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Table of Contents
Paper
number
Paper One
Title
E-learning model for the University of
Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, Iraq
Paper Two E-Learning Strategy
for the Iraqi
Higher Education Sector
Paper
ICT Human Resources Building
Three
Capacity Plan for the University of
Mustansiriyah
e-Learning Project,
Baghdad – Iraq 2011-2012
Paper Four The Software Needs for the eLearning Model in the University of
Mustansiriyah (UoMust) Baghdad-Iraq
Paper five National E-Learning Strategy to
Enhanced and Enriched
the Iraqi
Universities
Paper six
Harmonizing Blended Learning in the
University of Mustansiriyah, Baghdad ,
Iraq
Paper
ICT Capacity Building Plan For the
seven
University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust),
IRAQ Blended Learning Project
Paper Eight The Hardware Specifications for the eLearning Framework in the University
of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) , Baghdad
– Iraq
Paper Nine Adoption E-learning Framework for
the
University of Mustansiriyah
(UoMust), Baghdad, Iraq
Paper Ten Modified Khan e-Learning Framework
for the Iraqi Higher Education
From
To
Type
2
13
Conference
14
24
25
38
Conference &
Journal
Chapter in
PERSON
Book
39
53
Journal
54
67
Journal
68
82
Conference
83
106
Conference
107
125
Journal
126
139
Journal
140
148
Conference &
Journal
ISTANBUL – TURKEY
1010-15 May 2010
3rd International FutureFuture-Learning
Conference
On Innovations in Learning for the
Future 2010:
2010: ee-Learning
E-LEARNING MODEL FOR THE
UNIVERSITY OF MUSTANSIRIYAH
IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ
E-learning model for the University of Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, Iraq
Amer Saleem Flayyeh Elameer
School of Distance Education
Universiti Sains Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education
Universiti Sains Malaysia
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract: Using educational, information and communication technologies have now become the base of the rebuilding of the
Iraqi higher education sector. This has come about from the complete destruction of the institutions in 2003. The University of
Mustansiriyah in Baghdad is one of the biggest universities in Iraq and it was one of the most damaged universities as it was
completely looted and burned in 2003. Prior to that, there were also no computer networks of any kind in it. An e-Learning
strategic approach has been proposed to leapfrog and address the educational needs and challenges in the present time. A model
of the combination of Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions model and sixty sub-components’ frame work with the
school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning system was proposed for the university of
Mustansiriyah. The data for this study are gathered through a survey research design with questionnaires using Six-point Likert
scale. The questionnaire was distributed in Baghdad and responses were collected from about 10% of the university academic
working staff. The findings revealed that the adopted model was accepted by the Iraqi professors and lecturers and could be
suitable for the HQ of the Iraqi higher education sector in the University of Mustansiriyah. The models were deemed capable of
dealing with the instructional, academic, management, ethical, and others educational related issues in higher education. The
findings on e-learning also revealed the need for the system as a tool to address sector issues such as students’ physical presence
on campus, brain drain and the lack of educational resources.
Keywords : University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust),Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , BudrulHuda khan elearning model .
Introduction
The higher education sector in Iraq have been completely destroyed because of the wars and only 10% of it
remained in the acceptable conditions “The March-April 2003 war led to the destruction of the infrastructure of
higher education institutions in Iraq, including buildings, laboratories, libraries, furniture, equipment and
books “. (Husain, 2004) (Paris :UNESCO2004 ) (Harb, 2008). Rebuild this important sector in the life of the Iraqi
people is very important, but equally challenging due to continuous violence in all the cities of Iraq, lack of
security as well as the immigration of the Iraqi academic staff and professors beyond the borders of Iraq to
look for better life.
From this stand point, and since technology driven the world, the e-learning and ICT are the key to the
rebuilding and the future of the higher education sector.
E-learning is the overarching umbrella that encompasses education, information, communication, training,
knowledge management, performance management…..etc. It is the web-enabled system that makes information
and knowledge accessible to those who need it, when they need it-anytime, anywhere. However, these
challenges are not without its obstacles, especially the infrastructure necessary to provide tha backbone of the
networks. “ New methodologies in teaching, particularly methods that promote creativity and practical
experience are urgently needed” (Husain, 2004) (Paris :UNESCO2004 )(Harb, 2008)
The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
It is one of the universities providing higher education in Baghdad, Iraq, It was opening in 1963 again holding
the same name Al Mustansiriyah school which built by Al Mustansir Billah in Baghdad , it was First university
in middle ages not only in Baghdad , but in Islamic country and the world .it was opened 5th of may - Rijiab in
1234-631. It was First university concerned to study Karan and biography of prophet Mohammed , oratory ,
dectrine and Arabic science ,Mathematics , and religious duties heritage, medicine sciences, and mantinance
healf , which considered senior Islamic university collected , doctorine studies according to Fourth Islamic rite ,
Al-Mustansiriayah specialized with Large Islamic building , then added college of medicine , so we never
Found similar in another school which build before .UOM now have 12 colleges and four center of excellaence.
This university was most damaged university in 2003 , it was completly looted and burned in very sad pictures
and views as shown in (figure 1)
“ Mustansiriyah University may be considered as an example of these damages. Mustansiriyah is the second largest
university in Iraq and has an architectural design similar to the University of Baghdad. After the war, 5 of its buildings were
extensively damaged, i.e., the university administrative building, presidency, College of Education building, Political
Institute and the Student’s Club” (Husain, 2004) (Paris :UNESCO2004 )
Figure 1 : Three pictures for the university after fires stop in the colleges of science , education ,
and university HQ (taken by the researcher)
The Research Problem
Since rebuilding is focus of the research, the whole endeavour is viewed in a holistic manner to include the
science information about the e-learning strategies, theories , models , systems , software engineering of elearning systems , computer networking , website development , CBT development , e-learning & education
networking ,building capacity ,….etc , and the way of coordinate the education activities in Iraq.
The Objective of the Research
This research is a trail to solve the university of Mustansiriyah problems through proposing an e-learning
model which is a combination of Badrul Huda Khan eight dimensions model (Khan, 2006) with the school of
distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning system .
Malaysia & USM e-learning facts
In Malaysia now 20 public universities and 17 private universities in Malaysia and 3 of them are open
universities. The Malaysian government has been very proactive towards ICT development, and Malaysia was
ranked 30th
in the world for Internet penetration and 26th for e-readiness (Kakroo, 2007). The Internet
penetration grew from over 3.5 million subscribers in 2000 to 10 million by early 2005 . The Internet
penetration grew by 171%. Most of these users surf the Internet daily with an average of 10 hours per week,
mainly for e-mailing activities, education research and information research. Almost 84% of Malaysia’s 27
million people had a mobile telephone service by March 2007 (UNCTAD, 2007).( Idrus, 2008). USM with 25
college and 34 center of excellance is one of the best Malaysian universities with great history in using
educational technologies since 1971. it is located in Penang and it is also one of the best universities in Asia.
And it is the best malaysian uiversities. The best e-learning system is in the School of Distance Education ,
Figure 2: e-learning standards in USM-School of Distance Education
And e-learning Centers of the school in all of Malaysia
(ADDIE) Methodology
The methodology model that have been used by the researchers is : Analysis, Design, Development,
Implementation, Evaluation, (ADDIE) model. ( figure 3).
