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IEEE MULTIDISCIPLINARY ENGINEERING EDUCATION MAGAZINE, VOL. 3, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2008 156

Blended eLearning Approach for Traditional


Palestinian Universities
Jamil A. Itmazi, Member, IEEE and Mahmoud J. Tmeizeh

Abstract— eLearning is a new tool which has the potential to


enhance and support the traditional learning system and not intended to replace f2f classroom training but it can be
already it is becoming an integral part of the learning tools used to enhance the traditional training” [2].
used by every educational organization; specifically, the
Blended eLearning approach (BeLA) has real potential to A. Models of Elearning
combine the best of traditional approach face-to-face (f2f) and There are two models of eLearning; synchronously and
eLearning in campus-based universities.Adopting BeLA in asynchronously:
Traditional Palestinian Universities (TPUs) can solve partially • Synchronous eLearning: means that all students and
some unique critical situations, which appeared as a result of instructor are logged on at the same time and communicate
the Israeli occupation as well as the weakness of the directly and virtually with each other, “where all the
governmental financial support. In this paper, we provide a students must be in the classroom at a certain time for the
brief introduction of eLearning, focusing on blended class to start. Synchronous eLearning events include live
approach, summarizing the experiences of eLearning
web-casts, chat rooms, application sharing, and whiteboard
initiative at TPUs, illustrating potential benefits of adopting
sessions [3].
BeLA to these universities, mentioning the necessity process to
this adoption and explain the required steps to develop • Asynchronous eLearning: In this model, the
eCourses. communication between participants does not occur
simultaneously. Where “the learning content or courseware
Index Terms— Blended eLearning, Blended Learning, is served from a Web server and delivered on demand to
eLearning, eLearning at Palestinian Universities. the learner's workstation, Learners can thus take courses at
own pace. Courseware is normally available to learners 24
hours per day, 7 days per week”, [4]. Examples of this
I. INTRODUCTION model includes; taking a self-paced course, posting
messages to a discussion group. Some times it called
The learning process needs techniques and tools to "distributed learning” and it receives more attention
present the knowledge (from different resources), interact because of its lower cost of development, reusable
with it and share it with others. In this context, eLearning is components, and convenience to the learner.
becoming an important tool to support the learning system
to achieve its goals. eLearning became hot topic in the TPUs can use mainly the Asynchronous eLearning and
1990's after the spread of the Internet. Although it has a some tools of Synchronous eLearning (e.g. chat, instant
relative short history, it is becoming an important part of the messages …etc.), because they are very hard to adopt the
learning. The majority of the universities adopted some pure synchronous eLearning; due to the following reasons:
kinds of eLearning within its learning system. - Students rarely have compatible schedules to permit real
The term eLearning is relatively new and is still contested, time sessions.
upon the European Commission’s definition, it is “the use - The synchronous technologies are still too expensive.
of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve - The majority of students do not have fast Internet, most
the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and of them use telephone dial-up which can not use the
services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration" synchronous tools effectively.
[1:2]. However, the definition of eLearning used in this
paper refers to any learning that could be realized in a B. Types of Elearning Approaches:
computer connected generally with an Internet/Intranet
There are three types:
network.
The importance of eLearning in the traditional university • Enhanced approach: the eLearning solutions used to
environment does not mean that it will replace completely support, facilitate and enhance the f2f learning by using
the traditional learning mode. In other words, “eLearning is web-based technology, e.g. Course management systems.
Even if this approach can reduce some academic seat time
(f2f), the reduction must be no more than 24% [5], the
majority of the offered eCourses in TPUs are of this kind.
Jamil Itmazi is with Palestine Polytechnic University, IT Center of • Blended approach: this kind mixes traditional f2f and
Excellence, Jabal Abu Romman, P.O.B. 198, Hebron-West Bank, online learning, consequently, substantial portion of
Palestine, (jamil@ppu.edu).
content is delivered online; typically this approach can
Mahmnoud Tmeizeh is with Southern Hebron Directorate of Education
in Palestinian ministry of education and high education, AlFoar Cross, reduce 25 to 74% of f2f meetings.
Dora Palestine, (mjat68@yahoo.com). • Online approach: it uses the virtual learning (VL), which
Publisher Identification number 1558-7908 -062008-05 can be realized without any need to f2f meeting, however,

