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FREE BOOKS
UAE citizen Najla Al-Kaabi, a technical and specialized programmer in management and technical sciences, and her husband, Yasser Ibrahim, an advisor in technical sciences, volunteered to provide free books to high school students and universities in 180 countries by developing and transferring their materials in an easy and attractive way. The following is excerpted from an Emirates Today article:
Al-Kaabi told Emirates Today that the materials currently available can be found through free applications, which can be downloaded on Android phones, adding that each application is a book in English in a specific subject, such as physics, psychology, sociology, algebra, differentiation and integration, Economics, and a number of other basic subjects that every student needs to study in all schools and universities of the world. Follow-up that the project will not stop, and will continue to download more materials successively.
Al-Kaabi said that it contributes to solving the problem of the high costs of textbooks in high school and university levels, stressing that this problem is not exclusive to developing countries, but rather includes developed countries. And in the United States, the university student spends 500 to 1500 dollars a year on textbooks, which represents a huge burden on the student with limited income, and pushes him to borrow, or is forced to work during the study, which affects his educational attainment, and reduces his average score, he added. The work prohibits him from continuing education, noting that the student’s inability to purchase books may force him to change the specialty that he dreamed of.
Regarding the financial cost required to transport these materials, Al-Kaabi stressed that the cost is cheap compared to the goal and reason behind implementing this project, explaining that the cost is limited to the effort and time required daily, in light of preoccupation with other scientific, life and functional projects, explaining that the project is charitable and humanitarian, and does not depend on offering money and alms, and keeping pace with the development of the times and its innovative tools.
Al-Kaabi said that during her studies abroad she witnessed the experiences of many students who suffer from the problem of obtaining textbooks, which led her to think about this project, which has a humanitarian and charitable nature, as well as a way to spread knowledge, and reach the largest segment, so she and her husband decided to search for a solution for the problem of students with limited financial income, especially those living in Africa and Asia.
She added that they took advantage of the presence of complete copies of most books on the websites of several universities, so they developed the scientific material with a high quality similar to the materials in the textbooks, summarizing it and presenting its information in an attractive way that makes it easier for students to benefit from, because the university sites display it in a dry way on the "PDF” file Internet connection is required.
She explained that the application is an interactive platform, which contains attractive tools, that helps the student to understand the scientific material, and each chapter follows a short exam, tests the student’s understanding of the terms and information he has read, adding that these tools are not present in the copies of books available on university sites.
According to Al-Kaabi, the number of downloading the application package reached 700,000, which made the five applications most downloaded to "Google Play” during the past months, due to the popularity of students who use it in various parts of the world. She added that downloading the applications was not limited to the youth and students category, as it was found that there are categories over 65 years old that downloaded the materials and applications.
She added that about three years since the project was launched in February 2017, the number of downloads has reached 700,000 times, which means providing 700,000 books with a value of 70 million dollars, confirming that the impact does not depend only on financial savings, but extends to the positive impact on Environment and protect the trees from cutting to provide the paper required for printing books.
Al-Kaabi considered providing these applications a means of assistance for students in the UAE as well, because the way information and exams are presented makes it easier for them to understand and study better, noting that the applications got an evaluation by their users with a score of 4.5 out of 5, which means that there is a high satisfaction rate for the content and formulation the information.
She stated that the largest percentage is students who downloaded applications in Nigeria, India and the United States, followed by students in countries in Africa and Asia, pointing out that the materials in the application are located under the name QuizOver.com, as well as being available on a website called www.borderless-education.org.
Al-Kaabi summarized the features of the application in five points, the first is free, and the second is that it can be used without the Internet, and the third is that it does not require registration and entry through a user name and a secret code, and the fourth contains exams samples that help students measure the extent of their mastery of the material, and the fifth is creating a community whose members interact with each other to discuss their scientific and life concerns, and collaborate in solving each other’s problems through the interaction space and comments within applications.