The Future of Education

Maha Al-Freih is an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Princess Nourah Bint Abdularahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from King Saud University, Riyadh, her M.A. in Teaching and Learning with Technology from Santa Clara University, CA, and her PhD in Learning Technologies Design Research with an emphasis in Instructional Design and Technology from George Mason University. In Saudi Arabia, she provided technology training for the Institute of Banking and Alyamama University as well as faculty training workshops on the integration of social media in teaching and learning at Princess Nora University. In addition to teaching and technology training, she has participated in a number of national and international conferences. She joined the “Humanizing Online Instruction” MOOC team in the spring of 2015 and participates as a way finder during its multiple offerings on the Canvas Open Network.
During her PhD studies, Maha worked as a graduate research assistant where she worked on research projects related to social media and the development and utilization of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) for formal and informal learning. Further, she designed, developed, and delivered a workshop on portfolio creation using Google sites, twitter, and blogs to 50 in-service teachers at the Virginia Center for Teaching Excellence at George Mason University. Her primary research interests include learners’ engagement and persistence in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Personal Learning Environments (PLEs), Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), Learning Analytics, and Design-Based Research (DBR).

Areas of expertise: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), Faculty and teacher Professional Development, Informal learning.