Jovital Final Report

Final report on project activity and impact evaluatio

JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING International Online Teaching and Learning with Particular Attention to the Jordanian Cas Final report on project activity and impact evaluation 2017-202 April 2021

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Dr Arinola Ade la fi

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Professor Katherine Wimpenny ,

Authors: Dr Alun DeWinter

JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

The JOVITAL project has been funded with support from the European Union. This report re ects the view only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means that you are free to •Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format •Adapt – remix, transform, and build upon the material You may do so for any purpose, even commercially.

However, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use Please credit this executive summary and report to DeWinter, A. Wimpenny, K., & Ade la, A. (2021). JOVITAL: International Online Teaching and Learning, with Particular Attention to the Jordanian Case, Final Executive Summary and Report of Project Activity 2017-2021. Coventry: Coventry University [online: https://jovital.eu/impact-evaluation/]

More information on the JOVITAL Project can be found at: https://jovital.eu

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Members of the JOVITAL Consortiu

Four European institutions and ve Jordanian universities https://jovital.eu/partners/

Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) Germany (coordinator)

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Project Title JOVITAL – Jordan opportunity for virtual innovative teaching and learning

Project n.

586468-EPP-1-2017-1-DE-EPPKA2CBHE-JP

Work package WP2

Status Draft V2

Confidentiality Status Restricted

Author (Partner Institution) CU

Responsible Author(s) Alun DeWinter, Katherine Wimpenny, Arinola Ade la

Abstract (for dissemination) University based upon JOVITAL activity in 2020/1 NB. Full report to be completed by June 202

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Executive Summary

About JOVITAL JOVITAL is an international cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building in HE programmes of the European Union during the period October 2017 – April 2021 involving four European institutions and ve Jordanian universities. JOVITAL aims to foster academic exchange using virtual mobility in order to offer learning opportunities to academic staff, university students and disadvantaged learners in Jordan

Members of the Consortium • Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany (coordinator) • Coventry University (CU), UK • International School for Social and Business Studies (ISSBS), Slovenia • Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED), Italy • Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan • Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan • German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan • Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan • Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan

Project Overview JOVITAL has offered Jordanian HEIs a chance to explore, implement, and disseminate state of the art academic practices to enhance teaching quality and improve learning outcomes for students. A comprehensive capacity building programme was designed and implemented to facilitate intensive know-how transfer between the consortium members to address the problems of: outdated instructor-centred frontal teaching methods, limited physical academic mobility, and ineffective use of ICT in formal higher education in Jordanian HEIs. Project activities were planned based on solid expertise of European HEIs and extensive research with Jordanian HEIs to achieve the following concrete aims: • Introduce and promote learner-centred teaching and learning methodologies • Modernise teaching practices in Jordanian HEIs with innovative technologies • Augment internationalisation at home with “Virtual Mobility” • Create new possibilities to integrate refugees in Jordanian higher education This executive report serves as a presentation and evaluation of the main project activity and impact since October 2017.

1 http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/actions/key-action-2-cooperation-for-innovation-and-exchange-good-practices

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

The JOVITAL project has highlighted how collaborative online learning can be successfully achieved through the use of Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) activity in a Jordanian context. Despite some setbacks with project progress, particularly around IT equipment and the unforeseen impact of COVID-19, the JOVITAL project has offered a solid template for further teaching and learning activity in an online space in the Jordanian context.

A bene t of the VCL model is the bringing together of learners on both a local and international level. Particularly setting itself aside from other international projects, JOVITAL has highlighted the bene ts of students working together on local or national basis in addition to any international activity. This approach brings together students from across Jordan and opens up educational experiences to disadvantaged learners in the local context, such as refugees. Beyond this, the use of collaborative virtual learning environments promotes the development of soft, transversal skills such as communication, intercultural competences and problem solving.

A particular emphasis should be made about the E-Tutor model, which offers bene ts to the delivery of VCL activity within Jordan. Not only does the E-Tutor training develop soft sills and offer wider employability development for the E-Tutors, their role in the delivery of VCL projects is central to keeping communication going and to problem solve in their capacity as a student-professor interface.

The JOVITAL project achieved four VCL activities, offered staff and E-Tutor training, created a mobile technology hub and has developed a proven model for online teaching and learning via the use of VCL techniques within the Jordanian context. The impact of COVID-19 cannot be ignored as this represented wide-researching disruption to project delivery.

All of the planned physical events in 2020 were cancelled, including a second summer school for E-Tutors and further project partner visits. Although VCLs and partner meeting did take place in the virtual space, this was not as originally anticipated and caused some setbacks to the planned timeline. This was compounded by issues relating to the purchase of technologies. Nonetheless, the major project aims as set out in the project proposal have been achieved.

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

The following recommendations: • The VCL model of online learning offers a solid template for institutions across Jordan and can be scaled as appropriate to suit local institutional needs and to t the governmental cap on online learning (pending any permanent changes due to COVID-19) • The use of the VCL model is exible and allows Jordanian institutions to offer teaching and learning in an online space locally, nationally and internationally • The E-Tutor model offers a particularly valuable approach to capacity building, allowing for the training of student experts to assist with project delivery • The use of student feedback is critical to understanding the successes of VCL delivery. Experiences of the project show that Jordanian students may not be used to providing critical feedback, but encouraging student feedback in the future is encouraged • Careful consideration of the VCL platform is necessary to successful project delivery – if the platform is not build to meet the student needs, students will turn to other forms of social media to communicate • The approach to JOVITAL has seen a successful top-down and bottom-up approach to the institutions involved. This has been largely con ned to the participating institutions, so considerations around scaling up to a national level would be the logical next stages of development • A Community of Practice for VCL is developing, but perhaps more slowly than anticipated due to the unforeseen COVID crisis. It is suggested that JOVITAL members continue to discuss and disseminate their VLE experience to proliferate the bene ts and use of VCL in the Jordanian context • JOVITAL did manage to reach out to refugee and underprivileged learners in Jordan, particularly during the eVCL. That being said, issues around engagement and feedback indicate that further work could be done to ensure continuity of access to hardware in order to better understand the needs of these learners.

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‫ ‬ ‫‪JORDAN OPPORTUNITY‬‬ ‫‪FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE‬‬ ‫‪TEACHING AND LEARNING‬‬

