students.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Moroccan university educational system faces

many difficulties in trying to successfully integrate

ICTE (Information Technologies and

Communication for Education) (Luc Trouche, 2014)

(NdibnuessinaEthé and NyaNouatcha, 2014),

collaborative work and distance learning as learning

tools. Learners continue to follow the traditional

system requiring obligatory attendance in all training

sessions. To overcome this inconvenience, students

try to use some technological tools and social

networks as a collaborative work environment, to

learn and improve their educational level (Naji, 2014).

In this paper, the main ICT tools used by

Moroccan university students in achieving their

collaborative work, learning, and distance education

will be dealt with in detail.

The remainder of the paper is structured as

follows: the first section describes the current

situation of the Moroccan educational system, in

terms of equipment, platforms and digital content.

Section 2 presents the current practices of ICT by

university students. Section 3 describes a mapping

synthesis using ICT tools to develop a good

collaborative work. Section 4 proposes a process for

improving the use of ICT tools in the Moroccan

educational system. Last, Section 5 concludes the

paper and discusses future work.

2 THE CURRENT SITUATION IN

TERMS OF EQUIPMENT,

PLATFORMS AND DIGITAL

CONTENT

In so far as the use and exploitation of ICT as a tool

for teaching and training is concerned, we can divide

the Moroccan educational system into three different

246

Riyami, B., Mansouri, K. and Poirier, F.

ICT as Learning Tools and Collaborative Work Facilitators in the Moroccan University Educational System: Summary, Review and Optimization Approach.

In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2016) - Volume 1, pages 246-250

ISBN: 978-989-758-179-3

categories: public higher education (universities),

private higher education and vocational education.

In this part, each category is dealt with according to

the following parameters: material resources,

software means and human resources.

2.1 Public Higher Education

In the public higher education, the major problem

encountered relates to the management, motivation

and ownership of ICT by learners and teachers

(Kaikai, 2014). Practically, all universities and

institutions of higher education in Morocco use

equipment purchased as part of the annual budgets

of the state, free software (open source) or paid

(under license) through specific agreements, like

Microsoft educational Academy

, CISCO

Networking Academy

, ORACLE University for

Education (Oracle University for education

), ....

Some universities have implemented national

DWE (Digital Work Environment) such as SAC

(Central Authentication Service) in Hassan 1st

University in Settat, or DEUW (Digital Environment

University Work) in Hassan II university in

Casablanca, and have recruited specialized teachers

in ICT, but the weekly workload is very slim to

allow for the delivery of enough courses (6-12 hours

per week on average). In addition, the Moroccan

government has launched several incentive programs

for the benefit of the entire administrative staff,

teachers and university students, such as INJAZ

(INJAZ AL-Maghreb)

program for the acquisition

of computers for preferential prices, and free internet

access for one year; the MARWAN project

(Morocco Wide Area Network) to interconnect all

the Moroccan universities and educational

institutions; the GENIE project (Generalization of

ICTs in Education 2009-2013) (Kabbaj et al., 2009

the financing of the introduction of educational

platforms in all universities and Moroccan

educational institutions, and finally the

generalization of broadband internet access in all

rooms, halls and classes, in all Moroccan

universities.

Despite all these facilities and the diversity of

free platforms, we find that the educational content

platform is very limited because of a number of

barriers which relate to the educational system itself,

such as the policy of implementation of ICT

http://it-learning-maroc.com

http://www.netacad.com

http://www.oracle.com

http://www.etudiant.ma/actualite-programme-injaz-intel-un-ordina

teur-pour-chaque-etudiant-1709.html or http://injaz-morocco.org/

development strategy, obstacles relating to the

support, development and motivation of human

resources, barriers relating to language and culture,

and last but not least, technical problems which

relate to the implementation of the technological

infrastructure (Mastafi, 2014).

2.2 Private Higher Education

The private higher education sector uses ICT in the

curricula of initial and continuous training, with a

utilization rate better than that of public higher

education. However, it remains insufficient in

providing the benefits of learning platforms. In this

sector, the exploitation of ICT is mandatory for

certain structures that have outsourced training in

partnership with French or other international

universities. This is the result of cooperation

agreements and partnerships with non-Moroccan

institutions that require the use of ICT in their

teaching, and which is generally aligned with current

trends of ICT. Other structures integrate ICT in their

training as supplementary tools to coach learners

(Quintin, 2008), to improve the quality of teaching

and to have a leading edge over other schools and

private universities in a highly competitive

educational market.

2.3 Vocational Education

The vocational education and particularly in the case

of the training of specialized technicians, by national

offices OFPPT

(Office of Vocational Training and

Work Promotion) over a period of two years after

the baccalaureate, operates ICTE in all training

curricula by a much higher rate than the private and

public higher education sectors

. The

implementation of ICT in this sector was achieved

through a good organizational strategy, motivated

teaching staff, partnership agreements with large

organizations of information technology IT, such as

Microsoft Education, CISCO Networking Academy,

ORACLE University for Education....

