Edraak

What It Is

Edraak is an Arabic-language MOOC platform: an online catalog of open courses that any Arabic speaker can join for free. Its About page describes it as "منصة إلكترونية عربية للمساقات الجماعية مفتوحة المصادر (MOOCs)" (an Arab online platform for massive open online courses) and says it was founded on the initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development. It is a learner product. People register through a "سجّل مجاناً" (register for free) button, choose courses or specializations, study them online or in the Edraak app, and earn electronic completion certificates. The site runs in Arabic and offers an English interface option.

The About page opens with a line from Queen Rania Al Abdullah explaining the name: Edraak was launched "لكي ندرك ما فاتنا" (so that we catch up on what we have missed) and reach a future worthy of the region's history.

What Learners Get

The catalog is organized into learning areas. The menu names five: job readiness (الاستعداد الوظيفي), technology (التكنولوجيا), self-development (تطوير الذات), business and entrepreneurship (الأعمال والريادة), and languages (اللغات), with a link to discover all areas. Within them, learners can browse individual courses (الدورات) or specializations (التخصصات), which group related courses, and a partners section sits beside them in the menu. A separate school education platform (منصة التعليم المدرسي) is linked from the footer for school-level learning.

On content, the About page says Edraak aims to provide high-quality courses whose content is developed by leading experts and academics from the Arab world and beyond, and that it also offers some international courses translated into Arabic. The page presents Edraak as serving the Arab teacher as much as the Arab learner, and as a way for the Arab world to present its own culture and image to the world. It adds that Edraak works to bring forward Arab experts from every field, encouraging them to enrich Arabic educational content online by developing courses and publishing them on the platform.

The help center's guide to continuous learning on Edraak walks a new learner from creating an account, through the information the form asks for, to activating the account and changing its settings later, with an article explaining Edraak's learning system as a whole. It also shows how a course runs. Its articles cover attending lectures, taking part in each course's discussion page, solving tests, checking the grades page to follow progress, and deadlines for submitting assignments and tests. Each learner also has a personal learning dashboard (لوحتي التعليمية), reached from the account menu. Other help articles deal with enrolling in more than one course at once, joining a course after it has started or after it has ended, how long a course lasts and how to find its schedule, whether there is any penalty for not finishing, and how to suggest a new course to Edraak.

Certificates

According to the About page, learners can obtain course completion certificates electronically ("الحصول على شهادات إتمام المساقات بشكل إلكتروني"). The help center has a cluster of articles on them: whether there is a certificate after each course, how to issue one, when it is issued, whether it can be sent in printed form, whether it can be issued in English, and whether an Edraak certificate matters in the job market.

Price

Edraak's offer is free. The About page states that Edraak provides the opportunity to enroll in a variety of courses at all levels "لجميع الناطقين باللغة العربية وبشكل مجاني" (for all Arabic speakers, free of charge), and the sign-up button itself reads "register for free." The help center also carries an article on how to enroll and whether enrollment is free. There are no paid plans or prices on the pages.

Who Is Behind It

The Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development, according to the About page, was established in 2013 out of a belief in the importance of education and in every child's right to a good education in Jordan and the Arab world. The foundation emphasizes reading as the key to learning other subjects, and works to identify gaps in education, design solutions, and provide data and evidence for decisions inside and outside the classroom.

The same page names a founding partner. It says that from the start Edraak was meant as an Arab initiative serving all Arab peoples "من المحيط إلى الخليج" (from the Ocean to the Gulf), that the foundation sought support from Arab leaders for it, and that His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, joined as Edraak's first founding partner.

On technology and partnerships, the About page states that Edraak works in partnership with edX, which it describes as one of the first online learning platforms in the world and affiliated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It also describes a research and information arm that studies and analyzes data to improve the learning experience and develop better methods for Arab learners. The team, the page says, brings together e-learning experts who believe in the principle "العلم لمن يريد" (knowledge is for whoever seeks it).

Access, App and Support

Edraak runs on the web and in a mobile app, advertised with the line "تعلم في أي وقت ومن أي مكان مع تطبيق إدراك!" (learn anytime and anywhere with the Edraak app). The website supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge and prompts users on other browsers to install one of these. Support runs through a help center where learners can search articles and submit a request, plus a contact page. Edraak also publishes a blog and the Edraak podcast, and links to its social media accounts. Its legal pages include terms of service, a privacy policy, a cookie policy and a data analysis agreement.

Who It Suits

Edraak suits Arabic speakers who want free online courses in their own language, whether they are preparing for work, picking up technology skills, building business and entrepreneurship knowledge, working on personal development or learning a language. It fits self-directed learners who are comfortable following lectures, discussions and tests online and want a completion certificate at the end, and people who learn mainly on a phone through the app. Arab experts who want to teach in Arabic will also find a platform that actively invites them to publish courses. Learners who want a certificate for a job application can read the help center's articles on how certificates are issued and what they are worth before they start.