Figure 3: ADDIE model for the UoMust
The Theoretical Frame work
Based on the previous studies, literature reviewed and meeting with experts, one of the most best and
complete comprehensive theoretical e-learning models is Khan (2005) e-learning model which somehow after
combined it with the USM – School of Distance Education e-learning system, it give us a complete e-learning
system that fulfill all the university educational needs from the e-learning system and could be even for all the
Iraqi universities or higher education sector their. The proposed model covers all the factors that must be taken
into consideration during e-learning designs and it is also considered to be a very suitable model for the subject
of this research. Since the University of Mustansiriyah and all of Iraq currently in huge lacks an official elearning system. It is important to identify all the factors that would determine all the factors the success fullness
of e-learning. The factors are divided into three major domains: first is The Educational and contain (1.
Pedagogical, 2. Ethical ,3. Evaluation) second is the Technological and contains (1. Technology, 2. Interface
design) and the third is the Managerial and contain (1. Institutional, 2. Resource support, 3.
Management).(Kurti, 2008)
Figure 4
: The theoretical frame work
Figure 5 : The UoMust e-learning system with proposed Model
Significance of the Research
All the Iraqi Higher Education sector in general and The University of Mustansiriyah in particular needs to
build e-learning system to solve all the university big problems , and for:
1- Lack and real serious shortage of well-trained lecture and professors.
2- Lack of Educational Materials like laboratory equipments, libraries, text books, photo copies machines,..etc.
3- To Update and expand university curricula. (Textbooks have not changed since the 1950s; international
academic journals have been scarce since 1984; methods of Teaching which are outdated; and the range of
disciplines is too narrow).(Harb, 2008)
4- The University immediates boost to close the knowledge gap that has existed since the 1980s between Iraqi
universities and those in some neighboring countries and in the West.
5- It is very important to university which its old standards , to start using the new educational technologies and
to use the e-learning systems in its educational activities.
6- It is very important to the Iraqi academic staff now to rebuild their universities infrastructures with high level
standards of the international universities in the world .
7- It is very important to the University to transfer the technology and experience to its education activities and
to begin from where the other ends, to reduce the gab between Iraqi universities and universities in modern new
world.
The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the research work, and
according to ( Marczyk et al. (2005)) “in most types of research studies, the process of data analysis involves the
following three steps: (1) preparing the data for analysis, (2) analyzing the data, and (3) interpreting the data”.
A survey technique was used to investigate the attitude to the e-learning in the University of Mustansiriyah , the
directions of the acacdemic staff towards the e-learning , the model of the combination of Badrul Huda Khan
eight dimensions model with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning
system that we proposed for the University of Mustansiriyah, the variables that effect the quick movement
toward the using of IT in the educational process in Iraqi higher education sector or delay it…..etc.
Preparing the data for analysis was by designing a questionnaire after examine a group of previous studies and
surveyed related literature to the research subject to collect the required data.
The questionnaire divided into two parts, the first was the general information and personal questions
(Academic Degree , Experience years , ICT skills , Age , Qualifications ..etc) and the second is included the
targeted and investagation quesions and it were divided in to 9 categories ( Management, Institutional,
Technology, Evaluation, Ethical, Interface Designs, Human Resources, Pedagogical & General ) .
The questionaure was distributed and given to 350 academist from the university acacdemic staff, but the
complete answers come from only 287 person and they were 131 male and 156 female, 189 PhD degree holders
and 98 Master degree holder , 35 of them are professor , 95 assistant professor , 111 lectruer and 46 assistant
lecturer, only 25 of them are without enough skills in using computers.the other group general information
shown in the tables 1,2 and 3 below.
Statistical Procedure
All the Statement answers and the data that had been taken from the questionnaire were analyzed and
computerized using the Statically Package for Social Science (SPSS) to be statistically calculated to find the
Mean (M), Standard deviation (St.D), Percentages (%), and it was big data .All the results from the SPSS is
used to examine the directions and the attitude to the e-learning establishment in the University of
Mustansiriyah and Higher Education Sector in Iraq in general and the propesed e-learning model. A lakert scale
of six points was used (Michaela N. Gelin 2003) , and they are : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 , Agree(A) 5 ,Neutral(N)
4 ,Disagree(DA) 3 ,Strongly Disagree(SDA) 2 ,Don’t Know(DK) 1 .(Mohammad, 2008, Dezaye, 2009)
The Results
The result in general comes to support and strength the need to the educational technologies in the
university. It shows very clear that academic staff believes in e-learning as the solution to most of the university
problems (student absence, brain drainage, lack of educational materials, etc, (the mean was above the 5 in all
statements)). In addition and in the other side, it shows huge fear form the technology facts now in university
and the budgets specified for the universities. Also in the technological, the result shows very clear there is no
infra structure or networks and no real using of the ICT in the university administrative, academic and students
works and also the same is for networks between Iraqi universities (Mean is less 4 and between 2-3 in most of
the answers which it is in the negative side, and the gab here because of the (do not know) answers and (neutral)
from some of the academic university staff). The result (as shown in figure 6 ) indicated and shows there was a
good, great motivation towards the system (model and its sub component) ( Figure 6 ) , (all the Mean that have
been calculated and related to the model is in the positive direction for all eight dimension and the added general
questions and above 4.5) .They believe that the ethical consideration is very important now days in Iraq for the
rapid changing in the Iraqi society (Mean comes very strong and in the positive direction which support and
strength the model and was the highly scored of 5).The evaluation results comes with 3.71 which shows there is
a weakness point here . The Resources support also come in less degree in the positive direction and score only
4.1 for the Pedagogical, Institutional, Management, it comes above 4.5 in positive direction.
Figure 6 : The questionnaire eight dimension results and the general added dimension
Institutional
Aver.Mean = 4.72
- University standards are old standards.
- Classical ways is still control the work in the university
- There is a real benefits of e-learning model &system
- Old styles of under graduate and post graduate studies.
- Old classes Designs and furniture’s.
- Higher Education still in centralized role and controls the
university.
-Very limited academic relations with outside Iraq universities.
Pedagogical
Interface Design
Aver.Mean = 4.79
Content provided Learning strategy, Traditional ways
of teaching and learning.
There is no resistance for change” among senior staff
There is a positive attitude toward e-learning in general and
the model in particular.
Instructional environments are not according to the
international instructional designs and standards.
No clear or transparency educational strategy for develop
the university curriculums.
Aver.Mean = 4.722
Most of the Universities have address web site only and not
interactive websites and it is very simple sites.
- Iraq Internet culture start from 2004 and on , so it is not big
culture and it is simple using only.
- E-University, E-Government or e-Ministries still away from
the Iraq government bodies.
Ethical
Technological
Aver.Mean = 5.03
- University society is like Iraq society as a mix of multi races mix
of multi religion , mix of different geograhical culture ,
- Wide area of freedom to students now days in university.
- There is no clear policy against any kind of political or religious
issues inside the university .
Aver.Mean = 3.121
- No real or well designed infrastructures
- Bad Communication , No Computers networks
- A good numbers of computers but not internet cafes or
connections,
-Most of the works still achieved in the traditional ways.
