Collaborative Learning Environment with Think-Pair-Share Method and Learning Tools for Learning Arabic Online

Many Muslims whose mother tongues are not Arabic find it difficult to comprehend the messages and meanings of the Quran although they can recite and memorize the verses of the Quran. The existence of many Arabic language centers provides the help needed for this Muslims. However for fulltime working adults, these facilities did not cater for their unpredictable free time. This paper describes a framework for Collaborative Online Arabic Learning software towards understanding Quran (COAL-UQ). The objectives of COAL-UQ are to provide users an online tools for learning Arabic anytime and anywhere, to ease the non-Arabic speakers in understanding the messages and meanings of the Quran and to exploit existing learning tools for learning a new language. We implement the Think-Pair-Share method introduced by Lyman in 1981 in the collaborative software. The software also integrates other online learning tools and utilizes the tools to realize the Think-Pair-Share method. We provide video conferencing tools so users can have face-to-face interactions with human tutor. This is very important in learning Arabic especially to understand the messages and meanings of the Quran.