Overview+of+E-Learning+-+Palestine

Miki﻿ & Jondi (2010) state, with regards to higher education, that "distance education has become almost essential in Palestine" due to the conditions that the students face as they travel to their universities or places of learning. The events in Gaza have seen intense disruption to student life with many students denied further education abroad due to the restrictions imposed upon them by the Israeli governance. The fact that students are being killed or injured on their way to schools and universities is a great catalyst for prolific e-learning in this country. Students benefit from initialitives from relief organisations such as UNESCO, and the Palestinian European Academic Co-Operation in Education (PEACE) [] has provided students with opportunies to study in Europe and overseas, also arranging for international academics to provide support to the student population (Miki & Jondi, 2010). One of the current goals of this project is to establish a virtual Palestinian university in order to better serve the student population faced with terror and torment in their daily lives. The following video depicts the plight of a Palestinian student who wishes to leave Gaza to study but is unable to due to the Israeli occupation of Gaza.  media type="youtube" key="4Aq06zfnWZQ?fs=1" height="405" width="500" [Youtube user Palgaz. Gaza stranded students losing hope.]  40% of Palestinian students attend the Al-Quds Open University (QOU) which began serving the Palestinian territories in 1991. There are student e-learning centres throughout the West Bank and Gaza in refugee camps which house those who have been evicted from their homes in the now Israeli oocupied territories. Itmazi and Temezeih (2008) discuss the lack of funding for Palestinians as a factor for students attending virtual universities such as QOU not only due to a lack in government funding but also personal funding as 72-74% of Palestinians are living well below the poverty line. With the destruction that has occured to the universities and associated equipment, to say nothing of the destruction to Palestinian homes, Itmazi and Temezeih consider blended learning to be a good option for the students due to lack of resources on campus such as classrooms, desks, chairs and also due to personal safety and access issues. Movement restrictions can severely impede student performance as the Israeli occupation sees ever changing blockades and military attacks which restrict and isolate students, therefore face to face contact is recommended by Itmazi and Temezeih as an essential part of good e-learning. During the Second Intifada in 2000 students were prevented for several years from attending their academic institutions although institutional leaders attempted to continue with classes in apartments, cars, and other personal spaces (Occupation 101, Part 8 video, seen previously in this wiki).

According to Miki and Jondi (2010) and Itmazi and Temezeih (2008) Moodle is the preferred learning platform due to its open source nature and ability to produce text in Arabic which is the main language of the Palestinian Arab population. This preference to use Moodle is further supported by Arman, El-Arif and Elgazzar (2009) in their study on the effect of e-learning on students achievement at the Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU) ([]).

The PPU study incorporated an experimental group of 14 students and illustrates that the students achieved 80% greater efficiency in studying biomedical instrumentation through use of e-learning. The use of ICT is reported as essential to such a biomedical course due to the bio signals such as waveforms and heart valve movement that students must study which cannot realistically be replicated in the classroom but can with the aid of ICT. The study describes how a significant needs gap was identified in the hospitals and medical centres for this type of technological instruction due to the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation since 1967.

Ellis and Goodyear (2010) together with Hunt et al. and Bowden and Marton discuss the importance of the ecological view of learning which encompasses good management, planning and enhancement, "often made difficult by uncertainty" (Hunt et al., 2006). In consideration of the uncertainty faced by educators within Palestinian higher education institutions and often the restrictions imposed by the Israelis on access to international academia, rapid fluctuations in student numbers, government policy and an ever changing infrastructure of the institutions, it is essential that, in the words of Bowden and Marton (2004) learning should be the governing principle for the organisation of universities.

However within the extremely threatening environment within which both the educators and students reside, one can appreciate quite how difficult it must be to keep learning as not only a focus of the educational institutions but also the teaching and learning. When one considers the repetitive attacks within Gaza, for example, not only on humanity but also on the assets and infrastructures of the higher education institutions, the writer considers deeply how challenged all stakeholders must be to continue to educate and be educated.