The Status Quo of Employing Digital Quranic Applications and Guidelines for developing them among students in the Faculties of Education at Al-Azhar University

The research aimed to identify the current status quo of using digital Quranic applications (listening, memorization, recitation, and understanding) and guidelines for developing them among students in the Faculties of Education at Al-Azhar University. The study utilized a descriptive survey method for collecting data through a questionnaire constructed and administered to (396) students from five faculties of education (males and females) at Al-Azhar University. The questionnaire included three domains: students' needs and practices of digital Quranic applications, and guidelines for the development of employing such applications. The results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the students' needs and practices. The highest scores of students' needs for digital Quranic applications were associated with motivation and encouragement to learn Quran: reading, listening to recitations, reviewing memorization, correction of recitation errors, searching for Quranic word meanings and referring to interpretations, as well as benefiting from manuscript fonts in copying and editing. Conversely, the results of students' practices in using digital Quranic applications were weak in terms of motivation, encouragement, reviewing memorization, automatic correction of recitation, learning recitation, and utilizing such applications for copying and editing. The results were moderate in terms of reading, searching for word meanings, and referring to interpretations. Additionally, the results indicated that the guidelines for the development of using digital Quranic applications focused on providing virtual circle systems, utilizing digital gamification and virtual reality applications to provide a realistic environment for learning Quranic reading, listening, and recitation, as well as artificial intelligence applications for recognizing reciter voices, voice control during listening, enabling memorization, recitation learning, contemplation, understanding, creating motivational competitions, and games for proper understanding of the Quran.