- No electronic records for the graduate students.
- UN legal software copies used widely and no laws protect
authors in Iraq till now.
- Mobile companies just start to supply Internet services and it
is limited till now and very weak. …….etc.
Resource Support
Management
Evaluation
Aver.Mean = 4.1
- There is a huge luck in the university resources.
- University need for a big building capacity plan for the future of elearning in it, for the ICT staff.
- Academic staff needed to be trained also even they have a good
experience. In using computer and IT.
- The training plan is to be allocated in universities out IRAQ
Aver.Mean = 4.58
- There is no need for the human resources in university
- Most of the sectors leaders are new and without enough
experience for these works.
- Rebuilding still in the beginig and it is still focus on
buildings and structures.
- Budgets is not enough for university.
Aver. Mean=3.71
- Old styles of examination till now.
- No real evaluation process for the university activities or its
academic staff, etc.
-
Figure 7 : The eight dimension result and findings
Statement
Mean
St.D
Establishing e-learning networks in the Iraqi universities can develop these universities
5.6516
0.74128
e-learning can solve the problem of students absence in the University of Mustansiriyah
4.7735
1.37444
e-learning can solve the problem of professor leakage in the University of Mustansiriyah
5.0557
1.24472
E-learning can solve the problem of the leakage of educational materials in the University of Mustansiriyah
5.0767
1.24641
E-learning can solve the problem of the old lab materials and equipments & especially the leakage of new
generations electronics labs equipments in the University of Mustansiriyah
4.7387
1.39605
establishing the e-learning networks can support the University of Mustansiriyah professors in their educated duties
5.3519
0.99202
The University of Mustansiriyah budgets are enough to develop the Iraqi universities.
3.2857
1.88532
University of Mustansiriyah have a good numbers of ICT technical staff
3.2822
1.69134
The University of Mustansiriyah technical staff are well trained
3.2683
1.78997
University of Mustansiriyah have a good budget for building capacity
3.3101
1.78122
All the University of Mustansiriyah academic staff have ICT skills
3.6028
1.59158
It is better to the University of Mustansiriyah to establish and install its own networks by its technical staff
2.6376
1.2065
It very important to stop any kind of illegal dealing with software for the using of the ICT
3.6481
1.28935
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs and internet connections in the colleges of the university
2.7108
1.23893
There are a good numbers of computers in the administrative offices in the University of Mustansiriyah
1.8537
1.40908
Each staff have its own computer for his daily work and it is connected to the main University network
2.3275
0.82617
All the Iraqi universities have it own computer network
2.6551
0.94767
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one higher education network
2.7735
0.72004
University of Mustansiriyah have its own wireless network and it is with a good bandwidth that cover all the needs
2.8467
0.69276
There are a good numbers of internet cafes & connections in the University of Mustansiriyah to cover all the needs
2.9652
1.43099
There is a good electronic library and virtual library inside each college and department instead of main big library
2.8188
1.05202
All the student affairs and academic achievements works are atomized from A to Z by using ICT in the University
2.5296
0.65178
All the classic instructional medias are offered to the lectures in the class rooms in the University of Mustansiriyah
5.0314
0.99425
3.00
0.95712
All the Iraqi universities cancel the using of the traditional wooden boards in the class rooms.
4.29127
1.89535
All the Iraqi universities have a clear policy in the academic affairs and against any kind of political issues
4.0453
1.41472
Monthly reviewed for all the academic goals achievement by the universities and yearly by the ministry
3.5993
1.5053
All universities have design its instructional environments according to international instructional designs standards.
3.3833
1.21448
There are a yearly evaluation process for all the academic and technical staff by the colleges and universities
3.108
1.09935
There are yearly evaluation processes for all the Iraqi universities by the ministry of Higher education.
3.108
1.09935
All update technologies are offered to the lecturers in the class rooms like computers, data show, etc. . . .
Table 4: Sample from the questionnaire with results
Conclusions
From the interpreting the data a strong believe that the renewal of higher education will rely heavily on
ICTs, and begin from it. It will reduce the technology gab and will provide access and the bridge to the
developments in the various academic fields in the world now. ICT and computer networks is essential base
and the corner to support the rebuilding of the university of Mustansiriyah and the quality improvement in
undergraduate and postgraduate studies in it because the power of E-Learning is more than of using the
technology in learning , it is the effective social dynamics of networking .
Since findings shows that most of the academic staff have a strong believe that e-learning are the solution for
many of the problems that face university (lack of education materials and labs , students absences , Iraqi
professors brain drainage ,…etc.) , it is also suggests that the using of e-learning systems could be seen as a
motivation to integrate information and communication and other educational technologies in teaching and
learning process in the university. Also a solution and a tool to devlope the Mustansiriyah and connect it to the
outside Iraq universities , and it is the same to Iraqi higher education sector and other universitiies..
It was fantastic that most of the academic staff have a good skills in compter and they using it in their normal
academic life and researches ( The previous university president give all the academic staff the chance to join
computer skills programs inside university in its computer center from 2007 ).
The model simulate the truth of the academic life in the university now days and in the near future, it is
welcomed as a model by many of the professors and lecturers in the university and it is the key to the university
to establish its own e-learning system. It was found a great attention was paid to all these eight dimensions and
its sub component of e-learning model because it cover all the academic life channels in the university . Then
this model can be a useful model for all universities not only Mustansiriyah. The big challenges that will face
the university to establish a real and effective e-learning propesed system and it is technoligical , management ,
culture , building capacity ..is the budget and continous small violence now days in Iraq.
A large number of the academic staff welcomed the outside help and want it strongly, but there is no real help in
that and the only secure area in all of Iraq for the help visitors is the green zone in Baghdad and Kurdistan, and
the truth is completely different, for example the places that the world bank team in Iraq work in ((World Bank
2009)- page 35): Currently, Bank Group staff are limited to working in secured areas in Baghdad or in KRG
It is very important to away the university from all the political issues that could affect all the efforts for
rebuilding it
It is very important to pay more attentions by the Iraqi officials and government to the benefits of the
educational technologies to the education and learning process in Iraq and a special strategy is to be planned and
fixed with its budgets for e-learning not for the higher education only but in all education levels in Iraq.
The confession and Certifiaying
the academic degrees obtained by Distance education studies and also
encourge universities to open studies of that type of education is very important now in Iraq since the ministry
of higher education does not alloweded it till now while the ministry of eduxation have colleges of open and
distance learning and education.
The e-learning system in USM are complete e-learning system with high level standards of using it in its
educational activities. It is very important to take USM experience in such designs of e-learning systems and
educational activities espacially that the malaysian socity is completly similar to the Iraqi society in so many
things.
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Advanced Learning Technologies, IEEE Computer Society, 642-646.
Stephenson, J. (2005). “Putting the Learner First in eLearning”. Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology,
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Marczyk G., DeMatteo D. and Festinger D. (2005). Essentials of research design and Methodology. New Jersy: .
