JOVITAL successes and examples of best practice

JORDAN OPPORTUNITY FOR VIRTUAL INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Overall, the eVCL was very well received by the participants and the development and practice of soft skills was seen as particular benefit. 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 reflections 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 beneficial 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 findings, 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.