The College of Education at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) recently organized an international training course to evaluate educational websites. This training course was organized in cooperation with the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä in Finland as well as Zayed University from the UAE. The training was conducted by Dr. Qaseem Al Shonaq from the College of Education at UAEU, Dr. Yargo Molary from the University of Helsinki and Dr. Bradley Young from Zayed University. A total of twenty-one trainees took part in the evaluation process, including three faculty members from the College of Education and five from the College of Science at UAEU, three from the Al Ain University of Science and Technology, eight teachers from schools under the auspices of Abu Dhabi Education Council, a representative from the Institute of Applied Technology and a single representative from the private sector.

The workshop included applying certain standards in areas related to teaching and learning. These included a consideration of the characteristics of learners, cultural consistency and the values of the UAE. The suitability of various educational curricula and certain educational websites were evaluated in regard to the teaching of science, mathematics, music, and general culture. Consideration was given to websites which had proved effective in enriching school curricula in Finland where students often obtain the highest scores in international tests (see TIMSS, 2011; PISA, 2013) in the sciences, mathematics, and mother tongue reading and writing skills.