E-learning in Palestinian universities

I am gathering information about e-learning at Palestinian universities since that research is a part of my Fulbright program. Informally I have been talking with trainees at one of the courses here at the CCE about e-learning and its potential in Palestine. Several themes have emerged both from talking with the students and from my own investigation. I will be writing more on this topic later.

1. Everyone agrees that e-learning of some type (e-enabled, hybrid, blended) is a good thing in Palestine due to the difficulties of getting through Israeli checkpoints and the wall (al-Jidar) to attend F2F classes.

To give readers an idea of what I am talking about, the view below (on the left side of the photograph looking to the south toward Jerusalem) is of the Israeli separation wall just south of the Qalandia Crossing. Qalandia is located at the northern edge of greater Jerusalem (as defined by Israel).

On the other hand, there is reluctance to endorse 100% online learning in academia, the type of e-learning that we do at Minnesota State University, Mankato. My colleagues here list reasons such as the potential for cheating by students.

2. Internet infrastructure: (a) About 20% of Palestinians currently have access to the Internet. (b) Internet access is relatively expensive both due to monopolies within Palestine for the access and to Israeli taxes and tariffs on computer related equipment needed for Internet access.

3. The population needs greater awareness of the educational uses of the Internet.

4. Teachers in particular need education and appropriate training for teaching via the Internet.

5. Palestinians need political leadership to encourage educational uses of the Internet. Currently the Ministry of Education will not recognize a higher education degree if more than 30% of the courses were taken online.

Ustaz for a day

I got to teach today for a little over an hour on the subject of e-learning in Palestine. We briefly compared the online learning in technical communication at my university, Minnesota State University, Mankato, with the "e-enabled" courses here at Birzeit's Center for Continuing Education. Second, we worked with taxonomies to classify types of e-learning and finally, we discussed our ideas for the future of e-learning in Palestine. We generated some interesting ideas in our groups as to how and why e-learning holds promise in Palestinian education.

First day at work

Today I had meetings at the U.S.Consulate and met the people there who administer Fulbright and other exchange programs.

I plan on leaving early tomorrow for my first day at the Unit for Learning Innovation (Center for Continuing Education) at Birzeit University. We'll be working on professional development, curriculum development, and publication about online learning at Palestinian universities. My technical communication/technical writing background will serve me well.

This morning (February 3) I met in Ramallah with Marwan Tarazi, the head of the CCE. Later I traveled to the campus in Birzeit village where I met the ULI staff and got settled in. Today I have been working on three small projects:

1. Project planning for my four month stay
2. Writing a document for the presentation I will do tomorrow about Desire2Learn
3. Planning for the types of short-courses I will create while I am here.

View photos of the campus and facts and figures.

Getting ready to go

I am a faculty member at Minnesota State University, Mankato on sabbatical for spring semester 2009. Here you can see what I do at work.

Fulbright has generously agreed to award me a research scholarship to work at my host university of Birzeit, in Birzeit, Palestine. The university is located in a town by the same name just northwest of Jerusalem. My award allows me to work with the Center for Continuing Education there on the topic of online learning (also known as distance learning or e-learning). I plan to arrive in Jerusalem at the end of January and work until the end of May. I am looking forward to my sabbatical adventure.