The establishment of the College of Education in King Saud University in Riyadh represented a transition stage in the development of education in the kingdom. Since the preparation of the teacher is the basis on which the program of the college revolves, these programs were carefully designed and prepared to keep up with the recent development in education. From the first time of the education college foundation, attention was paid to the professional preparation of the teacher and the use of instructional technologies that facilitate the instruction and learning process. Based on these responsibilities and convictions, an instructional media center was established with the aim of providing, storing and maintaining instructional media (materials and systems) to serve the faculty members, staff, and students and  to prepare instructional technology specialists who posses high level of competences. For this purpose, the center developed training programs in corporation with Ministry of Education. These programs have designed many fixed long and short training sessions including the short and long; academic and professional sessions:

1-     Training session for library specialists

2-     Training session on labs

3-     Training session for the instructional media specialists

4-     Diploma of instructional technology

5-     In addition to the academic courses on the level of bachelor in the field of instructional technology.  

Based on the research conclusions, instructional practices, and the necessity of preparing scholarly leaders in the field of education and communication technology, the Supreme Universities Council, in its session on 29-11-1399, corresponding to 20-10-1979 has made a decision to establish an academic department to be called the department of instructional media and technology. Therefore, the department replaced the center. However, the center has still provided technical and professional services in the design and production of instructional media. Moreover, the department provides consultations and experiences to the faculty members and the community. In addition, it contributes abundantly in the field areas, such as research, composing, translation and development of instructional/learning strategies. Furthermore, the department has offered a master's program in the field of instructional technology since the beginning of its foundation and has continued till now. As a result of that, many scholars graduated from it.