The educational content of these platforms is rich

and varied - improved by the latest technology, in

the form of text, animated images, sound, video and

virtual machines. Laboratories, practical workshops,

code scripts, quizzes and exams are already

integrated. At the end of their training course,

learners have to sit for written exams and exams on

eLearning platforms. Successful students receive

certificates, in addition to a specialized technician’s

http://www.ofppt.ma/offre-de-formation2/presentation-de-l-offre.h

tml

ICT as Learning Tools and Collaborative Work Facilitators in the Moroccan University Educational System: Summary, Review and

Optimization Approach

247

degree from OFPPT. Graduates of the Vocational

educational sector ae easily integrated in the

professional field. They are also allowed to enroll in

the third year of a private higher education institute,

as well as in the “professional license” (a

professional bachelor’s degree) in a public

university.

3 CURRENT USES OF ICT

TOOLS IN LEARNING AND

COLLABORATIVE WORK

In the last decade, the explosion of ICT, the diversity

of international learning platforms, the MOOC

(Massive Open Online Courses) (Bachelet, 2014)

(Delpeyroux and Bachelet, 2015), the appearance of

smart devices such as smartphones, tablets and other

mobile devices, and the revolution in social

networks like Facebook, Viadeo, Linkedin, Twitter,

became very powerful means to facilitate education

and training by promoting easy sharing, effective

and flexible learning. They allow learners who have

not had the chance to enroll in one of the best

universities in the world to enjoy the same course

content to learn and improve their knowledge.

Because in the Moroccan university educational

system, we notice a weakness in terms of

educational content of ICT platforms, learners and

teachers benefit from using social networks like

Facebook for purposes of knowledge sharing and

collaborative work (Mélot, 2015). Other learners use

DropBox tool for sharing documents, courses,

practical workshops and articles. A third category

uses the services offered by Google, such as Google

Drive for sharing of all types of documents and files,

as well as Gmail for messaging and asynchronous

communication teacher-student accounts. Several

other categories of learners prefer the use of

YouTube and enjoy videos which offer a better

educational content.

For videoconferencing, synchronous

communication and sharing presentations, learners

use "Skype". This tool is also used in the case of

lessons, lectures, oral presentations or remote

selection interviews. In addition, appointments and

meetings, bindings are done via Doodle tools and

shared Google Calendar. Students enter their free

time slots in the Doodle application that is shared by

all learners, who decide the most suitable timing for

everyone according to the intersection of the free

slots provided in this application. The shared Google

calendar recalls the events, activities, tasks and work

to be done, specifying all working parameters such

as date, time, location, guest learners and other

issues. The shared Google calendar also offers the

ability to synchronize all tasks to be performed, via

mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, for

example.

4 ICT TOOLS TO DEVELOP

COLLABORATIVE

DISTRIBUTED WORKS

In this section, we propose a cartographic synthesis

of the use of ICT tools for learners of the Moroccan

educational system to develop collaborative

distributed works in order to optimize the use of

these tools. This map shows explicitly how the

students work in groups to try to develop a well-

structured and well-presented collaborative

teamwork, using ICT tools for sharing documents,

synchronizing treatments, fixing work appointments,

recalling the events of group work, synchronous and

asynchronous communication and other distance

learning needs.

Our mapping is composed of collaborative work

tasks related to appropriate ICT tools to facilitate

good interaction between learners in order to

develop an efficient working team.

Figure 1: T Allocation of adequate ICT tools for

collaborative work tasks used by Moroccan university

students.

The map in Figure 1 outlines the main ICT tools

currently used by Moroccan university students

during their collaborative work, and a very low use

of MOOC platforms or international e-learning

content, because of the lack or absence of the

CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

248

learning platforms in the Moroccan higher education

system.

5 APPROACH TO OPTIMIZING

THE USE OF ICT TOOLS IN

THE MOROCCAN EDUCATION

SYSTEM

In this section, we propose some steps and

recommendations to increase the rate of use of ICT

in education, as a key development sector.

We invite teachers to:

 Participate in periodic trainings on learning

platforms to update their teaching content for

the benefit of learners.

 Track the interactions of learners on learning

platforms.

 Train learners on the efficient use of

international free learning platforms such as

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) (I.

Nawrot and A. Doucet, 2014).

 Interact with the students when using online

courses (emails, forums, discussions via

social networks, etc.).

This invitation can only be fruitful if the following

set of working conditions is met:

 The acquisition of appropriate equipment.

 The installation and the configuration of

learning platforms.

 The listing of teachers in regular trainings.

 The updating of the educational content on

these platforms.