‫ملخص تنفيذي‬ ‫حول جوفيتال‬ ‫جوفيتال هو مشروع تعاون دولي تم تمويله باالشتراك مع برنامج إراسموس‪ +‬لبناء القدرات في برامج التعليم العالي في االتحاد‬ ‫األوروبي خالل الفترة من أكتوبر ‪ 2017‬إلى أبريل ‪ 2021‬بمشاركة أربع مؤسسات أوروبية وخمس جامعات أردنية‪ .‬يهدف‬ ‫جوفيتال إلى تعزيز التبادل األكاديمي باستخدام التنقل االفتراضي من أجل توفير فرص التعلم ألعضاء هيئة التدريس وطالب‬ ‫الجامعات واملتعلمني األقل حظا ً في األردن‪.‬‬ ‫أعضاء املشروع‬ ‫• الجامعة التقنية في دريسدن )‪ ،(TUD‬أملانيا )منسق(‬ ‫• جامعة كوفنتري )‪ ،(CU‬اململكة املتحدة‬ ‫• املدرسة الدولية للدراسات االجتماعية واألعمال )‪ ،(ISSBS‬سلوفينيا‬ ‫• اتحاد الجامعات املتوسطية )‪ ،(UNIMED‬إيطاليا‬ ‫• جامعة األميرة سمية للتكنولوجيا )‪ ،(PSUT‬األردن‬ ‫• جامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا األردنية )‪ ،(JUST‬األردن‬ ‫• الجامعة األملانية األردنية )‪ ،(GJU‬األردن‬ ‫• جامعة الحسني بن طالل )‪ ،(AHU‬األردن‬ ‫• جامعة الطفيلة التقنية )‪ ،(TTU‬األردن‬ ‫ملخص املشروع‬ ‫قدم جوفيتال ملؤسسات التعليم العالي األردنية فرصة الستكشاف وتنفيذ ونشر أحدث املمارسات األكاديمية لتعزيز جودة التدريس‬ ‫وتحسني نتائج التعلم للطالب‪ .‬تم تصميم وتنفيذ برنامج بناء قدرات شامل لتسهيل نقل املعرفة املكثفة بني أعضاء املشروع ملعالجة‬ ‫مشاكل‪ :‬أساليب التدريس التلقينية التي عفا عليها الزمن والتي تركز على املعلم‪ ،‬ومحدودية التنقل األكاديمي الشخصي‪،‬‬ ‫واالستخدام غير الفعال لتكنولوجيا املعلومات واالتصاالت في برامج التعليم العالي في األردن‪ .‬تم التخطيط ألنشطة املشروع على‬ ‫أساس الخبرة الطويلة ملؤسسات التعليم العالي األوروبية والبحث املكثف مع مؤسسات التعليم العالي األردنية لتحقيق األهداف‬ ‫امللموسة التالية‪:‬‬ ‫• تقديم وتعزيز مناهج التدريس والتعلم التي تركز على املتعلم‬ ‫• تحديث ممارسات التدريس في مؤسسات التعليم العالي األردنية بتقنيات مبتكرة‬ ‫• زيادة "التدويل في املنزل" باستخدام "التنقل االفتراضي"‬ ‫• خلق إمكانيات جديدة لدمج الالجئني في التعليم العالي األردني‬ ‫يُعد هذا التقرير التنفيذي بمثابة عرض تقديمي وتقييم لنشاطات املشروع الرئيسية وتأثيره منذ أكتوبر ‪.2017‬‬

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‫ ‬ ‫‪JORDAN OPPORTUNITY‬‬ ‫‪FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE‬‬ ‫‪TEACHING AND LEARNING‬‬

‫سلط مشروع جوفيتال الضوء على كيفية تحقيق التعلم التعاوني عبر اإلنترنت بنجاح من خالل استخدام أسلوب التعلم التعاوني‬ ‫االفتراضي )‪ (VCL‬في سياق أردني‪ .‬على الرغم من بعض النكسات في تقدم املشروع‪ ،‬ال سيما فيما يتعلق بمعدات تكنولوجيا‬ ‫نموذجا قويًا ملزيد من أنشطة التدريس والتعلم في مساحة‬ ‫املعلومات والتأثير غير املتوقع لـ ‪ ،COVID-19‬قدم مشروع جوفيتال‬ ‫ً‬ ‫افتراضية في السياق األردني‪.‬‬ ‫تتمثل إحدى مزايا نموذج ‪ VCL‬في الجمع بني املتعلمني على املستويني املحلي والدولي‪ .‬وبغض النظر عن املشاريع الدولية‬ ‫األخرى‪ ،‬أبرزت جوفيتال فوائد للطالب الذين يعملون م ًعا على أساس محلي أو وطني باإلضافة إلى أي نشاط دولي‪ .‬يجمع هذا‬ ‫النهج الطالب من جميع أنحاء األردن ويفتح الخبرات التعليمية للمتعلمني املهمشني في السياق املحلي‪ ،‬مثل الالجئني‪ .‬عالوة على‬ ‫ذلك‪ ،‬فإن استخدام بيئات التعلم االفتراضية التعاونية يعزز تطوير املهارات اللينة واملستعرضة مثل التواصل ومهارات التبادل بني‬ ‫الثقافات وحل املشكالت‪.‬‬ ‫يجب التركيز بشكل خاص على نموذج املعلم اإللكتروني‪ ،‬والذي يقدم فوائد لتنفيذ نشاطات ‪ VCL‬داخل األردن‪ .‬ال يقتصر دور‬ ‫تدريب املعلم اإللكتروني على تطوير املهارات اللينة وإتاحة فرص عمل أوسع للمدرسني اإللكترونيني‪ ،‬بل إن دورهم في تنفيذ‬ ‫أمرا أساسيًا للحفاظ على استمرار االتصال وحل املشكالت بصفتهم الواجهة بني الطالب واملدرس‪.‬‬ ‫مشاريع ‪ VCL‬يعد ً‬ ‫حقق مشروع جوفيتال أربعة أنشطة ‪ ،VCL‬وقدم تدريبات ألعضاء هيئة التدريس واملوظفني واملعلمني اإللكترونيني‪ ،‬وأنشأ مراكز‬ ‫نموذجا مجر ًبا للتعليم والتعلم عبر اإلنترنت من خالل استخدام تقنيات ‪ VCL‬في السياق األردني‪ .‬ال‬ ‫لألجهزة التكنولوجية‪ ،‬وطور‬ ‫ً‬ ‫يمكن تجاهل تأثير ‪ COVID-19‬ألنه أحدث اضطرابًا واس ًعا في عمليات البحث وتنفيذ املشروع‪ .‬تم إلغاء جميع األحداث املادية‬ ‫املخطط لها في عام ‪ ،2020‬بما في ذلك املدرسة الصيفية الثانية للمعلمني اإللكترونيني وزيارات أخرى لشركاء املشروع‪ .‬على الرغم‬ ‫من تنفيذ مساقات ‪ VCL‬واجتماعات الشركاء في الفضاء االفتراضي‪ ،‬إال أن هذا لم يكن كما كان متوق ًعا في األصل وتسبب في‬ ‫بعض النكسات في الجدول الزمني املخطط له‪ .‬وقد تفاقم ذلك بسبب القضايا املتعلقة بشراء وتوريد التجهيزات التقنية‪ .‬ومع ذلك‪،‬‬ ‫فقد تم تحقيق أهداف املشروع الرئيسية على النحو املقرر في مخطط املشروع‪.‬‬ ‫وصل تقييم أثر أنشطة املشروع إلى النتائج الرئيسية التالية‪:‬‬ ‫نموذجا قويًا للمؤسسات في جميع أنحاء األردن ويمكن توسيع نطاقه بما يتناسب مع‬ ‫• يقدم نموذج ‪ VCL‬للتعلم عبر اإلنترنت‬ ‫ً‬ ‫االحتياجات املؤسسية املحلية والحد األقصى الحكومي املسموح للتعلم عبر اإلنترنت )في انتظار أي تغييرات دائمة بسبب‬ ‫‪(COVID-19‬‬ ‫• استخدام نموذج ‪ VCL‬مرن ويسمح للمؤسسات األردنية بتقديم التدريس والتعلم في مساحة افتراضية محليًا ووطنيًا ودوليًا‬ ‫نهجا قيما ً خاصة لبناء القدرات‪ ،‬مما يسمح بتدريب خبراء من الطالب‬ ‫• يقدم نموذج املعلم اإللكتروني ً‬

