Lessons Learned in Virtual Academic Exchange

Amman- 11 April 2021

On Tuesday, March 23 2021, the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED) has organized the closing session of the “Jordan Opportunity for Virtual Innovative Learning (JOVITAL)" project that is funded by the European Union within the Erasmus+ program with the participation of the project team and the presence of more than one hundred faculty members, administrators, students and alumni from various Jordanian universities.

The project, which began in 2017, included five Jordanian universities and four higher education institutions in Germany, Britain, Slovenia and Italy who worked together to achieve the project's goals of developing virtual collaborative learning and teaching methods in the participating universities through:

• Introducing modern student-centered educational methods based on projects and solving educational problems,
• Integrate students into a virtual collaborative learning environment with colleagues in different universities and countries,
• Connecting universities within a virtual academic exchange network that allowing students and teachers to interact with their peers around the world without traveling,

A large number of Jordanian students and faculty members benefited from the activities of the project, which included:

• Training more than 100 academics and faculty members in virtual and global collaborative learning methods
• Organizing academic visits to Germany and Britain for more than 60 faculty members
• Introducing mini projects for virtual cooperative learning in more than 15 university educational courses in Jordan
• Organizing two joint national educational courses for more than one hundred male and female students from the five Jordanian universities participating in the project
• Organizing an international educational course for 60 students from Jordan, Germany, Slovenia, Italy and Georgia
• Training of 27 Jordanian students at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany to work as e-tutors in virtual learning environments
• Establishing and equipping five computer laboratories in the participating Jordanian universities to support digital and integrated learning activities
• Building a virtual learning community that includes more than 800 members of students, teachers and academics distributed around the globe

Among the most important lessons learned from this project, which were praised by the beneficiaries of its activities including students and teachers, is the effectiveness and flexibility of the cooperative learning method and the virtual academic exchange to improve and modernize the educational process through:

• Motivating students to build knowledge and deepen theoretical information in applied projects within geographically dispersed teams
• Increase students' interaction with their peers and teachers in the virtual learning environment through modern educational software
• Facilitating access to educational material and participation in the educational process at the appropriate time and place for students
• Enabling teachers to follow students in the virtual environment using modern digital support and assessment methods
• Enriching the interactive dimension of the educational process despite the circumstances of social distancing through social media channels
• Strengthening students' skills in dealing with various cooperative techniques that benefit them in practical life
• Enhancing students' personal capabilities in working in international teams from different cultures

One of the long-term outcomes of the project is to enable GJU instructors and lecturers to adopt the virtual collaborative learning approach in the educational process, whether within pure virtual environments or through integrated and flipped learning formats that combine the flexibility of digital learning with the possibilities of direct communication within the classroom.

The full recordings of the closing session in addition to all activities and opinions of the  students, instructors, and participants can be accessed through the JOVITAL project  website (https://jovital.eu/).

The colleagues who would like to benefit from the results of the project, and to organize or join local and international cooperative courses can communicate with the project coordinator at GJU: Prof. Mohammad Daoud - mohammad.aldaoud@gju.edu.jo