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this approach could have some f2f meeting, e.g. for and the ability to retry / replay training parts over and
exams, but more than 75% of the course content is over in order to understand it.
delivered online. 11. Option to select learning materials from increased
quantity of courses offered online which the learner need
II. BLENDED LEARNING and interested in.
Blended Learning is the combination of multiple 12. Easy management large groups of students.
approaches to learning. It is “learning that is facilitated by
the effective combination of different modes of delivery, III. ELEARNING AT PALESTINIAN UNIVERSITIES:
models of teaching and styles of learning, and founded on
We are going to summarize the experiences of the main
transparent communication amongst all parties involved
TPUs on offering some of its courses of academic programs
with a course” [6:12]. For the majority of its application,
by eLearning; however, we will not discuss all their
Blended Learning is a “hybrid of traditional f2f and online
experiences in eLearning; e.g. electronic exams, school
learning so that instruction occurs both in the classroom and virtual labs, multimedia production …etc. Also, we will not
online, and where the online component becomes a natural evaluate those experiences or presenting statistic about the
extension of traditional classroom learning” [7].
offered courses:
For this paper, Blended eLearning (BeL) will be used
1. Al-Quds University (QU), <www.alquds.edu>:
which refers to an approach that mixes both; traditional
learning and eLearning. See figure No. 1. eLearning activities supervised by Said Khoury IT Center
of Excellence, it uses the eLearning solution to facilitate
course delivery through Web technology and to solve
problems of the lack of hosting course material, QU uses the
open source platform (MOODLE) to offer some of its
courses, see <http://eclass.alquds.edu/>.
The QU offered eCourses are supported ones, and we do
not find any evidence of using BeLA and VL approach.
2. Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU), <www.ppu.edu>.
PPU has an eLearning Unit for managing eLearning
activities, it uses eLearning solution to support its courses by
Figure 1: Blended eLearning. using a customized version of the open source platform
(MOODLE), see <http://elearning.ppu.edu/>.
In the past, PPU used Online Syllabus as a web based
A. Benefits of Blended Elearning application realized by PPU to support the course content and
BeLA has real potential to combine the best of traditional to attract student.
approach (f2f) and eLearning in campus-based universities; The PPU offered eCourses are supported ones, while
the major advantages are flexibility and reduction of time BeLA and VL approach have not used yet.
and cost. Here is a list of the main benefits of adopted BeL
from the perspective of learner and university: 3. Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), <www.iugaza.edu.ps>.
1. BeL can enhance the quality of teaching in aspects of IUG has an eLearning Center for managing eLearning
instructors’ performance [8]. activities. A Web Course Tools (WebCT) has been used as a
course management system to support and facilitate using
2. Increase learning impact by focusing the f2f portion of information technology and modern communication in the
the course on skill practice and application. educational process. Recently, IUG is added the open source
3. Reduce academic seat time from 25-74% as well as platform (MOODLE) as additional platform for eLearning
travel. activities. See <www.iugaza.edu.ps/elearning/>.
4. Reduce the total cost to the universities and learner by IUG offered two courses as online course (via virtual
reducing the cost of travel, lodging and meals, cost of mode); First Aid Course and Holy Quran Course as
production and distribution the course materials, cost of mandatory courses of IUG requirement courses [11]. But we
Office-building fees and instructor's salaries [9:35]. do not find any evidence of using BeLA.
5. Reduce time by reducing the presence and travel. 4. Birzeit University (BZU), <www.birzeit.edu>.
6. Learners may access the course activities and materials BZU uses eLearning solution to support its courses by
whenever and wherever they are until the f2f meeting. using the open source platform (MOODLE), which offered
7. More learners based training view. some eCourses. See <http://moodle.birzeit.edu/>.
8. Self-pacing: learners may study at their own pace and The BZU offered eCourses are supported courses and there
speed, so it increases satisfaction and reduces stress, is no evidence of using BeLA and VL approach.
also they can skip understood activities or materials and 5. An-Najah National University (NNU), <www.najah.edu/>.
jump to new issues. eLearning activities supervised by eLearning Committee
9. Powerful student-tracking and immediate feedback (from Computer center, Computer Engineering Department,
systems. IT College), it uses a local platform (On-line Course
10. Improve performance [10], provide stronger Container and Digital Contents) to provide shell for the
understanding and increase retention of the subject by learning content and to facilitate student and instructor
using eLearning tools, e.g. multimedia, quizzes…etc communications. See <www.najah.edu/occ>