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Contents Members of the JOVITAL Consortium

4

Report: JOVITAL End-of-Project Summary of Activities

10

Section 1 – Background Project Activity and Needs Analysis

12

Summary of the Needs Analysis

12

European Site Visits

15

Academic Staff Training

17

Section 2 – Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) deliveries

18

The DIGCOMP model of evaluation

18

E-Tutors

19

E-Tutor Training

20

The VLE Pilot - institutional pilot VCL projects

22

VLE platform

23

Preference on mobile format

23

The National VCL

24

The International VCL (iVCL)

26

The Jordan-led extended VCL (eVCL)

29

JOVITAL successes and examples of best practice

33

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

34

Lessons Learned

35

Conclusions and Recommendations

36

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Report: JOVITAL End-of-Project Summary of Activities

Members of the Consortium

About JOVITAL

• Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany (coordinator) • Coventry University (CU), UK • International School for Social and Business Studies (ISSBS), Slovenia

JOVITAL is an international cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building in HE programmes of the European Union during the period October 2017 – April 2021 involving four European institutions and ve Jordanian universities. JOVITAL aims to foster academic exchange using virtual mobility in order to offer learning opportunities to academic staff, university students and disadvantaged learners in Jordan.

• Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED), Italy • Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan • Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan • German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan • Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan • Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Project Overview JOVITAL has offered Jordanian HEIs a chance to explore, implement, and disseminate state of the art academic practices to enhance teaching quality and improve learning outcomes for students. A comprehensive capacity building programme was designed and implemented to facilitate intensive know-how transfer between the consortium members to address the problems of: outdated instructor-centred frontal teaching methods, limited physical academic mobility, and ineffective use of ICT in formal higher education in Jordanian HEIs. Project activities were planned based on solid expertise of European HEIs and extensive research with Jordanian HEIs to achieve the following concrete aims: • Introduce and promote learner-centred teaching and learning methodologies • Modernise teaching practices in Jordanian HEIs with innovative technologies • Augment internationalisation at home with “Virtual Mobility” • Create new possibilities to integrate refugees in Jordanian higher education This report serves as a presentation and evaluation of project activity and impact since October 2017. Mapped against the baseline needs analysis conducted in 2018, this document covers the three Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) activities academic staff and E-Tutor training, as well as covering the impact of the international Covid-19 pandemic of 2020/21 on the project.

The report is divided into three sections and presents the main activities and delivery events in chronological order, starting with the baseline needs analysis report, site visits management meetings and academic staff training (Section I) before moving onto the E-Tutor (students) training and each of the Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) deliveries (Section 2). The report concludes by offering a discussion on the overall project impact, best practice strengths and points of learning for the future (Section 3).

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Section 1 – Background Project Activity and Needs Analysis This section of the report details the project management-focussed activities from 2018 and 2019, as well as the initial baseline needs analysis report produced in late 2018. The activities stated below all took place before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/21 and covers the periods of time where international mobility and physical meetings were possible.

Summary of the Needs Analysis As part of the initial phase of JOVITAL, Coventry University undertook a review of existing literature in 2018 to consider international perspectives about key conceptions of online and international learning, with particular emphasis on the Jordanian higher education context. As a result of this, a country report on Jordan was created, presenting and examining country demographics, contextual higher education practices, expert perspectives about education and policy for virtual innovative teaching and learning. In addition, the report included a presentation and analysis of the ‘state of the art’ of online teaching and learning practices, based upon worldwide trends and approaches to implementing internet-enabled technologies into university level study.

One of the key policy considerations for the JOVITAL project was a governmental cap mandating that no more of 25% of any degree programme could be delivered online (at the time of writing). It was also identi ed that a potential generational gap exists in terms of views of online technologies, with younger Jordanians being more ‘internet savvy’ and open to the use of the internet for teaching and learning when compared to professors and teaching staff.

An analysis and interpretation of institutional and academic survey data from the ve Jordanian partners was also completed as part of the needs analysis, to benchmark and to aid with the development of an action plan for next step project activities.

This report detailed a set of recommendations for capacity building to inform the next stage work packages and included a Communities of Practice framework to help facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practices across the Jordanian Consortium higher education institutions (HEIs).

These recommendations were brought together under ve main themes: • 1. Top-Down and Bottom-Up Implementation • 2. Collaborative Creation in Communities of Practice • 3. Supporting Staff in the Design and Delivery of Virtual Teaching and Learning Practices, including use of Open Educational Resources • 4. Enhancing the Quality of Student Learning and the Student Voice • 5. Future proo ng and engagement with the rest of the world • Each theme is detailed as follows:

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Top-Down and Bottom-Up Implementation The report recommended that strategic planning needs to occur with regards to how research, e-pedagogy and institutional support can be harnessed to promote the design and delivery of online learning. Due to the institutional variance amongst the Jordanian Consortium HEIs, it was recommended that partner universities would need to identify their own strategic roadmaps, but aligned to the overall JOVITAL project aims and goals as well as to national and regional agendas as outlined in the National eLearning Strategy for Higher Education Jordan. Further, the participating Jordanian universities would need to connect their own satellite E-Pedagogy / E-Learning Centres with the National Centre for Electronic Learning, which was due to be created as part of project delivery.

In terms of human resources, E-Learning Instructors, Technical Support staff and Academics who already have state of the art e-learning expertise locally, were suggested to provide training and mentorship to equip academic staff with the required digital competencies. These actors, as experts in e-learning, were to include students, postgraduates and doctoral students.

The recommendation therefore was to see a combination of top-down planning, support, and promotion of online learning in tandem with the on-the-ground delivery and training, being key to JOVITAL success.

Collaborative Creation in Communities of Practice The establishment of institutional forums and cross institutional forums was seen as essential in order to cater for institutional variance, with respect of academic competencies in the design and delivery of pedagogy for quality online (international) learning. It was recommended that these forums should be developed based on a Communities of Practice framework, to facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practice across the Jordanian HEIs. These forums, which were to be offered on an ongoing basis, would be facilitated by local champions in virtual teaching and learning practices at the Jordanian Universities. The forums were to focus on the sharing of pedagogical experiences to better understand lecturers’ needs with a view to empowering staff and to support their positivity and ingenuity.

These forums were intended to provide space for dialogue and exchange in which to share and identify institutional and cross-institutional strategies to address the concerns, including speci c training needs.

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JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Supporting Staff in the Design and Delivery of Virtual Teaching and Learning Practices, including use of Open Educational Resources The report identi ed that strategic and technical training was required across the Consortium, particularly at an institutional level. The needs analysis found that most Jordanian lecturers use online resources readily, but identi ed some issues around ef ciency and impact of online teaching and learning delivery. It was suggested that staff development needs should be prioritised not only in the design of pedagogy for quality online (international) learning, but also for effective online intercultural exchange.

Enhancing the Quality of Student Learning and the Student Voice It was evident in the baseline institutional survey ndings, that whilst student modules and course evaluations were sometimes captured across participating institutions, this practice is not consistent. In addition, the analysis of student feedback was not often known. The report therefore strongly suggested that the student voice be heard and acted upon throughout the JOVITAL project.