John Wiley & Sons,
PENANG - MALAYSIA
12-13 July 2010
5th International Conference
on e-Learning at the Universiti
Sains Malaysia ( USM )
E-LEARNING STRATEGY
FOR THE IRAQI HIGHER
EDUCATION SECTOR
E-Learning Strategy for the Iraqi Higher Education Sector
Amer Saleem Flayyeh Elameer, Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract: IRAQ once led all the Arab and Middle East countries in the use of the educational
technologies as they started using the computers as CAL in 1986 and the closed circuit TV in
universities in 1982. Nowadays, the higher education (HE) sector of Iraq has suffered severe disruption
and mass destruction due to the war and in general only 10% of its remaining operational sectors are in
the acceptable conditions. Apart from the infrastructure, the capability and capacity of human resource
has become a serious challenge in the rebuilding of the country. This research is an attempt to plan a
proposed strategy (PS) for the Iraqi higher education sector that can be executed easily in Iraq as part
of the rebuilding of the country and critical sectors, especially education. Before designing the PS, a
specially formulated questionnaire using Six-point Likert scale was distributed to 350 of Iraqi professors
and universities academic staff; the results that was obtained showed that the problems faced in
establishing such an e-learning network in the higher education sector included missing infrastructure,
well trained staff, outside world help and the relevant budgets. A comprehensive e-learning strategy
has been designed with models that were found through discovering the using of e-learning in one of
the pioneers of distance education universities in Asia; the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which have
a complete e-learning system with a state of the art video conferencing delivery system and an
electronic portal. This was complemented by the Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions eLearning model. The educational activities were taken as a yardstick in the design of e-learning
systems and educational activities for Iraq. The PS plays a major role in fixing an e-learning policy to
the government and the ministry of higher education in Iraq. The core of this PS is to delete all
boundaries against ICT increase in the education management and academic affairs with a complete
building capacity plan to the human resources in the HE sector.
Keywords: e-learning, infrastructure, e-learning model, human resource, education
management, education policy
1. Introduction
Iraq is located at the heart of the world in the Middle East and bordered by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
from the south, Iran from the west, Turkey from the north, and Syria, Jordan from the west. The country
slopes from the mountains over 3,000 meters (10,000 ft.) above sea level in the north side only along
the border with Iran and Turkey to the sea-level in the middle and south of it. Much of the land in the
west is a desert or wasteland but was discovered that contains minerals. Average temperatures range
from a high of 48oC (120oF) in June, July and August to below freezing in end of December and
January. Most of the rainfall occurs from December through April and averages between 10 and 18
centimeters (4–7 in.) annually but for the last ten years there was a drought that changed the nature
from the green land into desert.
The Tigris and Euphrates are the biggest two rivers in Iraq. The ruins of Ur (birth and city of the Prophet
Ibrahim), Babylon and other ancient cities are also in Iraq. (Husain 2004)(Paris; UNESCO). The last
updated population in 2005 was 24,011,816, with an annual growth rate (2002 est.) of 2.82%. The
ethnic groups are made up of Arab 75%–80%, Kurd 15%–20%, and Turkman, Chaldean, Assyrian, or
others are less than 5%. The religious denominations are 96%, Muslims, 3% Christians and less than
1% Yezidi. The main languages are Arabic, Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, and Turkish/Turcoman.
Education is compulsory at the primary education level (age 6 to age 12 and through 6 years), the
secondary education level take 6 years before starting the tertiary level. Life expectancy is 67 years
with a work force of 4.4 million (2000): Agriculture – 44%; industry – 26%; services – 31% (1989 EST.).
Almost 75% of Iraq’s population live in the large flat or houses with minimum areas of more than 250
m2.
1.1 Higher education in Iraq
The Iraqi government invested huge amounts of fund in education in the provision of free education
from the primary level up to the PhD for all Iraqi people and also to a large number of arabic muslim
students and even African and Asian friends. Iraq’s current higher education system comprises of 20
universities and 47 technical institutes under the management of the Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific Research (MHESR). This included 200 colleges, 800 departments and 28 research centers.
The Commission for Computers and Informatics offers specialised course for postgraduates. There are
in addition 10 private colleges offering programmes in computer sciences, business administration,
economics and management (Harb 2008)
1.2 Iraqi higher education sector after 2003
After the devastation of most of the Iraq facilities and infrastructures following the United Nations
Security Council economic sanctions (from 1991 to 2004) and the last war (Mar-Apr 2003), the whole of
the country’s infrastructures was affected and damaged; the higher education sector, directly or
indirectly, disrupted the primary, secondary and higher education activities.
After April 2003, the demand for all types of higher education (Bachelors, Masters, and PhD) in Iraq has
increased as a result of the social development process then after, particularly due to the increase in
family’s incomes and the re-growth of the Iraqi economy. However, there were many sectors that
suffered technical, secure, violence, political and financial problems, which delayed the construction,
rebuilding, rehabilitation, capacity building and provision of the necessary requirements and supplies
(Paanakker 2009).
The traditional approach of managing the higher education sector has been rendered useless in the
need to rebuild the educational environment with high academic standards. E-learning was identified as
a student centered approach to teaching and learning and requires a conducive and good ICT
infrastructure, communication technologies to build a rich learning environment.
1.3 Some facts about Iraq
• One cannot use any kind of educational technologies in all education sectors because there is
no real communication infrastructure and most of the Iraqi used wireless networks and mobiles
to communicate.
• The government does not reinstall the cabling systems and do not fund for its repair even
though they are old systems and networks.
• Computers and its accessories have been around since 2003 and are now out-dated
• Iraq higher education sector suffer like all other sectors from the same problems that face all
Iraqi people and sectors and the real needs is to find whom plan and can execute big projects.
• Most of the Iraqi HQ systems are lacking in experienced personnel even in the higher
educational sector.
• A great attention is paid by the government an the Ministry for the capacity building in Iraqi
universities but it is still not well organized and most of the training courses are conducted
locally in the middle east zone (Paanakker 2009)
• The overall investments dedicated to the Iraq education sector in 2005-2008 reached 1723.60
billion dinars (1.39 billion dollars) and a budget of 832.41 billion dinars (0.67 billion dollars) for
higher education is very low and not enough (World Bank 2009).
2. The statement of purpose
During his speech in the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Prof. Datuk Dr. Md. Zabid Hj. Abdul Rashid
(2007) of the Universiti Tun Abdul Razak Malaysia said that ICT provides technological modes of
learning and vehicles for borderless education and training . Intensify e-learning as complimentary
mode of learning. Establishing an e-learning system in the Iraqi higher education sector is the focus of
the research, the need for the information about e-learning includes the science information about the
e-learning strategies, theories , models , systems , software engineering, computer networking,
website development, CBT development , e-learning & education networking, building capacity and the
management of e-learning. The goal of the research is to propose an e-learning strategy for Iraq.
2.1 The e-learning model
An e-Learning strategic approach has been proposed to leapfrog and address the educational needs
and challenges in the present time. A model of the combination of Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight
dimensions e-learning model and sixty sub-components’ frame work (Khan 2004; Khan 2005; Khan
2006) with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning system
was proposed for the higher education sector. The model was completely accepted by Iraqi academic
staff to stimulate the Iraqi educational society in executing their academic duties.
