Radical Solutions in Palestinian Higher Education

This book brings together education research and practice carried out by An-Najah National University, a lead Higher Institution in Palestine that managed to move from a face-to-face setting to a fully online learning and teaching environment during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, within a month, seamlessly, which makes a success cases study of virtualization. This book concentrates on approaches to ensure the continuous improvement and quality of higher education provision across the country, with particular focus on: a) learning and teaching methodologies in online settings; b) use of open education as a key resource; and c) development of academic capability building, along with academic and knowledge exchange with other higher education partners. Innovative ideas, best practices, and comparative case studies are presented, discussed, and compared with international ones to make specific recommendations for a successful and sustainable implementation.

Daniel Burgos works as Full Professor of Technologies for Education & Communication and Vice-rector for International Research at Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR). He also holds the UNESCO Chair on eLearning and works as Director of the Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education (UNIR iTED). His interests are mainly focused on Educational Technology & Innovation: Adaptive-Personalised and Informal eLearning, Open Science & Education, Learning Analytics, Social Networks, eGames, and eLearning Specifications. He has published over 200 scientific papers, 4 European patents, 18 authored books, and 30 edited books or special issues on indexed journals. He is or has been involved in +65 European and Worldwide R&D projects, with a practical implementation approach.  In addition, he is a Full Professor at An-Najah National University (Palestine), Adjunct Professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL, Colombia), Extra-ordinary Professor at Northwest University (South Africa), and Visiting Professor at Coventry University (United Kingdom) and at The Army University (ESPE, Ecuador). He works as Consultant for United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), European Commission, European Parliament, Russian Academy of Science, and ministries of education in over a dozen countries. He holds 9 PhD degrees, including Education and Computer Science.

Saida Affouneh is Associate Professor and Dean of Faculty of Education and Teacher Training and is Founder and Director of the E-Learning Center (ELC) at An-Najah National University. Dr. Affouneh also worked as the deputy president for digitization and elearning.  She had worked as a national Consultant to develop a national policy paper for open education, a project sponsored by AQAQ (Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission) and AMIDEAST. She was Chairperson of the 2014and International Conference for Learning and Teaching in the Digital World, which was organized by the e-Learning Center at An- Najah National University. She was also Chairperson of the 2017 International Conference for Learning and Teaching in the Digital World (Smart World). She received a grant from the Sloan Consortium to participate in an online leadership program in 2013, as the first scholar from the Middle East to do so. She was granted several awards for her excellence in teaching and learning.