Further, the ndings of the needs analysis evidenced that staff often assume students have the required digital competencies to engage in virtual / online learning. As it could not be assumed that students have the appropriate digital skills, it was suggested that students be signposted to support with regards to enhancing their digital uency, including their understanding of their identity and privacy pro les when learning in online spaces.

Future proofing and engagement with the rest of the world It was noted that some of the Jordanian partner institutions were already collaborating on projects with international colleagues and / or offering online courses, accessing global learning communities, but this was not the case for all JOVITAL partners. It was therefore suggested that the JOVITAL project worked to enable all partners to offer online international learning opportunities, through internationalization-at-home initiatives, whereby virtual strategic approaches enable students to engage in pedagogy and assessment with international learners.

In addition, an important focus of JOVITAL was on how virtual learning opportunities can be made available to people and communities beyond the walls of the institution, and via mobile learning strategies within Refugee Camps in Jordan and beyond. It was suggested that this wider remit of inclusivity be considered in project delivery.

In summary, the needs analysis report recommended that project embrace collaborative forms of working, which should include input from academic and professional staff from differing levels of seniority, as well as students. This would assist in the building of a community of Jordanian e-learning experts which would help to perpetuate digital upskilling beyond the JOVITAL project life.

In addition, cross-institutional sharing of best practice was recommended so that the Consortium as a whole could bene t, with a view to sharing JOVITAL practices with the wider international community.

The report urged that staff development should be prioritised, not only in the design of pedagogy for quality online (international) learning, but also for effective online intercultural exchange in order to ensure quality of education design and delivery of teaching and learning content.

The full needs analysis is publicly available and can be found at: https://jovital.eu/needs-analysis-report/

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European Site Visit Two European site visits occurred in the early stages of the JOVITAL project – one to TUD Dresden, Germany and one to Coventry University, UK. The initial visit saw 28 Jordanian staff from across the JOVITAL Consortium visit TU Dresden for a three-day observation visit between 25th and 27th April 2018. The agenda included insight into the concepts of Project-Based Learning and Virtual Collaborative Learning and its practical implementation in case studies in a virtual classroom.

The visit was complemented by a guided tour through TU Dresden’s media centre, the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) and the Traveling Innovation Labs and Services (TRAILS) project. As a cultural side event the Jordan guests visited the historical city centre of Dresden and the transparent factory of Volkswagen.

The visit was well-received by all, and offered Consortium members an insight into collaborative learning in an online space, and highlighted the possibilities of what might be achieved through the JOVITAL project.

“I think that [JOVITAL] gives us the opportunity gives us the opportunity to look at European universities to see how they apply online learning. [Through the training] we get a lot of information that we can apply for our students” Academic from PSUT The second visit followed the publication of the needs analysis report and saw members from the Jordanian institutions invited to Coventry University for a staff observation visit between the 3rd and 5th September 2019. The purpose of the visit was for Jordanian academic staff to be introduced to a range of approaches, tools and solutions to online learning, particularly Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) (which is the preferred term used for virtual collaborative learning at Coventry and which is an approach regularly used as part of curriculum internalisation in teaching and learning across all disciplinary areas at Coventry University. In addition, the visit offered valuable insights into the practical considerations of developing and delivering COIL and COIL-like activity, ranging from intercultural considerations to navigating time zone differences and working with new and different technologies.

“The main focus for me is to learn more about VLC and how to adapt them for my classes. This is for the bene t for myself, and of course my students, for their learning process … I plan on adapting VLC for use in more of my classes and want to motivate my students to take part and … to share knowledge with those from different institutions” – Academic from TTU In total, 31 Jordanian staff visited Coventry, with key highlights including: • Insight into a range of teaching and learning methods that can be utilised within COIL projects, with examples from Health and Life Sciences, Business and Law, Arts and Humanities and Engineering and Computing.

• Exposure to a number of state-of-the-art technologies that are being used innovatively within teaching and learning, including robots, virtual hospital patients, virtual reality and augmented reality.

• Real-life examples of the processes used to set up and deliver COIL projects, with an honest and open discussion around the challenges and limitations of the collaborative online approach.

• Insight into the wider pedagogical bene ts of utilising state-of-the-art-technologies within teaching and learning, including the development of intercultural competences, blended learning and the ipped classroom.

Fundamentally, discussions focused on questioning why collaborative online learning approaches are being considered, and to what effect, as part of students learning. One of the key takeaways from the JOVITAL project so far is that, although technology may be a key factor in COIL, it is not simply enough to buy new software or hardware and expect success; it takes signi cant time, energy and training to realise a meaningful and successful COIL project.

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Particularly, attention needs to be directed to achieving the collaborative aspects of the online learning exchange.

Feedback on the Coventry visit was largely positive, but it was acknowledged that the schedule was packed, with a lot of sessions across the three days. Otherwise, the participants shared they found the visit a useful insight into an institution which embeds collaborative online technologies in an international learning setting. Participants gained insights into state-of-the-art technologies and different styles of teaching and learning approaches used at Coventry, which was viewed as valuable to their understanding of the development and implementation of COIL and other online teaching and learning projects.

“We don’t have the same facilities as those in Western Universities and the economic situation [in Jordan] isn’t so good.

This type of programme allows our students to learn about other students in other cultures without travel and we can arrange for video conversations to get our students to be more aware about other students from other cultures ... I believe education environments is where we can build a bridge of peace between cultures.” – Academic from TTU As a result of these European sight visits, it was also highlighted that the Jordanian partners do not often get the chance to interact with each other, with many of the attending delegates having not previously met each other in Jordan. It was recommended that there be more interaction between the Jordanian partners in Jordan as part of the JOVITAL project, so that there is more ef cient collaboration and communication between partner institutions.

Staff interviews following their participation in the Coventry site visit demonstrated how the Jordanian Academics experiences and expectations of the JOVITAL project before the training and whilst the delivery of student learning activity was in uencing practice “Our university [German Jordanian University] is unique in that we are very experimental with our students and we already have internationalisation [through mobility] … We need to do more … I think we need to soften our interactions between students before they go abroad for a year, and I think we need to do more of this as it is a rst opportunity for Jordanian students to interact with non-Jordanian students … I hope JOVITAL will help us to deliver a avour to our students before they go abroad.” - Academic from GJU

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Academic Staff Training A total of three academic staff training events took place as part of the JOVITAL project. The purpose of these training events was to introduce Jordanian staff to core concepts around internationally focussed online learning teaching and learning. These included the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). More technical training on how to use the supporting software to craft online learning environments and the use of analytics was also included.

The rst of the academic staff training sessions, delivered by project team members from TUD Dresden, took place on 6th to the 8th of December 2018 at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman. A total of 22 Jordanian staff took part in the training, which introduced VCL as a learner-centred problem-based teaching approach to modernize teaching and learning practices in Jordanian HEIs. Relevant teaching and learning methods and applicable modern educational technologies were discussed in alignment with local needs and priorities. The bene ts, requirements, process, and possible challenges of adopting VCL in local context were explored, and it was reinforced that different approaches to implementation may be needed on a per-institution level, depending on access to technologies and student familiarity with online learning.

The second took place between the 3rd and the 5th October 2019 at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman. Delivered by project team members from TUD Dresden, a total of 19 participants from across the consortium took part in the training. A further six academics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan and four Jordanian universities, not in the project consortium, attended the training: Al al-Bayt University, AlBalqa` Applied University, Mutah University, and Luminus Technical University College.