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The NNU offered eCourses are supported courses and we eLearning site to solve the problem of the 31% students
do not find any evidence of using BeLA and VL approach. whom have not Internet in their home.
6. Bethlehem University (BU), <www.bethlehem.edu>
B. Why Blended Elearning:
BU using the open source platform (MOODLE) to offer
some of its courses as supported courses. See TPUs can benefit from adopting BeL like other
<http://moodle.bethlehem.edu/ >. universities in the world; furthermore, it suffers from critical
situations which make some of its problems are unique, due
Nowadays, (while writing these paper), Institute for to the political questions, which raised from the Israeli
Community Partnership (ICP) at BU announce about an occupation as well as the weakness of the governmental
Online Professional Diploma Programs as the first diplomas financial support.
in Palestine to offer courses using blended learning; “Small-
Scale Business Administration”, “E-Business”, and “Project We will list some critical problems which could be
Management”. See <http://eclass.icp.bethlehem.edu/ >. It is resolved partially by adopting BeLA:
wroth mentioning that these programs are non-academic 1. Lack of funding: all Palestinian Universities suffer from
programs. the financial resources because of the weakness of the
7. Hebron University (HU), <www.hebron.edu/> governmental financial support. While the main resources is
from students fees, it is well known that the majority of
8. Arab American University, Jenin (AAUJ), Palestinian citizens are below poverty level (Poverty Rate is
<www.aauj.edu> 72%-74%) and approximately half of them are Unemployed
9. Al-Azhar University of Gaza, <www.alazhar.edu.ps> (unemployment Rate are 44%-74%), therefore, the TPUs can
The last three universities have plans and may have not increase the students fees [12].
projects of adopting some kinds of eLearning, but they do Cost savings is a goal for higher educational institutions.
not publish any evidence at their Web sites about any There is strong evidence of the potential of blended learning
eLearning initiatives. to reduce cost [13]. A three-year program realized by The
10. Al-Quds Open University (QOU), <www.qou.edu> Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer
QOU has two related projects; Avicenna virtual Campus Polytechnic Institute was designed to support universities in
project, <http://pleiad.qou.edu> which aim to produce on- redesigning their instructional approaches, using technology
line courses and it has already offered at this project some to achieve cost savings and quality enhancements at 30
eCourses related to its open courses. It has also Academic institutions across the U.S. The results show that all thirty
Portal <www.qou.edu> which allows students and tutors to institutions reduced their costs for the courses involved by
communicate and exchange materials. about 40% on average (with a range of 20 %- 84%), [14, 15],
another researchers estimate the reduction up to 50% [8:79,
Because this paper focuses on traditional university, the
16:1686].
QOU is not involved in the discussion, however, QOU can
benefits from BeLA. 2. Capacity limitation: Most of TPUs suffer from limited sites
available for new students; moreover, while some of them
reach its capacities, others have overload!. These problems
IV. BLENDED ELEARNING AT PALESTINIAN are raised from insufficient financial resources and some
UNIVERSITIES TPUs do not have building license (especially C areas which
It has been obvious that there is no any evidence about are under direct occupation). According to the statistics of
any use of BeLA at the academic programs in TPUs to offer Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education for
some eCourses. On the following, we will discuss the the academic year 2005/2006, there were 150274 registered
abilities of TPUs’ students to receive eCourses via BeLA as students in high education institutes and there were 17301
well as the opportunity of TPUs to benefit from adopting graduated students. In the same academic year, there were
such approach and to resolve some of their critical problems. more than 40,000 successful students at Al- Tawjihi (the
general secondary examination) [17].
A. The Abilities of TPUs’ Students In the BeLA teachers and students are requested to attend
Upon a new survey (a questioner realized under the simultaneously a classroom (f2f) during 25% to 75% of the
supervision of the author of this paper and answered from total academic time [18:21, 19, 20:19]. Adopting BeL can
1100 students at PPU), we can notice the following: help the diverse needs of a growing student population by
- 97% of the students have PC in their home with usage reducing the seat-time courses.
average of 12 hours per week. In general, as explained above, every course offered by
- 92% of the students can use Internet. BeLA will reduce 50% of the seat time in medium (the ratio
for the academic time of PeL vary from 25% up to 75%), so
- 69% of the students have Internet in their home with if any university offers 10% of its courses via BeLA, it will
usage average of 6.5 hours per week. be able to increase its capacity up to 15% without any change
- 35% of the students participate at least in one eCourse in its building, classrooms and labs.
(enhanced approach) and 84% like to have one eCourse 3. Movement restrictions: Our country suffers hardly from a
or more. unique problem all over the world: movement restrictions,
This sample is useful to all students of TPUs due to the “Movement within and in and out of the West Bank is
similarity between them. Still, every university wants to controlled by numerous checkpoints, roadblocks,
adopt BeLA needs to present some free PC labs, where the earthmounds and gates. These manned and unmanned
students, can access their eCourses in the university physical barriers combined with the Barrier and complex
permit regime, restrict the movement of around 2.4 million

