Amman- 27 March 2019
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, the e-Learning Committee at the German Jordanian University (GJU) organized a workshop on e-learning and open education in the presence of the Vice President of GJU, Prof. Dorit Schumann, the head and members of the e-Learning Committee, as well as faculty members and participants from different Jordanian and European institutions and organizations.
At the beginning of workshop, the Head of the E-Learning Committee, Dr. Mohammad Daoud, welcomed the participants and attendees stating that the aim of the workshop is to spread awareness, in addition to stimulate the use of e-learning and open education tools at GJU to incorporate state-of-the-art teaching approaches and tools in the learning process at GJU and learn from the experience of leading experts in this field.
Prof. Schumann cherished the committee’s efforts toward education development, explaining the importance of e-learning and open education to GJU, especially in expanding the German Dimension to another level, such as organizing joint course lectures with partner German universities and communicating GJU student with their German peers before and after the German Year. She also presented the current status of e-Learning and strategies to enhance the educational competitiveness at GJU, concluding the brilliant potentials of e-Learning and its impact on the education quality, the cost, and outcomes.
Participants shared with the audience their experience and expertise through presentations. Prof. Ahmed Al- Salaymeh from the University of Jordan (UJ) spoke about the modernization of teaching methodologies in higher education.
Dr. Mohammad Al-Smadi from Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) explained the services and activities that are provided by the e-Learning and Open Education Center at the university.
Also, Prof. Lutfi Al-Sharif from UJ described his own experience to transform the conventional classroom into an active learning environment, in which the student is the center of the learning process using a teaching method that is composed of five effective elements. Ms. Allison Church from the Kiron Open Higher Education gGmbH presented the open higher education services and activities provided by her organization, with special focus on the higher education support provided to the refugees.
Moreover, Dr. Wissam Tawileh for the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden), Germany conducted a presentation about a European Erasmus+ project, called Jordan Opportunity for Virtual Innovative Teaching and Learning (JOVITAL), that aims to engage students from GJU as well as four other Jordanian universities in shared course lectures with students from TU Dresden through leading virtual education technology.
On the other hand, Dr. Feras Al- Hawari, the Director of the Information Systems and Technology Center at GJU, presented his team’s efforts to develop the MyGJU custom-made e-Learning platform and integrate MyGJU with the Moodle learning management system to provide high-quality education services to the professors and students. Moreover, Dr. Aziz Madi, the Director of GJU Library, presented the library’s efforts to provide the professors and students with advanced e-library services that support the education process at GJU.
Furthermore, Dr. Nasim Alnuman, the Director of the Vision Rehabilitation Center at GJU, presented several open education courses that are provided by the center to students from Jordan as well as other countries, including Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Kenya.