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The nal staff training took place at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman, on February 25th 2020, and at Ta la Technical University in Ta la, on February 27th 2020. Led by ISSBS, 26 participants took part. A fourth training event was due to take place in April 2020, but was cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Collaborative Creation in Communities of Practice The establishment of institutional forums and cross institutional forums was seen as essential in order to cater for institutional variance, with respect of academic competencies in the design and delivery of pedagogy for quality online (international) learning. It was recommended that these forums should be developed based on a Communities of Practice framework, to facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practice across the Jordanian HEIs. These forums, which were to be offered on an ongoing basis, would be facilitated by local champions in virtual teaching and learning practices at the Jordanian Universities. The forums were to focus on the sharing of pedagogical experiences to better understand lecturers’ needs with a view to empowering staff and to support their positivity and ingenuity.

These forums were intended to provide space for dialogue and exchange in which to share and identify institutional and cross-institutional strategies to address the concerns, including speci c training needs.

Section 2 – Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) deliveries This section presents the four VCL activities delivered by JOVITAL between 2019 and 2020, as well as covering the ETutor training and E-Tutor model adopted by the project. Each VCL activity brought different students from across the Consortium HEIs together to solve tasks and make use of the collaborative online space.

The VCLs started off with a limited local pilot in Jordan, before progressing to a Jordanian national VCL, an international VCL, culminating with a Jordanian-led VCL including refugees and disadvantaged learners. Elements of the VCL delivery was impacted by COVID-19 in terms of timings and dates as campuses across the consortium were closed during lockdown periods, meaning that any in-class activity or preparatory work had to be conducted online

The DIGCOMP model of evaluation The four VCLs were delivered as part of the JOVITAL project. For each, evaluation surveys were created by the Coventry University team using a modi ed version of the JISC DIGCOMP tool. Used as part of the baseline needs analysis. Developed by the EU, the tool focusses on ve key areas of digital competences in education: 1. Information and data literacy 2. Communication and collaboration 3. Digital; content creation 4. Privacy and safety 5. Problem solving

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(Cattero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017) The continued use of this digital competence framework allowed for a consistent approach to evaluation and made use of an existing, proven tool, (albeit slightly modi ed as explained below) rather than using resources to create new tools from the ground up.

Adaptation of the DIGCOMP tool For the purposes of the JOVITAL VCLs, three of the ve JISC DIGCOMP areas held particular interest - Information and data literacy, Communication and collaboration and Problem solving. Content Creation and Privacy were not examined as these elements did not align to the needs and purpose of the JOVITAL project delivery and it was felt that questions within these areas may have caused confusion or detracted from the intended data collection.

The JOVITAL evaluation reports thus offers summaries of the ndings based upon surveys conducted using the modi ed DIGCOMP model, as well as qualitative interviews conducted.

E-Tutors As part of JOVITAL project’s delivery of Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) experiences to partner university students in Jordan, an ‘E-Tutor’ training and model was adopted.

E-tutors form an essential part of the JOVITAL model, allowing for peer assistance within a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) without the direct input of a teacher/lecturer/professor. The E-Tutors role served as a valuable interface between the learners and teacher/lecturer/professors, acting as facilitators in VCL spaces that often involve very high numbers of students to one member of staff, and that require intensive exchange and continuous communication between students working in small groups to achieve common learning objectives.

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E-Tutor Training All JOVITAL E-Tutors were from Jordanian institutions and were trained by the team at TU Dresden alongside TU Dresden E-Tutors. The Formal E-Tutor training took place over a two-week period, between the 3rd and 16th September 2019, at the TU Dresden campus in Dresden, Germany.

E-Tutors could be from any subject area, but generally attracted students from Business, IT and engineering backgrounds.

The JOVITAL project aimed to train at least 24 E-Tutors across the ve partner Jordanian Universities. A total of 27 students were ultimately trained, over-matching the anticipated target. Due to partners’ request, a further summer school training session was amticipated to train more E-Tutors but had to be cancelled later because of the limitations the COVID-19 pandemic placed on national and international travel.

The overall impact of the pandemic will be discussed later in this report.

The multifaceted E-Tutor training equipped the students to become familiar with and to facilitate knowledge building and exchange in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). In addition, the training taught the E-Tutors how to motivate individual students and groups for proactive participation and contribution, to observe and evaluate online collaboration and teamwork within the VLE and to recognize con ict situations and when intervene to solve group problems.

Qualitative interview feedback from the E-Tutor training highlighted four key themes: • • • •

Soft skill development Intercultural competency development E- Tutoring as a privilege infrastructure and resources

Each is brie y explained below:

Soft skill development The E-Tutors overwhelmingly shared how they found that the development and practical application of soft skills was highly bene cial during their training. The E-Tutors expressed that they previously saw soft skills as ‘pointless’ as they were not relevant to subject-level learning, but their application in a live environment within the VCL bought their relevance and importance to the forefront. Communication and problem solving were the two main critical skills identi ed.

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Intercultural competency development Beyond the general soft skill development, intercultural competences were highlighted as a key output from the ETutor training. The E-Tutors expressed that they had not previously been familiar with the concept of intercultural learning, but experiencing an international, intercultural setting in Dresden highlighted the importance of developing intercultural competences in order to work successfully with people from a variety of cultures.

E- Tutoring as a privilege The E-Tutors shared how they viewed their position as a privilege and a position that requires hard work and dedication. Although it was understood that they were not acting in the capacity of a professor/teacher or tutor, it was felt that the E-Tutor role was an important one, and one that is particularly valuable for their personal development and CV

Infrastructure and resources E-Tutors shared how they viewed collaborative online learning and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) as important but observed that the resources and infrastructure of many Jordanian universities would need to be improved before it could become commonplace teaching and learning in Jordan. In other words, the E-Tutors shared that how they viewed the use of VLEs as currently complementary to higher education teaching and learning practices, rather than an education practice which could become the norm in the immediate future.

Quotes from the E-Tutor training: “There are soft skills courses at university which are pointless to do in person but learning these digitally in an active real environment is good. Subject learning takes place in class, but using virtual learning gives us something a bit more different” “Everyone really enjoyed the training, but it was hard. There were so many barriers, cultural, language and skill to begin with. Intercultural communications with a new culture was a different experience. This was made harder by everyone being non-native English speakers all trying to talk English, even the Germans. We did the training in a respectful way as we knew that there would be challenges with difference. Everything was really new but this is good.

We are pretty employability conscious and this would be a good experience for our CVs.” “I feel privileged to have been part of the training. I learnt so much about my skills, and how culture is so important to consider. I knew that working with Europeans would be different, but I also learnt how diverse we are inside Jordan too … I look forward to working more in JOVITAL”

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Overall, the E-Tutor training and model can be seen as a success for the JOVITAL project and resulted in the training of 27 E-Tutors. However, it must be noted that a second summer school to train the E-Tutors in 2020 could not be delivered due to COVID-19. In addition, due to COVID-19 delaying the delivery of some of the VCL activities, not all of the trained E-Tutors were able to put their training into action. Indeed, by the time the international and the Jordanled VCL were delivered, a number of the trained E-Tutors had graduated and were no longer at their educational institutions.