National ee-learning Center
IHE ee-learning Model
Figure 1: The proposed e-learning model for IHE
3. Methodology
The ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) was utilized in the
study. A specially formulated questionnaire was designed and distributed between a group of Iraqi
university staff to investigate the direction towards the e-learning, management & institutional problems
which are the basic elements of the proposed strategy and that could face the implementing e-learning
projects , the benefits that will be gained to the higher education sector, and the technology problems.
The research framework is given in Figure 2. Attention was accorded to the Malaysian national elearning strategy which proved to be a successful strategy among other countries from middle-east or
Islamic developing countries.
Figure 2 : The research framework
4.The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the research work,
and according to ( Marczyk et al. 2005) “in most types of research studies, the process of data analysis
involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the data for analysis, (2) analyzing the data, and (3)
interpreting the data”. A survey technique was used to collect the data and prepare it for the analyzing
through a questionnaire of 44 statements for the e-learning and ICT skills in the UoMust. Preparation of
the data for analysis was collected from the questionnaire which was divided into two parts, the first
was the general and personal information the second included the targeted questions that as divided
into 5 categories of management, institutional, technology, human resources and general.
The questionnaire was distributed to 350 academicians from the Iraqi academics staff, but the
completed feedback were received from only 287 respondents comprising of 131 male and 156 female,
189 PhD degree holders and 98 Master degree holders; 35 of them are professor, 95 assistant
professor, 111 lecturers and 46 assistant lecturer and only 25 of them are without enough skills in using
computers. The other group’s general information is shown in the Tables 1, 2 and 3.
5.Statistical Procedure
All the statements and feedback were analysed and computerised using the statical package for social
science (SPSS) to obtain the mean (M), standard deviation (St.D), percentages (%). A Likert scale of
six points was used (Gelin 2003) , and they are: strongly agree (SA)-6, agree (A)-5, neutral (N)-4
,disagree (DA)-3, strongly disagree (SDA)-2, don’t know-(DK)-1 (Mohammad 2008; Dezaye 2009)
6. Results & Discussion
Table 4 shows the questionnaire statements and the mean results of the study. The results showed that
there was a big motivation towards the e-learning from the university academic staff and also showed
that there was a big fear from the technological aspects (mean =3.121) because there are no
infrastructure or networks that can be used in e-learning activities. The result showed that the
universities are still uphold old practices and need to be changed quickly.
The universities budgets were not enough to implement the e-learning projects; the classrooms were
still old and are not provided with any educational technologies, with face to face being the prominent
way of teaching. It also showed that the management needed to use up to date technologies and ICT in
universities .The ministry of higher education need to pay more attention to establish computers
networks between Iraqi universities and the HQ of the ministry and ministry directorates .The
universities have inadequate Internet and most of them have a web sites but these sites are static and
not interactive sites and are not useful for any educational activity. There a huge need for a complete
building capacity plan that can cover all technological needs. There is a strong believe that connecting
Iraqi universities to the international world universities is the best for implementing e-learning projects.
Table 4: Questionnaire statements and the mean results
Statement
Establishing e-learning networks in the Iraqi universities can
develop these universities
Using e-learning can develop the higher education sector in Iraq
e-learning can solve the problem of brain drain
establishing the e-learning networks can support the universities
professors in their duties
The universities can accept using e-learning as a tool to
developing.
The Iraqi higher education regulations is good now to establish
e-learning networks and start using it in the education process.
It is useful for the higher education sector in Iraq, to establish
and start distance education studies.
Distance education can support the believing in the e-learning .
Changing the traditional post graduate studies systems, and
certified the other systems like research programs and modes is
a way to increase the education effeminacy.
The universities budgets are enough to develop the Iraqi
universities.
All the universities are atomized by ICT
It is better to the universities to establish and install its own
SA
213
A
59
N
10
D
2
SD
0
DK
3
Mean
5.65
St.D
0.74
%
94
230
11٠
158
43
١٤٣
104
8
14
6
2
0
12
0
0
1
4
20
6
5.70
5.05
5.35
0.76
1.24
0.99
95
84
89
175
91
5
11
1
4
5.44
0.91
90
30
42
70
99
42
4
3.66
1.23
61
56
54
64
46
48
19
3.88
1.54
64
٥١
١٣٥
٥٧
١٧
٦١
٤٣
٣١
٤٥
١٥
٤٤
٧٢
3
3.58
4.50
1.82
1.59
59
75
43
66
17
53
20
88
3.28
1.88
54
7
13
13
23
129
25
19
15
116
208
3
3
3.18
2.63
1.12
1.20
53
43
networks by its technical staff than referring to the outside
universities companies
It is better to the universities to find a kind of relationship with
the big names of ICT companies like Microsoft , Cisco , ….etc
It very important to stop any kind of un legal dealing with
software for the using of the ICT
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce the law that
protect the authors from stealing their offers especially in ICT
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs and
internet connections in all of the Iraqi universities , and there is
no leakage in this field
Each staff have its own computer for his daily work and it is
connected to the main university network
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one higher education
network
All the Iraqi universities have its own wireless network and it is
with a good bandwidth
There is a good electronic library and virtual library inside each
school and department instead of main big library supplied with
all ICT needs
All the student affairs and academic achievements works are
atomized f using ICT
All the academic universities staff science works are likely to be
done with ICT.
All the Iraqi universities work very hard to shrinkage the gap of
the technology with outside global world and they are doing well
All the Iraqi universities cancel the using of the traditional
wooden boards in the class rooms.
All the universities have a clear strategy for develop their
universities and reduce the gap with the international
universities standards
All the Iraqi universities have a clear and transparency
educational strategy for the next years in the new Iraq.
All the universities have design its instructional environments
according to the international standards.
All the Iraqi higher education institutes are well structured
foundations according to the international universities standards
It is best to use one system for student’s registration in the Iraqi
universities.
It is better to link the Iraqi universities to an international elearning network till establish a domestic e-learning network in
Iraq for the higher education sector.
It is important to design universities websites similar to
international universities and especially in using of e-learning
and e-gates.
It is very difficult to try to install e-learning system without
international help
The first step for any using of educational technology in the Iraqi
universities is to supply all the class rooms with updated
technologies
It is very important to push the universities academic staff to use
the educational technologies in the learning process.
I believe that E-Learning is the future of the learning process
I believe that E-learning should be adopted by the ministry of
higher education and the universities head quarters and we
should work towards making it success.