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Palestinians to basic services, jobs, places of worship and VI. ELEARNING PLATAFORM:
even to their families in the West Bank.” [21], which impact There are some concepts similar to eLearning platform
the students’ movement from/to their universities; we can (some of them with a small difference), e.g. LCMS (Learning
mention some of those restrictions: content management system), LMS/CMS (Learning/ Course
• Palestinians can not move between the Gaza Strip and the Management System), Learning Portal. We will use the
West Bank. abbreviation LMS to represent those concepts. The LMS is
• Almost, it is impossible for Palestinians to move from an eLearning platform which is considered as an important
West Bank to Jerusalem (permit from the Israeli part of eLearning solutions from the university’s viewpoint
Authorities needed [21:4]. [24]. see figure No. 2.
• There are many movement restrictions between our cities
as well as the movement in the same city (e.g. Hebron).
The number of physical obstacles (roadblocks and
checkpoints) restricting Palestinian movement throughout
the West Bank reached 537, [22].
• Curfew: During the second Intifada, the Israeli army re-
occupied the A areas of the West Bank, placed the
Palestinian civilian population under curfew and closure
for extended periods of time, on average 390,000 civilians Figure 2: LMS within eLearning.
under curfew in November 2002 – April 2003, [23:1].
More specifically, LMS is the software that automates the
Many students lose lectures due to this terrible situations, administration of training events. “All LMSs manage the log-
the BeLA can help them in the following: in of registered users, manage course catalogs, track learner
- Review the learning contents via the eCourses. activities and results, and provide reports to management. An
- Contacts their teachers. LMS may include additional functions such as: authoring of
content, management of classroom training, learner
- Submit their assignments, reports and homework.
collaboration tools (chat, discussion groups, etc.)”, [25].
The market of LMS is increasing very fast, and there are
V. NECESSITY OF STRATEGY PLAN more than 70 vendors [26]; some of LMSs are commercial
Any Palestinian University wants to adopt BeLA needs to Software, while others are free Open-Source Software (OSS).
realize a strategy plan, which will provide a clear starting The following list shows some LMSs:
point for the activities, priorities and policies needed to • Commercial LMS: e.g. WebCT <www.WebCT.com> and
ensure BeL, is effectively and appropriately embedded in its eCollege <www.ecollege.com>.
educational processes. It defines the new eLearning
• Open-Source LMS: e.g. MOODLE <http://MOODLE.org>
program goals and it explains the steps which will achieve
and ILIAS <www.ilias.de>.
those goals, as well as the eLearning requirements and
needs, which are necessary to implement successful Open source software is becoming an interesting sector of
eLearning solutions, and an estimate budget of the BeL the entire software landscape; it spread out and in
adopting and embedding processes. competition with other proprietary (commercial) software. In
short, OSS is software that you can freely access, use, share,
The strategy plan of adopting BeLA has the following
modify, and redistribute the Source Code.
outlines:
OS-LMS is very suitable to the universities learning sector
• Scope and vision. due to:
• Objectives of the new approach. 1. OSS is a good solution to control their software and
• Technology: determining the model of eLearning and the format it upon their need.
suitable eLearning platform (CMS). 2. The cost of using licence is almost nothing.
• Content: explaining the following: 3. OSS licence permits any change, modification and
- Sources of content, e.g. building or buying the content. improvement of the LMS´s without any pay.
- Criteria and priorities of the developed courses. 4. Some big organizations adopted OSS, e.g. NASA's
- Team members of authoring. Center switched from Oracle to MySQL.
- Processes of developing eCourse. A. Adopting OSS Platform for TPUs
- Methods for evaluation. Due to the lake of financial resources of all palestinian
• Administration and support: explaining the administration universities, the OSS platform is a good solution to realize
and supporting process needed. BeLA. Currently, many of these universities adopt OS-LMS
(MOODLE). Consequently, we recommend the TPUs to use
• Estimated budget: explaining the direct costs of program
OS-LMS especially MOODLE.
development and the indirect costs associated with course
delivery and maintenance, as well as the added value or B. Why MOODLE
the expected decreasing.
We recommend the TPUs to use OS-LMS MOODLE,
• Action steps, illustrating how the objectives outlined in <http://moodle.org/> due to the flowing:
the strategy are to be achieved.
1. MOODLE is OSS.
• Work plan: giving the time table of plan implementation.