The VLE Pilot - institutional pilot VCL projects In March 2019, Jordanian students were introduced to the rst iteration of the JOVITAL VCL, using the open source platform designed and implemented by the TU Dresden. The purpose of this pilot was to introduce teaching staff in the use of VLE spaces and learners to working in a virtual environment, with short group tasks assigned to complete. In part, this pilot was used to inform which Jordanian students might become candidates for the E-Tutor training in Dresden in September 2019.

The HEIs involved in this pilot test of the VLE were as follows: • • • • • •

Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan

The delivery resulted in the following headline ndings from the evaluation: • VCL platform/choice of VLE • Preference on mobile format • Student Engagement Each of the headlines are now discussed below.

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VLE platform Although the participating students noted they were happy with teaching and learning activities delivered through this VCL delivery, the overwhelming feedback was that the students were unhappy with the aesthetics, style and accessibility of the platform. Students expressed that the interface was unintuitive and dif cult to navigate, impacting their overall experience.

Preference on mobile format Linked to the above, the feedback and analytics from this pilot indicated that approximately two thirds of the learners were accessing the VLE through mobile devices. The interface of the VLE was particularly dif cult to use in a mobile format, with students and E-Tutors noting that they would communicate with each other through other means (Social Media, WhatsApp etc.).

Student Engagement It was observed that student engagement was uneven across the duration on this pilot test VLE, with some students engaging heavily, whilst others did not. Analytics reveal that up to a quarter of the participants ‘bounced’ - that is logged on, spending under ten seconds in the VLE, but did not navigate away from the starting page. Nonetheless, over a quarter of the participants spent between 10 minutes and an hour per log on each session, highlighting a large disparity between those who engaged and those who did not.

Student quotes from the pilot VCL “This was interesting to be part of. It was hard to use my phone. I think we used our WhatsApp more to talk but we did the tasks on the VCL” “I felt like this was good overall. We had some issues with people who did not take part and who did not want to communicate. It was an interesting challenge” Overall, the initial pilot testing of the VLE did not serve as a full VCL experience but did lay the experiential foundations of the next stage JOVITAL project activities for staff and students

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The National VCL (nVCL) The National VCL took place between the 7th July 2020 and 5th September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and included 50 students.

Taking place on the updated JOVITAL learning space curated by TU Dresden, a total of 30 students actively took part from across the ve Jordanian Partner institutions: • • • • •

Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan (6 students) Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan (5 students) German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan (5 students) Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan (5 students) Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan (9 students)

As part of the experience, students were mixed into six interdisciplinary teams and worked in virtual teams to practice discussing and exchanging knowledge with peers from different universities and locations. The National VCL cumulated in the student group’s presenting their experiences, demonstrating not only subject-level knowledge, but also capabilities for critical thinking, problem solving, communication skills, and collaborative work.

This VCL delivery resulted in the following headline ndings from the evaluation: • • • •

VCL platform Student Engagement E-Tutors Use of the English Language

Each headline nding is expanded upon below:

VCL platform As with the pilot VLE tests, students felt that the VCL platform could be further improved, particularly with regards to accessing the platform on mobile phones. In addition, learner participants expressed that the VCL would send email noti cations at overly frequent intervals, causing some confusion around communications.

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Student Engagement It was widely reported by participants who engaged in the evaluation survey that certain students were undertaking a majority of the course work set, whilst other students did not engage much in the activities. In particular, the E-Tutors shared that they were chasing a small number of students to engage, resulting in separate WhatsApp and social media groups being created to ensure that students were undertaking the VCL related tasks.

Nonetheless, students who did engage expressed that they felt that they had developed and demonstrated soft, transversal skills and bene tted greatly from the opportunity to mix with students from other regions in Jordan.

E-Tutors The E-Tutors served a central role in the National VCL delivery and received praise from staff and students alike. Their role in offering peer support and as an interface between staff and students was well received, with student participants stating that they felt far more comfortable in seeking assistance and talking with the E-Tutors when compared to talking with their Professors / teachers / tutors. In addition, the E-Tutors themselves expressed that they found the experience to be highly bene cial and were happy to have been able to put their training into action during the National VCL.

English Language A nal headline from National VCL was the use of the English language for instruction. The use of the English language received a mixed reception, with some students nding the use of Arabic to communicate easier, whilst others viewed the use of Arabic as undermining the purpose of the VCL. There was a perception that the use of the English Language was preferred on an academic and intellectual level, resulting in a small number of students feeling isolated if they preferred Arabic.

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Student Quotes from the National VCL “We accepted other ideas and looking for a solution to every single problem that we faced, gained new skills and shared it with our university. It's a new experience” “It is different. I communicate with people from other universities and majors other than my major and this thing attracts me to work with VCL more” “Developing my own skills in language skills, opinions with university students was positive. I had dialogue [with] other university students and this helped me learn” “This was downright different. This is new and I was excited to take part” Overall, the National VCL was well received and highlighted the bene ts of conducting collaborative virtual learning on a National level. Although it is often perceived that virtual learning should have an international dimension, this experience showed the merits of bringing together students within a country and allowing inter-institutional collaboration in a virtual space. The question of the use of the English language nonetheless presented interesting questions around the localisation and contextualisation of the VCL experience.

The International VCL (iVCL) The iVCL was delivered between November and December 2020. This time, institutions from the wider European Consortium (and beyond) engaged in the VLC activity with 68 students participating. This iVCL was created and led by the Jordanian Consortium partners, with support from TU Dresden. A total of ve modules were delivered, led by Jordanian academics, with delivery support from staff from the wider Consortium.

The HEIs involved with the iVCL were as follows:

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Student Engagement • • • • • • • • •

International School for Social and Business Studies (ISSBS), Slovenia (7 students) Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany (1 Student) Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan (6 students) Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan (16 students) German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan (8 students) Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan (13 students) Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan (14 students) Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University (BSRSU), Georgia (3 students) Pegasus Online University (POU), Italy (part of UNIMED) (1 student)

The iVCL delivery resulted in the following headline ndings from the evaluation • • • • •

E-tutors Student Engagement English Language Intercultural Competence Student Voice

Each headline is expanded upon below

Intercultural Competences Working with students from other countries was seen as highly bene cial by all the participants, with Jordanian students in particular expressing that the development of intercultural competences was an enjoyable and important experience. The intercultural elements were seen as motivational (perhaps even more so than the iVCL tasks themselves) and incredibly important as part of personal development and employability.

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E-Tutors Echoing the ndings of the previous VCL, the role of the E-Tutor was praised by participants, who found their presence to be useful and supportive. In particular, it was felt that they were approachable and offered a more relatable form of peer support that did not involve the professors and tutors.

The E-Tutors again expressed that they appreciated the opportunity to use their training and play a role in the facilitation of the iVCL.

Student Engagement Similar to the previous VCL, participants and E-Tutors in the iVCL noted that the workload was unevenly undertaken, with some students reportedly working more consistently than others. This caused some frustration and a sense that not everyone was participating equally.

Indeed, there was a particularly negative view of those students who did not participate or who were perceived as not contributing as much as others. Students were quick to point out exactly who engaged and who did not engage, which appeared to cause frustration. This was particularly seen with E-Tutors who felt they went out of their way to help facilitate communication with non-engagers, often with little success. In order to try and facilitate communications and to ‘chase’ those who were perceived to not be participating, it was again reported that social media and WhatsApp were used to communicate, outside of the iVCL environment.