 Yearly commitments signed by teachers to

ensure the updating of the educational

content and the continuous use of the

platforms of learning.

 The Moral and the material motivation of the

teachers involved in this endeavor, given that

these tasks are additional to their usual tasks.

The proposals mentioned in this paper are inspired

by:

 Our daily work as university teachers and

trainers in the field of ICT for several

decades.

 Our weekly and monthly meetings with other

university teachers and researchers from

different Moroccan and foreign universities.

 Our meetings at seminars and academic

conferences on ICT.

 Statistical studies that have been carried out

on the appropriation of ICT by learners

(sample of 750 students) (Ait Kaikai, 2014).

 Further studies on teaching approaches of

ICT in higher education in Morocco (Bezzari,

2013).

6 CONCLUSION

In this paper, we presented a report on the current

situation of the Moroccan higher educational system

in terms of equipment, e-learning platforms and

digital learning content, and we also tried to

highlight the current ICT practices by Moroccan

university students in distance learning and

achievement of collaborative work.

We then proposed a cartography which

represents the allocation of ICT tools for

collaborative tasks to meet the learners’ needs, and

we noticed a very low utilization of MOOC

platforms by Moroccan higher educational

institutions. We also tried to propose a tentative

optimization approach of the tools mentioned in the

cartographic synthesis using ICT tools, relying on

our professional experience, as well as statistical

studies to improve the rate of use of ICT and

especially MOOC by university students in

Morocco.

REFERENCES

A. Naji, 2014 «Vers un nouveau module d’apprentissage à

base de scénarios adaptatifs,» thesis, University

Hassan II Mohammedia-Casablanca Morocco.

H. Ait Kaikai, 2014 « Appropriation des Technologies de

l’Information et de la Communication au sein de

l’Université marocaine : Point de vue des étudiants »

laboratory : communications, media, organisations

Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences Ben M'Sik,

University Hassan II Mohammedia, Morocco.

I. Nawrot and A. Doucet, 2014 « Building Engagement for

MOOC Students – Introducing Supprot for Time

Management on Online Learning Platforms »,

communication in a conference WWW’2014.

J. NdibnuessinaEthé and G. Willy NyaNouatcha, 2014

« Usage des TIC et développement des compétences

professionnelles chez les enseignants en formation

initiale au Département d’Informatique et des

Technologies Educatives de l’Ecole Normale

Supérieure de l’université de YaoundéI ».

J. Quintin, 2008 «Accompagnement tutoral d’une

formation collective via Internet, analyse des effets de

cinq modalités d’intervention tutorale sur

l’apprentissage en groupes restreints,» thesis, the

ICT as Learning Tools and Collaborative Work Facilitators in the Moroccan University Educational System: Summary, Review and

Optimization Approach

249

University Stendhal-Grenoble 3 / University of Mons-

Hainault.

Kabbaj, M. Talbi, M. Drissi My, M. Abouhanifa, 2009.

Programme GENIE au Maroc : TICE et

développement professionnel. Mathématice. N° 16.

September. in ligne http://revue.sesamath.net/spip.php

?article233.

L. Mélot, 2015 « le réseau social Facebook comme

support d’apprentissage pour les étudiants

universitaires », communication in a EIAH'2015

Congress, Agadir Morocco.

M. Mastafi, 2014 « Obstacles à l’intégration des

technologies de l’information et de la communication

(TIC) dans le système éducatif marocain. » CARISM

and IREC, University Panthéon Assas Paris 2, France

Laboratory of Studies and Research on the

Intercultural University Chouaib Doukkali Morocco.

R. Bachelet, 2014. Les MOOC, analyse de dispositifs,

Évaluation par les pairs, atelier n°1 : Les MOOC :

analyse de dispositifs médiatisés et d’usages par des

apprenants Colloque TECFA e-learning 3.0,

Université de Genève, 17-18 octobre 2014

http://gestionde projet.pm/mes-contributions-sur-les-

MOOC.

S. Bezzari, 2013 « Quelle(s) approche(s) pédagogiques

des TIC dans l’Enseignement supérieur au Maroc »,

http://www.adjectif.net/spip/spip.php?article230.

S. Luc Trouche, 2014 « Les recherches francophones en

TICE dans le pourtour sud de la Méditerranée »,report

study funded by IFIC (Institut de la Francophonie for

knowledge engineering and distance education),

supported by the involvement of teams from the

French Institute of Education (ENS Lyon) Lyon in

March 2014.

S. Delpeyroux & R. Bachelet, 2015 « Intégrer un MOOC

dans un cursus de formation initiale ». Colloquy:

Teaching Issues in Higher Education (QPES) 2015,

June 2015, Brest, France, Proceedings of the

Symposium Pedagogy Issues in Higher Education

(QPES).

CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

250