Information technology and research skills: a case study of a course in credit hours system in Faculty of Arts, Cairo University

This study seeks to describe, analyze and evaluate a course on communication technology and research skills to be presented for the first time in the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University in order to identify the advantages as well as challenges and make some suggestions.The study depends on a case study method, and using of tools, as documents of the course, observations, interviews, check list, and questionnaire.
The study reached several results, most notably that the motive for introducing the curriculum for all students is the necessity of acquiring the skills of dealing with technology tools and benefiting from them in the educational process, as well as acquiring the skills of searching for information and methods of preparing scientific research.
69.2% of the students saw that the course content is important and useful for them. On the other hand, the Corona pandemic affected the teaching of the course, as the teaching was conducted electronically via the Blackboard platform, which 38.5% of the students encountered difficulties in using, and the teaching of the course lacked practical applications as The students emphasized their need for it by 73.1%. The course provided something useful about new concepts and methods of research that they had not been exposed to before, and it showed the importance of face-to-face teaching, as 46% of the students believed that it is better to teach the course in person in addition to use of the platform