English Language The use of the English language was described as a challenging experience during the iVCL. Strongly linked to the concept of intercultural competencies, and arguably engagement challenges as indicated previously, students identi ed that the use of language and cultural markers were apparent in task communication, which was seen as dif cult to begin with. However, it was recognised that English was being used as a common language by students for whom it was a second language and this was seen as an intercultural learning point this time around. Whereas the National VCL saw some frustration by those who did not want to use English, the navigation of language in the iVCL was viewed as a challenge and an opportunity to put transversal skills into practice.

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The Jordan-led extended VCL (eVCL) Within the evaluation of the iVCL, the majority of respondents came from the European participants, with much smaller proportion coming from Jordanian students. This might indicate that further work is needed to capture and represent the student voice within Jordan, particularly around giving constructive feedback to teaching and learning activity.

Overall, the iVCL was viewed in a positive light by participants and E-Tutors, particularly framed around international collaboration and co-operation. This again, was seen as being bene cial for the students’ careers and for their futures and appears to hold more importance for them than the subject-level teaching itself. Nonetheless, persistent issues around student engagement presented themselves again in the iVCL and questions around student voice was again highlighted.

Student Quotes from the iVCL “I interacted with real people from different cultures and this really helped me to learn. I talked in English and communicated with so many new people” “The activity was much more multicultural than I have in my university. It was really interesting” “It was great as I felt I was free to share my ideas and I was not restrained to some speci c ideas or a way of thinking.”

“The online tasks were different and needed a different kind of research and study. This challenged me and I feel good about it now”

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The Jordan-led extended VCL (eVCL) The nal VLE delivery, the eVCL was delivered in February and March 2021 and was delivered by the Jordanian partners. 46 students participated. Of particular note is that this eVCL included Zarqa University, along with learners from the Syrian refugee community in Jordan, who are not typically able to easily access teaching and learning. This VCL took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and face-to-face, in-class preparation was not possible.

The following universities took part: Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), Jordan (9 students) Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan (1 student) German Jordanian University (GJU), Jordan (13 students) Al Hussein bin Talal University (AHU), Jordan (12 students) Ta la Technical University (TTU), Jordan (5 students) Zarqa University (ZU), Jordan (6 Syrian Refugees)

The eVCL delivery resulted in the following headline ndings from the evaluation • The Bene t of the VCL • Impact of the pandemic • Student Engagement • Student Voice

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The Benefit of the VCL The evaluation of this VCL was overwhelmingly positive, with participating students noting that found the aims and objectives of the VCL to be clear, the content of the VCL to be clear and easy to understand and that they particularly appreciated being able to put soft skills into practice. Communication skills and working in an online space were particularly highlighted as being bene cial to the participants, who viewed the development of these skills as more important than the subject-level knowledge elements of the VCL activity. In addition, the collaborative element was seen as a positive, with students expressing that it was a nice change from the more individual teaching and learning tasks that they had been used to.

Impact of the pandemic Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pandemic’s impact had a bearing on the student experience of the eVCL. Many students fed back that operating in a virtual space for the entirety of the VCL, including the preparation phases, was challenging and students initially felt somewhat overwhelmed. That being said, the professors and support staff were very highly praised for their support throughout the activity and any initial challenges faced were overcome by the end of the eVCL. In addition, and linked to the previous headline, student were grateful for the ability to mix with other students during the pandemic, which had curtailed the ability to meet new people and to be social with others. Even though this activity took place in an online space, students appreciated the collaborative element due to the ability to communicate with and work with others.

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Student Engagement As with previous VCLs, data suggests that there are highly engaged students and students who did not appear to participate as heavily. Indeed, from the statistical user data from the eVCL, a small number of participants appear to have been very heavily engaged, responding to all the activity questions and being present in the virtual environment on a very regular basis. Others did not demonstrate a large footprint, with a handful of group members registering very little engagement. Initial analysis indicates that the Syrian Refugee students had a lower engagement when compared to the students from JOVITAL consortium, which may suggest that access to technology was restricted or that more work was needed to prepare them for this VCL

Student Voice This time around, a much higher proportion of students responded to the evaluation survey to make their views known and their voices heard, both pre and post activity. With a response rate of almost 70% of the respondents, almost all of the JOVITAL consortium student participants responded. That being said, it appears as if none of the refugee students were able to provide feedback to the evaluation, which indicates more work might need to be done around including the student voice from the underprivileged learners. It would appear that access to the technology to provide feedback through online surveys was dif cult after the eVCL activity, which suggests that continuity of access requires further consideration.

Student quotes from the eVCL “This was very different for me. I'm feeling happy to use VCL in my courses now.”

“We gain new skills and knowledge, exchange the experience with another student from the other universities.”

“This type of learning was more interactive. [the tutor] was really amazing and helpful to us” “The JOVITAL was kind of hard because I don't see the tutor physically, but this problem was easy to overcome and we did great things”

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Overall, the eVCL was very well received by the participants and the development and practice of soft skills was seen as particular bene t. Despite taking place during the pandemic, students found were generally able to navigate challenges and found the eVCL to be meaningful. That being said, the data suggests that the Syrian Refugee students may have experienced some issues around the ability to engage in all of the group work and did not respond to the evaluation survey. This suggests that further work may be needed to more fully include disadvantaged learners in VCL activity.

Section 3 – Impact: Reflections, Suggestions and Conclusions This section offers conclusions to the JOVITAL project and presents the high-level re ections of the JOVITAL project, examining what went well, examples of best practice and lessons learned. In addition, the impact of the COVID pandemic of 2020/1 on the JOVITAL project will be explored.

JOVITAL successes and examples of best practice Overall, the JOVITAL project has shown that the use of collaborative virtual learning is relevant and bene cial in a Jordanian higher education context. The JOVITAL project has demonstrated four examples of VCL activities on a national and international scale and has developed a solid model about the role of E-Tutors to support delivery and peer-learning.

Referring back to the baseline needs analysis ndings, it is clear that the top-down and bottom-up approach has been successful in implementing collaborative virtual learning throughout the duration of the project. JOVITAL staff have worked with key institutional stakeholders to deliver the VCL experiences, supported by E-Tutors and staff from the bottom-up.

In addition, staff have been supported in the design and delivery of virtual collaborative teaching and learning practices, cumulating in the Jordan-led eVCL in 2021. Although there is still room for this to grow and for virtual learning practices to be fully tailored to Jordanian contextual needs, the JOVITAL project has opened the door of possibly for this to happen.

The E-Tutor model is a particularly strong example of best practice from JOVITAL, with E-Tutors being pivotal to the successful delivery of each of the VCL activities. Acting as an in-between method of peer-support between student and professor/teacher, the E-Tutors are viewed as a central success to JOVITAL activity.

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Relating to this, the idea of the student voice has been developed throughout the project lifespan. Beyond the feedback given from the E-Tutors, participating students have been encouraged to give feedback through pre and post activity surveys, modelled on the DIGCOMP tool, to help inform the project. Although some of the surveys did receive low participation numbers, the embedding of student feedback in virtual learning activity opens the door for a strengthening of the student voice through feedback within teaching and learning in Jordan.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/1 had a profound and tangible impact on the JOVITAL project that cannot be understated.