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Figure 3: a first page of MOODLE (of PPU)

2. MOODLE is fully support Arabic language beside MOODLE is a free LMS/CMS, OSS package designed
another 75 languages. using sound pedagogical principles to help educators create
effective online learning communities up to a 50,000-student
3. According to comprehensive survey [27], MOODLE is University, and it includes activity modules such as forums,
the most recommended OSS. resources, journals, quizzes…etc. It runs without
4. More than 25,708 sites use it in 175 countries. modification on UNIX, Linux, Windows, and many
databases (e.g. MySQL). See figure No. 3.
A brief list of some of its features: 1. Selecting the involved course which will be developed.
1. Suitable for 100% online classes as well as 2. Naming the course lecturer/s.
supplementing f2f learning. 3. Presenting the materials content: the chosen course
2. Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech lecturer presents all the materials content of the target
browser interface. course such as: books, documents, manuals and digital
3. Easy to install on almost any platform that supports materials.
PHP. Requires only one database. 4. Determining the eCourse contents by the lecturer.
4. Course listing shows descriptions for every course on 5. Explaining how the contents will be displayed: the
the server, including accessibility to guests. lecturer with cooperation of pedagogical expert
5. Courses can be categorised (allows a choice of 3 course determines how the contents will be displayed, the tools
formats) and can be searched. which will be used and the suitable content format, e.g.
6. Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are all using PDF, Presentation, Text, HTTB, WIKI,
checked, data validated, cookies encrypted etc. XML…etc.
7. Most text entry areas can be edited using an embedded 6. Deciding the multimedia activities: the lecturer with
cooperation of pedagogical expert decides which parts
WYSIWYG HTML editor.
and activities need to be designed as multimedia.
7. Deciding the course activities: the lecturer with
VII. BLENDED ECOURSE DEVELOPMENT STEPS: cooperation of pedagogical expert decides the suitable
We propose the following eCourse development steps course activities, e.g. assignments, homework, chats,
framework, see figure No. 4. glossaries, quizzes and resources.

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Figure 4: Framework of eCourse development steps

8. Developing and designing: the lecturer develops the plan to adopt such approach and explains the needed steps to
selected contents and activities and the multimedia develop eCourse by this approach.
technician designs the multimedia then put all in the
target eCourse. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
9. Evaluating: the Quality Unit insures that the eCourse I would like to thank Palestine Polytechnic University and
fits its quality assurance procedures. especially it’s IT Center of excellence for providing support
10. Updating: the lecture with cooperation with the and material related to educational research.
programmer makes the final modification upon the
evaluation notes. REFERENCES
11. Allowing the eCourse accessing.

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[12] WB (2006). The world bank, A Quarterly Publication of the West Jamil Itmazi is Director of eLearning and a Permanent Lecturer in the IT
Bank and Gaza Office, "West Bank and Gaza Update", The world Center of Excellence at Palestine Polytechnic University, Hebron -
bank Group, sep., P10. Palestine. He received his PhD degree from Granada University, Spain,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resour 2005, in eLearning software development.
ces/UpdateSept06Eng.pdf Dr. Itmazi has been researching at eLearning systems, learning
Management Systems, Recommendation Systems and Open-Source
[13] Graham, C. R., Allen, S., and Ure, D. (2003). Blended learning
environments: A review of the research literature. Unpublished Systems as well as participating in a range of IT-related projects. He is
manuscript, Provo, UT. retained as an expert and a consultant in learning technology projects.
Previously, he was the manager of the ISSRA Education Center and a tutor
[14] PCR. (2003). Program in Course Redesign (PCR). The National at the Palestinian Ministry Of Education and High Education.
Center for Academic Transformation. Saratoga Springs, NY 12866,
USA. www.center.rpi.edu/PCR.htm
Mahmnoud Tmeizeh is an English Supervisor at Southern Hebron
[15] Carol A. T. (2003). Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: New Directorate of Education in Palestinian ministry of education and high
Models for Online Learning, Troy, New York: National Center for education and a Part Time Lecturer in Hebron University, Palestine
Academic Transformation. Polytechnic University and Al-Quds Open University, Hebron - Palestine.
www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0352.pdf He is preparing his final stage of PhD degree in Educational Technology at
[16] Kölmel B. and Würtz G. (2005). “The Need for Context-based Institute of Arab Research & Studies, Egypt.
Assistance and Multimodal Access to eLearning”. In “Innovation Mr. Tmeizeh has been researching at eLearning pedagogy, Educational
and the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies”, Technology, Learning theories and using multimedia in Education.
Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds), IOS Press., Previously, he was the Principal of Deir Samit Secondary School and a
ISBN: 1586035630 tutor at the Palestinian Ministry Of Education and High Education.
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f

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