I believe it is very important to send the professors and lecturers
to outside Iraq universities to see the e-learning and other
technology and how they used it
Universities have to encourage their professors to do
researches in and about e-learning in Iraq
Centers of educational technology must pay more attention into
using of e-learning and monitor the universities profress in this
field
There are many Providers of e-learning materials in Iraq
There are a wide area of freedom in Iraq and there is no limit
against any kind culture or science building
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in all of the Iraqi
universities
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the Iraqi Higher
Education project for establishing e-learning network
The Malaysia e-learning experiments are one of the best in all of
the world in this field
226
15
18
20
1
7
5.47
1.15
91
22
29
138
56
8
34
3.64
1.28
60
251
7
13
0
0
16
5.60
1.20
93
13
26
28
24
190
6
2.71
1.23
45
4
4
16
48
201
14
2.32
0.82
38
0
0
45
136
102
4
2.77
0.72
46
0
0
47
152
85
3
2.84
0.69
47
0
20
78
21
166
2
2.81
1.05
46
0
0
17
126
136
8
2.52
0.65
42
35
175
12
13
30
22
4.36
1.45
72
245
17
3
22
0
0
5.69
0.83
94
79
130
8
3
0
67
4.29
1.89
71
245
17
3
10
10
2
5.64
1.01
94
245
17
3
10
10
2
5.64
1.01
94
25
7
113
53
86
3
3.38
1.21
56
24
23
39
19
143
39
2.77
1.48
46
191
9
17
26
40
4
4.95
1.60
82
187
30
18
4
45
3
5.04
1.53
84
179
37
9
33
24
5
5.04
1.46
84
46
69
14
73
79
6
3.69
1.52
61
215
40
19
8
2
3
5.56
0.91
92
217
23
26
6
15
0
5.46
1.08
91
197
67
4
63
19
41
22
34
39
77
6
5
4.97
3.97
1.62
1.58
82
66
287
0
0
0
0
0
6
-
1
45
93
16
50
78
5
3.86
1.53
64
225
19
8
12
6
17
5.37
1.40
89
0
287
0
0
7
0
140
0
17
0
123
0
2.1
6
1.00
-
35
1
194
18
53
6
7
9
5.25
1.26
87
213
١١
١٥
3
٣٢
١٣
5.15
1.59
85
21
٦
٢٥
٤٦
11
178
2.06
1.57
34
6.1 Role of the Ministry
The results showed that the onus is on the Ministry to take the first step towards establishing e-learning
practices in the universities. This is followed by the feedback from the academics that e-learning must
be adopted by the Ministry. They also believed that e-learning could help develop the higher education
sector in Iraq (Mean = 5.7), and it will provide assistance for the senior academics and professors in
their academic duties (Mean=5.3).
Since the Ministry plays a major role in the higher education sector, they are also encumbered with
establishing networks between the Iraqi universities as well as furnishing university classrooms with the
relevant hard wares and communication systems.
6.2 Role of the Universities
The results showed that the traditional teaching and learning approaches were still prevalent and any
notion of e-learning was not forthcoming. There is also a need to put in place the appropriate
technological needs in the classroom, such as the TV, projectors, computers and an up-to-date library
system.
After six years of freedom, the universities still have an uphill battle to attain international standing and
most universities have budget constraints. At best, most universities have a website that is only loaded
with pictures and a message from the President.
6.3 International Help
Feedback from the respondents indicated that it would be better to link Iraqi universities to international
e-learning networks since there are no e-learning providers in Iraq ( Mean=2.1), and to create elearning centers in all of the universities ( Mean=5.2) to be the connecting point to facilitate for a
uniform course delivery. It also shows that a strong believe that UN/World Bank should help the Iraqi
Higher especially with the human capital in terms of a good planner and project managers .
6.4 Capacity Building
It is a standard requirement for any e-learning projects to include a special ICT training plan for the
universities staff. Results also showed that there is a need to cater for the needs for training among the
academic and the understanding of the ecology of e-learning.
7. Proposed strategy
There are many ways of using the electronic technologies in education , but for Iraq the best is using
the technologies to support or supplement the classical learning methods of face to face and also
integrating online activities to strengthen and enhancing the learning process. ( Abdul Karim 2004)
From this stand point a strategy designed according to some of the East Asian countries experience in
this field (Masami 2006) especially the countries where their conditions are similar to the conditions in
Iraq such as like Cambodia (Chanthan 2006) or Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand (Pineda 2007) and
Malaysia (Abdul Salam 2006). Mishra (2007) also mentioned that e-learning in India is still at an infant
stage.
The Strategy Framework has the potential to guide the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq (MHESR)
to:
• Develop A National E-Learning programme.
• Establish National Center of E-Learning
• Analyse Current Regulations of Distance education
• Formulate E-Learning Policies .
• Formulate E-Learning Technical Standards .
• Formulate E-Learning Instructional Standards .
• Formulate E-Learning Disability Standards .
• Develop Accreditation Criteria E-Learning Programs .
• Establish Research Funding Criteria for E-Learning Projects .
• Establish National Digital Library .
• E-Learning Faculty and Staff Training .
The strategy framework of the e-learning in the higher education in Iraq can be focused in three main
thrust areas:
First thrust - is the government where a supporting role would play a major part by partaking projects by
supplying the required funds and policies that can help the full adoption of e-learning, such as the
establishment of an Iraqi commission of e-learning. Regulation and certification of e-learning and
distance education should also be addressed. Generally it seems that the government still focused on
rebuilding for the face to face traditional methods of learning.
Second thrust - is the Ministry (MHESR) and its role is to emphasise the role and the function of ICT in
higher education as a learning tool and formulate the technical and instructional standards for it.
Establish e-learning network between Iraqi universities, establish a main e-learning center in similar
way to the Iraqi commission of information and computers in each university .
Third thrust - is the implementation area which emphasis’s in the
• technological aspects by strength or install networks for students and academic staff, building
new labs and Internet cafes , supplying the internet to cover all the universities areas and
provide all the classrooms with all update IT supplies like computers , data show and smart
boards (Brandon 2007)
• Capacity building and here the responsibility is the sharing between government and ministry,
the required budget for training. Universities must be given priority and the freedom to plan and
train the academic and support staff according to its own need
• abolishment of restrictions on ICT uptake and increase the use of technology in university
management, academic affairs and daily works so that they can be more efficient and
productive
The proposed strategy flow chart is summarized in Figure 3.
Figure 3: The proposed strategy flow chart
The first phase of the strategy would be to establish a national e-learning programme for the Republic
of Iraq, and this programme will be from the MHEDSR responsibilities. For financial reasons, the
programme must be under the control of the Minister’s cabinet and the technological support under
MHEDSR. Research has shown that e-Learning will never be successful without a supportive climate
for learning, strong management support (Marc Rosenberg 2010).
It is important that the e-learning center must be a completely independent center with high standards,
and clear duties to inculcate the e-learning culture and the benefits that could be gained from the elearning (Brandon 2007). The lack of academic freedom has come repeatedly to the fore and it has
been hinted at it is a phenomenon of great importance (Paanakker 2009). The academic staff should
also be sent for training or further studies like joining international conferences or study tours for human
resource development to address the needs of the country.
8. Conclusion
The main problem in Iraq after a long seven years is the lack of and brain drain of planners and
designers. Many skilled personnel have left Iraq after more than 30 years of continuous wars. Further,
they did not express any desire to return after securing a better life in their new location. The new
planning personnel were shocked at the extent of destruction in the infrastructures for electric, water,
communications, oils, etc. Higher education is one of the most damaged sectors. Rebuilding projects
have started since 2004 but it is still in an infancy stage.
There is a great perception that most of the Iraqi problems can be solved by technology and ICT. In
higher education it is very important to give the attention to all educational technologies with specific
centers to implement e-learning as most of the senior Iraqi academics are asking for educational
technologies and e-learning. National e-learning projects should be studies such as in Malaysia
(Asirvatham 2005) (Idrus 2006), where national pilot projects are conducted I the process prior to its
implementation. We emulate the Malaysian e-learning experiment cause it is at the forefront of elearning in Asia as “the evolutionary nature of technological infusion into the education system in
Malaysia is very much a planned approach, and advances in ICT has hastened the pace of nationstates to develop a world-class quality education system” (Idrus 2006).