The initial period in March/April 2020 saw the project hit a period of uncertainty, with many of the Consortium partners being forced to wait for local governmental guidance on JOVITAL members’ ability to work and travel. An application was ultimately made to extend the project into 2021 to mitigate the move to operating in an entirely online space. By May 2020, international travel restrictions forced JOVITAL to abandon site/partner visits, prevented the planned E-Tutor summer school in summer 2020 and restricted the ability of the mobile VCL hubs to move around Jordan.

Due to the Consortium having to operate within highly uncertain circumstances, virtual Consortium meetings were set up, but focussed on project management and the delivery of the remaining VCL activities, which curtailed the ability to create the strength of Community of Practice around the use of collaborative online learning in Jordan. In addition, many of the participating consortium institutions experienced various lockdowns, some of which prevented teaching and learning from occurring in class. The original vision for the VCL delivery was that preparatory work would take place in the classroom, before the online activities took place. However, institutions shifted to online teaching and learning during the pandemic and the Jordanian cap on online learning was temporarily lifted to accommodate this. As students may not have been used to working completely in an online environment (it must be emphasised that the very purpose of the JOVITAL project was to encourage this via the use of VLEs and VCL activities), this will have impacted on the ability to provide the same level of pre-activity support and preparation.

Crucially, the timings of the delivery of the latter two VCLs were delayed, which had implications for E-Tutors, many of whom had graduated since being trained in 2019, and so were unavailable. With a full extension not being permissible by the funder, this meant that the JOVITAL project could not realise the future-proo ng element of the E-Tutors, as only one group of students as E-Tutors had been trained. The E-Tutors are now unlikely to be able to engage in future training and peer-learning sessions as many are now in further employment. Nonetheless, this does not preclude Jordanian HEIs from considering ways to train their own E-Tutors based on the JOVITAL model.

Finally, although the VCLs were delivered successfully, the ability to cement the future-looking elements of embedding collaborative online learning with Jordanian Higher Education has been impacted.

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Lessons Learned Despite project success around the creation and delivery of the VCLs and the training of E-Tutors some of the recommendations from the needs analysis were not fully realised. And as highlighted above, COVID-19 heavy impacted on JOVITAL. Arguably, the main area that still require development are the ideas of a Community of Practice around the use of VLEs and VCLs in Jordan. Although the project was successful in undertaking the practical deliveries of four VCL experiences, the impact and uncertainty of COVID-19 meant that opportunities to come together as practitioners were limited, although a nal online workshop did take place on March 23rd 2021 to showcase JOVITAL, which attracted a total of 109 participants.

Where virtual meetings did take place throughout the 2020/1 pandemic period, these tended to be more pressingly focussed on management and mitigating the impact of COVID whilst delivering the VCL activities, leaving little time to develop a Community of Practice on VCL in Jordan.

A further lesson learned revolves around the technology and availability of IT infrastructure across the Jordanian institutions. Although ve institutional ‘Villas’ were created to support virtual online learning at Jordanian partner universities, the project had hoped to create a Mobile-VILLA with scope to travel around the Jordanian HEIs and wider, to offer mobile access to education to underprivileged learners and refugees. Due to complications with acquiring the mobile IT equipment and the impact of COVID, the ability to use the Mobile-VILLA was curtailed.

Related to this, the other major lesson learnt relates to the design and delivery of VCL/VLEs and their future-proo ng.

Initial feedback from the pilot and National VCL suggests that the choice of VLE resulted in students being put off by the design of the interface, which was viewed as being outdated and not user friendly. A particular issue was how the initial VCL environments were designed for traditional PCs and laptops, whereas Jordanian students wished to use their mobile devices to access the content. This resulted in many of the participants nding alternative methods of communication, outside of the VCL, which may have privacy implications due to the reliance on social media and telephone communication applications such as WhatsApp. Although the VLEs did improve by the time of the nal Jordan-led eVCL, considerations of user interface and accessibility were frequently raised by the students. With this in mind, it is essential that any future collaborative virtual teaching and learning activity fully embraces the local needs of Jordanian learners and responds appropriately to feedback given by students.

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Conclusions and Recommendations The JOVITAL project has highlighted how collaborative online learning can be successfully achieved through the use of Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) activity in a Jordanian context. Despite some setbacks with project progress, particularly around IT equipment and the impact of COVID-19, the JOVITAL project has offered a solid template for further teaching and learning activity in an online space in the Jordanian context.

In particular, the E-Tutor model offers many bene ts to the delivery of VCL activity within Jordan. Not only does the ETutor training develop soft sills and offer wider employability development for the E-Tutors, their role in the delivery of VCL projects is central to keeping communication going and to problem solve in their capacity as a student-professor interface.

Another bene t of the VCL model is in bringing together learners on both a local and international basis. Whilst most of the collaborative online teaching and learning activities identi ed within the needs analysis concentrated on bringing together students internationally, the JOVITAL project has highlighted the bene ts of students working together on local or national basis. This not only brings together students from across Jordan, it opens up educational experiences to disadvantaged learners in the local context, such as refugees. Beyond this, the use of collaborative virtual learning environments promotes the development of soft, transversal skills such as communication, intercultural competences and problem solving.

The impact of COVID-19 cannot be ignored as this represented wide-researching disruption to project delivery. All of the planned physical events in 2020 were cancelled, including a second summer school for E-Tutors and further project partner visits. Although VCLs and partner meeting did take place in the virtual space, this was not as originally anticipated and caused some setbacks to the planned timeline. This was compounded by issues relating to the purchase of technologies.

The JOVITAL project requested to be extended beyond its originally planned delivery period, but this was not ultimately possible. Nonetheless, the project achieved four VCL activities, offered staff and E-Tutor training, created a mobile technology hub and has developed a proven model for online teaching and learning via the use of VCL techniques within the Jordanian Context.

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With this in mind, the following project recommendations are made: • The VCL model of online learning offers a solid template for institutions across Jordan and can be scaled as appropriate to suit local institutional needs and to t the governmental cap on online learning (pending any permanent changes due to COVID-19) • The use of the VCL model is exible and allows Jordanian institutions to offer teaching and learning in an online space locally, nationally and internationally • The E-Tutor model offers a particularly valuable approach to capacity building, allowing for the training of student experts to assist with project delivery • The use of student feedback is critical to understanding the successes of VCL delivery. Experiences of the project show that Jordanian students may not be used to providing critical feedback, but encouraging student feedback in the future is encouraged • Careful consideration of the VCL platform is necessary to successful project delivery – if the platform is not build to meet the student needs, students will turn to other forms of social media to communicate • The approach to JOVITAL has seen a successful top-down and bottom-up approach to the institutions involved. This has been largely con ned to the participating institutions, so considerations around scaling up to a national level would be the logical next stages of development • A Community of Practice for VCL is developing, but perhaps more slowly than anticipated due to the unforeseen COVID crisis. It is suggested that JOVITAL members continue to discuss and disseminate their VLE experience to proliferate the bene ts and use of VCL in the Jordanian context • JOVITAL did manage to reach out to refugee and underprivileged learners in Jordan, particularly during the eVCL. That being said, issues around engagement and feedback indicate that further work could be done to ensure continuity of access to hardware in order to better understand the needs of these learners.

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