Al-Quds Open University/ E-Learning at Al-Quds Open University

Information and Communication Technology Center (ICTC)

E-Learning at Al-Quds Open University

Information and communication technologies offer educational organizations both opportunities and challenges. The rapid development of information and communication technologies especially World Wide Web and internet gave universities to built up their visions of a virtual university. With the gaining speed of technological development, universities want to provide communication facilities, such as offering their current courses via www over internet also making recorded lectures available. This process will enhance the trend of distance education to reach more students.

With the new emerging Information and Instructional Technologies and their influence on teaching and learning, it becomes very necessary to equip our educational system, students and faculty members with the necessary skills to cope with these developments and utilize their benefits in teaching and learning. The ICTC assists the University community in exploiting the potential of technology to enhance teaching and learning. One of the primary goals of the ICTC is to promote quality self-paced, learner-centered education through the development and delivery of quality multimedia and web-based courses that can be delivered completely online or on CD. Moreover, the ICTC provides assistance to QOU faculty to enhance teaching and learning effectiveness through the development of web-based supplementary material (portal) to traditional courses as well as organizing training workshops related to the development and delivery of online material.

To provide E-learning serves to all levels of QOU's educational system, students, academic instructors and academic administrators. These facilities strive to educate students to be creative and productive participants in modern workplaces where interactive, multi-media technologies are significantly changing the nature of most jobs.

Mission
The mission of the ICTC in the e-Learning field is seeking to convert Al-Quds Open University into a virtual university.

Objectives
The ICTC has undertaken the following objectives as the means to accomplish its mission:

Raise QOU community awareness of the potential of e-learning in enhancing teaching and learning.
Promote the development and delivery of quality online courses;
Provide training, development and support mechanisms that build the necessary capacity.
Ensure educational quality and efficiency in e-learning activities;
Promote and conduct researches and developments related to e-learning activities at QOU.
Promote the use of appropriate standards and specifications in e-learning.

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Avicenna Virtual Campus

Avicenna project (started on March 2003 and officially ends September 2006) is an ambitious project that aims at creating new community of universities sharing best practices and pedagogical innovation through a network of E-learning centers across the Mediterranean. With 15 countries involved, it attempts to accelerate the adoption and the best use of ICT-assisted Open Distance Learning (ODL). The output of the project is a virtual library of 120 online modules produced by the 15 partners. Avicenna Knowledge center in Palestine has produced 22 modules including one for the blind students. These were among the best productions as rated by the UNESCO.

Main Achievements:

AKC Palestine has produced 22 modules and those modules are to be used by 23000 students by the end of the academic year 2006/2007 as it is currently installed on the Avicenna Platform (Plei@d), see the link http://pleiad.qou.edu. Figure 25 below shows a screenshot of one of e-learning courses hosted on Avicenna portal.

Fig. 25: One of e-learning courses hosted on Avicenna portal

During Phase 1 to Phase 3, QOU has organized 10 workshops for authors and 3 for tutors. In addition, it has organized a nation-wide ICT day (Nov 2005) attended by large number of dignitaries where the first batch of produced courses were officially opened. In all, 50 authors and more than 100 tutors were trained.

Avicenna Knowledge Center (AKC) - Palestine

The Avicenna Knowledge Center (AKC) – Palestine, is hosted by Al-Quds Open University (QOU). QOU highly appreciates the need for e-Learning or distance learning. Moreover, its network Infrastructure is one of the biggest WAN networks in Palestine.

Transfer of know-how gained from the Avicenna project allows the production of new courses and the adaptation of existing ones to be put on the internet for the benefit of the community. It would allow every student (QOU Student or students from other universities) to use the labs and to enter the virtual campus thus benefiting as many students as possible, see figure 26

Most of Part-time instructors at QOU work as full-time instructors/tutors at other Palestinian universities thus reaching a wider sector of the community. Those tutors would carry skills and expertise learned while at QOU to other colleagues and students at these Palestinian universities.

The AKC has been involved with a communication plan to acquaint the university staff and the Palestinian public with the Avicenna. This plan includes publishing articles in the university magazine, posting materials on the website, and holding working sessions and training for academic supervisors, faculty members and production centers staff.

RUFO – Inter-University Network for Open and Distance Learning

RUFO is a TEMPUS-MEDA project (JEP-2153_2004), supported and financed by the General Directorate of Education and Culture of the European Commission (end of 2005 – end of 2008) and coordinated by Cnam (Paris), see the link http://www.cnam.fr/rufo.

RUFO's purpose is to create an interuniversity network in Palestine for the development of individual and collective competences in the field of open and distance learning, in connection with European networks.

The output is the adoption of 5 local pioneering-projects of ODL (Open and Distance Learning), based on a certain methodology and on terms of reference. Al-Quds Open University is a partner to this project.

Objectives
The purpose of the project is to:

Develop individual and collective competences.
Implement 5 pioneering projects
Consolidate the methodological tools that are specifically needed for ODL projects
Produce recommendations for academic training in Palestine
Create an interuniversity network
Supervision and control of the project's progress

Main Achievements

During the last year of the project, QOU has participated with 6 workshops in Palestine and 2 visits to Europe. In addition, it has organized local workshops and meetings attended by large number of academic supervisors where the first draft proposals for the 5 pioneering projects were officially proposed.
The steering committee of RUFO project and the European partners have agreed on the 5 pioneering projects.
The steering committee of RUFO project and the European partners have agreed on their last meeting that took place on Thursday 18th of Jan, 2007 to develop a training program document that helps facilitating the implementation of RUFO project and achieving its objectives and outputs. The main objective of the training program is to provide the participant with the training and the skills to be able to design, develop, deliver and evaluate e- enabled professional and university courses.