ITWorx and Maarif sign agreement to broaden reach of ITWorx e-learning solutions across KSA at BETT Middle East

United Arab Emirates: Monday, November 22 - 2010 - AMEinfo.com

ITWorx, the Middle East's leading software professional services firm and a global expert in e-learning products and services, today signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Saudi company, Maarif for Education and Training. The agreement was signed on the second day of BETT Middle East, the international Education Technology Exhibition held in Abu Dhabi for the very first time in the Middle East.

The MoU will have Maarif, the largest K-12 private education institution in the KSA, become a reseller of ITWorx Education products to schools all over Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this year, ITWorx has successfully delivered 'Maarif Learning Gateway', a customised e-learning solution based on the ITWorx CLG (Connected Learning Gateway) platform, and its add-on solutions, serving 15 Manarat schools -part of Maarif's education institutions network- with more than 22,000 users.

ITWorx CLG is a dynamic, multilingual social e-learning platform that is intuitive for teachers, attractive for students, inviting for parents, decision-enabler for principals, and easy-to-handle for administrators. CLG makes e-learning accessible for all in classrooms, at homes and on hand-held devices.

“Having used CLG and its add-on, AuthorExpert, an application to create multimedia rich e-lessons and assessments, in our schools, we've had such a successful first-hand experience that it becomes mandatory we see to the wide-spread of CLG and its tools across the Kingdom,” said Reda Abd El-Haleem, Chief Financial Officer, Maarif.

“The reseller agreement will help us initiate a new wave of education sector development. ITWorx advanced, bilingual (English/Arabic) e-learning products present us with the right tools to provide enriched educational experiences to all stakeholders starting from school administration and upper management to students, teachers, and parents,” he added.

Medhat Karam, General Manager, Education, ITWorx, believes the agreement honors a rich history of cooperation between the two leading companies, who both are after the same goal of providing the right tools for the right quality education.

“We are keen to constantly provide our customers with latest and most valuable tools," Karam said. "We have recently delivered Maarif the mParent application, a mobile application that helps parents monitor student's academic performance anytime and anywhere through handheld and mobile devices. mParent genuinely spurs parents' deeper involvement in their children's lives,” Karam added.

Ashraf ElGuindi, Chairman of the Executive Board, Maarif, said “We wanted more parental engagement and with mParent, parents in Manarat schools, can browse CLG multi-child dashboards, access academic progress details, receive notifications on all child activities at school, and liaise with school management via mobile phones such as Nokia, Blackberry, and iPhone.”

ITWorx next step with Maarif is to provide richer content services for their teachers and students with the help Encyclopædia Britannica.

“Through the CLG, we will provide secure round-the-clock access to Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition, presenting students and teachers with hundreds of articles, illustrations, interactive games and multimedia resources that Britannica adapts for non-native speakers through on-demand, real-time and accurate translation,” Karam added.

Caroline Kennard, Director of Education for Encyclopædia Britannica, UK, commented: “Having been established since 240 years, Britannica has a reputation for offering reliable and trusted information. Britannica School Edition provides the same level of accuracy for students as well as teachers in class and at home, it is, also, a fantastic source of knowledge, featuring articles, videos, pictures and games.”

“We are delighted to be working with ITWorx and Maarif ensuring thousands of learners and educators in the KSA have access to the most updated and accurate source of knowledge worldwide,” she added.

By virtue of the reseller agreement, Maarif will be able to transfer ITWorx stack of e-learning solutions and expertise to the ultimate benefit of K12 education system in KSA.

About Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica has been a leader in reference and education publishing since 1768. Britannica has been a pioneer in electronic publishing since the early 1980s. It publishes products which can be found in a variety of media, from the internet to mobile phones to books.
Britannica School Edition is a unique, up-to-date, online resource designed to satisfy the learning needs of school pupils and teachers. Packed full of interactive lessons, games, images, videos as well as articles, Britannica’s resources help to build research skills as well as engage pupils by making learning fun and interactive. Britannica Online - clear, current and correct – brings all the authority and scholarship of Encyclopædia Britannica to the classroom.
For further information visit: www.britannica.co.uk/education

About Maarif:
Maarif is the largest K-12 private education institution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It serves more than 22,000 students in its Arabic and International schools spread across all major geographic regions in the country.

About ITWorx:
ITWorx is a global software professional services organization serving Governments, Educational institutions, Telecommunication operators, Financial Services firms, and Media organizations in North America, Europe, and the Middle East through a myriad of services, including Portals, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Application Integration, Advanced Infrastructure Services, Application Development Outsourcing, Quality Assurance, Security, and Support. For more information, visit www.itworx.com.
ITWorx is a Microsoft Gold Certified and Strategic Education Partner specialized in providing K12 solutions to ministries of education, local counties, and private schools and academic institutions to help realize their e-learning vision. K12 institutions selecting ITWorx education offerings include Durham County Council schools, Kent County Council, and Twynham school in UK, AL-Ghad Schools in UAE, and Coram Deo Academy in USA.

Encyclopædia Britannica (UK) Ltd
+44 (0)20 7500 7800
enqBOL@britannica.co.uk