There are many critical factors to be considered in any planning for e-learning strategies , and in our
strategy we cover the rules and polices , infra-structures and the technical support , capacity building
and training , universities standards and researches output of the project . Most of the e-learning
projects in the middle east and gulf zone or even in Africa (Unwin 2008) is still in the early stage.
Advancing infrastructures and up to date hardware, are one of keys to the success of e-learning on the
continent but there should be a special ICT and e-learning capacity building for universities governance
and management of Iraqi universities (HQ), and it is very important and it must take the priority and
they must believe in that.
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Kula lumpur - MALAYSIA
27-29 September 2010
4th International Malaysian
Educational Technology Convention
PEARSON MALAYSIA - BOOK
ICT HUMAN RESOURCES BUILDING
CAPACITY PLAN FOR THE
UNIVERSITY OF MUSTANSIRIYAH
E-LEARNING PROJECT,
BAGHDAD – IRAQ 20112011-2012
ICT Human Resources Building Capacity Plan for the University of
Mustansiriyah e-Learning Project, Baghdad – Iraq 2011-2012
Amer S. Elameer, Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract:
In the last twenty years or more most of the world governments have been investing widely in Information and
Communication Technologies and most of the traditional working aspects inside organizations have been changed and the new
world is digital world with high & better efficiency and less spend money.
E-learning is one of the new world products that require contributions of education and ICT. E-learning now days become the
worldwide phenomenon and the new educator’s language that start to change the most of education aspects and theories. ELearning deployments can be challenging because of the many different aspects that must consider. One of the basic
challenges is the capacity building. A complete capacity building plan for the University of Mustansiriyah, Baghdad – Iraq is
designed according to its need to establish e-learning network as a part of a complete solution for the university, with the World
Bank institutional standards. The design has been made after a pre survey by a two questionnaires to university academic staff
has done and one of them was a complete survey for their academic staff ICT and e-learning skills. From the questionnaire
results that show that there are no e-learning experts and weak ICT skills, and from the previous studies and literatures, it was
fix that the e-learning projects always needed for a special ICT training plan for the university staff. It had been highly marked
by its senior academic staff, so this proposal training plan is a trail to solve the university problem in HR Building capacity.
From this point of the stand a complete training plan for two years is proposed , and it is to confirm that plan cover all the
requirements of the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) Baghdad, Iraq in the ICT field in it need , for a total deployment of a
HR Building capacity in UoMust . The capacity building program and its relative components , have shows a fair understanding
for the requirements of the e-learning network system design ,implementation need in UoMust ,that are best sited to the Iraq
conditions & proposed model. The program is designed to be done in six phases (each is 4 Months), and it have divided into
two major parts, one for the academic staff and the other is for the technical staff. It designed to train and capacity building of
1136 employee in UoMust (580 of them from the senior academic staff and 556 forms the technical staff).
Keywords: HR Human Resources, Building Capacity, The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
, Proposed e-learning Model.
1. Introduction:
In general, the meaning of building capacity is the Human Resource development,
Institutional Capacity, Physical Infrastructure (Building, Equipment, Communications: ICT
Infrastructure, Libraries, Journals), Receptive Society (Public Relations, Media)(Ramkissoon,
2008). Human Resources (HR) is our focus in this paper and it is one of the dimensions of
Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-learning model. Investments in human’s
resources known always as the winning way for most of the educators in the entire
world.(Abualsaoud, 2009)
Iraq as a new born country after 2003 needs for a building capacity projects in all the fields
of science and technology because of the United Nations Security Council economic
sanctions (from 1991 to 2004), the old regime affairs , and the huge brain drainage of all the
Iraqi experts to outside Iraq.(Harb, 2008)
Iraq was a country of disallowed before 2003, no technologies, no mobiles, no satellites, no
wireless, no computer networks, no internet, no…..etc. And any thing can simplest the life
for the Iraqi people was a red line for the regime at that time. One of the biggest names in
Iraqi ICT society was jailed with ten years punishment cause he try to enter wireless
computer technology to Iraq. These policies keep this country completely away from the
civilized technological world in the time of the ICT revolution.
From this point of stand Iraq without building capacity plans as a developing and rebuild
country will find it very difficult and could be impossible to develop its human resources and
transform its higher education system and universities which are the prerequisites for
development. Most of the UN rebuilds Iraq conferences, USAID, JIACA, KOIKA, and other
international organizations all reported and stated that HR building capacity is very important
to the rebuilding of this country, and as a word of truth some have their programs for
that.(Bank, 2009; Harb, 2008; Kaghed & Dezaye, 2009; Kubba, 2009)
2. Internet growth and Internet using in Iraq
Before 1999, there was a great limitation against any kind of communication technologies in
Iraq and the reason of these limitations was the National security of the country. (Harb,
2008)
In 1999 and after the internet revolution that start to invade the world, the government of Iraq
establishes a governmental company to provide the e-mail services & internet services for
governmental offices, bodies and private registered companies only with high costs.
The e-mail service was completely monitored by the government and no one can allow
opening an e-mail only from the government site (uruklink.net) in order to control the using of
this public service.
In 2000 they start open governmental monitored internet cafes and all the mail web sites are
canceled from the browsers and the user can not upload these pages and also the chat was
not allowed.
In 2001 the government allowed the service to reach houses through the telephone lines and
the service was very bad because of the bad telephones central operators and it was also
very expansive and about 2 $/hr in the economic sanctions conditions in Iraq (salary level
was 10 American dollars as standard of governmental salaries monthly).
Even the service was very bad, it was impossible to download or upload any science
information or update technology researches. As a statistical number from the government in
2002 not more than 350000 (1.2% of the whole population of the Iraq) person using internet
in Iraq and most of the using is for electronic mails only.
After 2003, directly every thing changed completely, from the big Iraq prison to the complete
uncontrolled freedom without limits, and one of them was the internet, and this zone of
communication is become complete open for any company or person. Hundred of
companies open and start to provide the net service to all the Iraqi houses with out any
control or limits. Four companies start the mobile service in Iraq and they divide the country
into three areas in the north, middle, and south. It is estimated now that more than 14 million
Iraqi people hold a mobile (no real number of the users to run away from the tax in Iraq) but
it was estimated around 40% of the Iraqi society even it is very expensive till now.
American statistical report published in 2006 said more than 40% of the Iraqi people have an
access to internet now. Most of the Iraqi houses have the wireless internet service now and
most of the Iraqi people spend most of their times in the long hours of disallowance
movement in front of computers even with electricity missing using small generators and
ups. It is a word of the truth that the service which is equal about 35$/monthly 24 hr/day is
very bad but it is very important that it create the internet culture between Iraqi people and
play a great role in reducing the violence in this country.
