Introduction Changes in technology prompted by the information age have altered the way people learn and initiated alternative forms of learning within institutions across the world. This has been prompted by the fact that the students in the classroom are no longer individuals in their early twenties pursuing full time courses. The typical classroom today is composed of both individuals in their twenties and a significant percentage of mature students (Iyer 3). These mature students do not have as much time on their hands and are forced to juggle several responsibilities alongside studies. Due to this trend there has been an increase in the provision of courses using current technological approaches. In these approaches face-to-face lectures are replaced with audio and video lessons (Williams, Paprock and Covington 108). In addition to that the nature of learning involves several media and approaches aimed at encouraging critical thought. This approach is also favored by the government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it promises to help meet future development goals. This report will present information on the current situation in Saudi Arabia and highlight considerations to be made for the introduction of such a course at University of Qasim. Research & situation Analysis Given that the objective of the report is development of an e-Marketing guide for a short course in Saudi Arabia it would be wise to provide some information on tertiary education in the country. According to reports it has been noted that the first modern university in the country was established in 1957 in Riyadh (Shoult 437). This institution is currently known as King Saud University and is the largest education complex in the country enrolling some 30,000 students. Due to an increase in population there is a need for expansion to satisfy demand, in 2004; King Fahd approved plans for creation of three new universities from existing university branches in Qasim, Taif and Madinah (Shoult 437). In this plan region branches of King Saud University and the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) will be merged to form the new Qasim University. In addition to that branches of King Abdul Aziz University and IMSIU n Madinah will be merged to form the Taiba University. Lastly the branch of the Umm Al-Qura University in Taif will be changed to form the nucleus of the nucleus of the new Taif University (Shoult 437). The changes in educational outlook within the kingdom are crucial due to the fact that developing economies face significant challenges in relation to the global environment. It has been reported that the most critical of these trends is based on the need to increase the importance of knowledge (Ramady 396). This is as such as knowledge has been pointed out to be the main driver of economic growth within this information and communication revolution. The current global economic climate emphasizes increased knowledge acquisition as is evident in the efforts of firms who have take to investing heavily in intangibles such as training, research and development (Ramady 396). The main objective of these firms is to gain a competitive advantage over competitors in the global economy. In the case of Saudi Arabia acquisition of knowledge is