3.UoMust and Internet
During the March-April 2003 war, most of the country infrastructures destroyed in different
levels, but it was very hard in higher education sector, and the most miserable was the
organized looting for the universities that occur during this period. Thousands of computers
disappear from the universities in Iraq, and in UoMust it was empty burned ground and
building. More than a 2500 computer with its accessories was not found and disappear
completely in UoMust main campus only, also the fires inside the university main campus
which is located in the heart of Baghdad city leave the university without any thing, and at
the end the electric cables looted or eat by the fires. After the end of the war the new
university leadership start to rebuild the university again in very difficult living conditions, and
to repair the infrastructures (electric, water,….) they received a complete internet cafes with
more than 25 computer and the main server and all other accessories that needed with the
furniture with covering the service cost for a complete one year was a gift from previous Iraq
prime minister in Iraq,. Also the university buys an other internet connection for the HQ only
and till 2007. Those were the only connections to the university to the internet space.
Between 2006 and 2008 Iraq sink in a complete violence every where. During this time
UoMust buy a lot of computers and laptops from the local markets and also try to open a
Microsoft and Cisco academies in side the UoMust. The university publishes their website in
the internet at the end of 2008 and it is just general information about the university and the
university president news (http://www.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/). As a word of truth the UoMust have a
good computer center with a lot of experienced academic and technical engineering staff but
as one of the university bodies it is also without all the required number of the equipments
and they focused on the senior academic staff ICT training programs and other ICT training
programs and they succeeded in it even with their little capabilities.
4. The statement of purpose
Any adopting of technology project can not be completed without training (how to use these
technologies and get the most benefits of it). UoMust try to establish e-learning network to
enhance learning as a part of rebuild this destroyed university in Iraq. An e-learning model
was adapting, the technologies required have a fixed specification. The remain is the goal of
the research. A complete and detailed HR Building Capacity Program for e-learning UoMust
project as a major part of this project and to cover more than 1000 employees within two
years from all types of employees in UoMust according to the university needs for the
project.
5. The proposed e-learning model
The implementation of an electronic learning (e-learning) mechanism in an institution of
higher learning presents a serious challenge in both the electronic and the learning
components(Mayes, 2009). It was found that a model of the combination of Badrul Huda
Khan octagonal eight dimensions model and sixty sub-components’ frame work (Khan,
2004) with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) elearning system which proposed for the UoMust is the best (figure 1) . Since it is one of the
most best and complete comprehensive theoretical e-learning models.(Idrus, 2006)
UoMust e-Learning center
UoMust e-learning Model
Figure 1: The proposed e-learning model for the UoMust
6. Theoretical frame work
It was fixed that UoMust need for a special ICT infrastructure and HR building capacity to
implement the e-learning UoMust system. In order to plan for HR BC we have to establish
who attends training (academic, technical and others)? , when training occurs? what needs
to be trained?, and by what means training needs are fulfilled?. The first phase was one of
the most important ones, is to assess the needs of the UoMust from the HR BC plan and for
that we made the preliminary questionnaire that was distributed between the academic staff
in UoMust. The goal was fixing the general training plan outlines. Since the e-learning is
completely depend on the academic staff and especially the senior between them, and for
that we made the quick survey for the ICT and e-learning skills between the senior academic
staff. After evaluated the results , the required BC programs and types have been proposed
as a plan for the university with taking into consideration the investigation of previous
studies, literature reviewed and meeting with experts, the HR BC plan are fulfill all the
university educational needs from ICT needed to implement the e-learning system needs
and others needs also. It could be even for all the Iraqi universities or higher education
sector in Iraq. The research framework is given in Figure (2).
Figure 2: The research framework
7. Timing
Most of the project timing in Iraq after 2004 is two years for executing because of the urgent
needs in this country. Two years in the ICT field is a long time within the daily technology
updates but it is a complete project and need for this time which is calculated not estimated
where the work conditions are not ordinary conditions and for example it was the best timing
for the United Nations Assistance Strategy for Iraq 2008-2010 which was the first of its kind
to be adopted in the country since the 1990s.http://www.uniraq.org/newsroom/getarticle.asp?ArticleID=758
and also the European Commission that launched 2009-2010 Assistance Package a
program for Iraq.
8. The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of
the research work, and according to ( Marczyk et al. (2005)) “in most types of research
studies, the process of data analysis involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the
data for analysis, (2) analyzing the data, and (3) interpreting the data”.
A survey technique was used to icollect the data and prepare it for the analyzing through a
questionnaire and a survey for the e-learning and ICT skills in the UoMust.
The Preliminary questionnaire divided into two parts, the first was the general information
and personal questions (Academic Degree , Experience years , ICT skills , Age ,
Qualifications ..etc) and the second is included the targeted and investagation questions
and they are 28 statements .The questionaure was distributed and given to 350 academist
from the university acacdemic staff, but the complete answers come from only 287 person
and they were 131 male and 156 female, 189 PhD degree holders and 98 Master degree
holder , 35 of them are professor , 95 assistant professor , 111 lectruer and 46 assistant
lecturer, only 25 of them are without enough skills in using computers.the other group
general information shown in the tables 1,2 and 3 below.
The survey for the e-learning and ICT skills was through designing a survey questionnaire
from 35 statemant covering all the data required for the HR BC needed and it was
distributed between 250 of UoMust senior academic staff but the complete answers come
only from 160 , and they are 112 Ass.Professor all holding PhD degrees (80 female and 32
male) and 48 Professor (30 male and 18 female) and all are above 15 years of the public
service in the Iraqi higher education sector but the are now in the UoMust senior academic
staff.
9. Statistical Procedure
All the Statement answers and the data that have been taken from the questionnaire and
the skills survey were analyzed and computerized using the Statically Package for Social
Science (SPSS) . From SPSS calculation we find the Mean (M), Standard deviation (St.D),
Percentages (%) . All the results is used to examine the real ICT ,networks , e-learning
situations in the UoMust. ICT skills avaliable for academic , technical , and adminstrative
staff . The capabilities of using internet in e-learning and other academic research works.
The academic staff directions and the attitude to the e-learning and training them to use elearning softwares . We use the result to proposed the BC HR plan for the UoMust. A lakert
scale of six points was used (Michaela N. Gelin 2003) , and they are : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 ,
Agree(A) 5 ,Neutral(N) 4 ,Disagree(DA) 3 ,Strongly Disagree(SDA) 2 ,Don’t Know(DK) 1
.(Khater, 2008; Mohammad, 2008)
10. Preliminary questionnaire and survey results and Discussion
The results that obtained from the preliminary questionnaire (table .1 ) shows that there is
a need for increasing the technical staff (Mean (M)=1.69)and administrative staff ( M=1.66)
and they must be gain some train even they are well trained and they can achieve all the
responsibilities they ask to hold (M=3.67) , and the train will be outside Iraq (M=5.25) .The
main problem is the budget which is limited and specialized for the civil engineering work
and equipment supply (M=3.3). The time is a very important factor since the university is
looking forward to close the technological gap with the outside civilized world.
Table .1: General preliminary questionnaire results
Statement
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of ICT technical staff
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of the administrative staff
The technical staff are well trained
They can achieve all the responsibilities they ask to hold it.
Training them out side Iraq and in Europe is better than training them in Iraq or other
Arab countries
Mean
3.2822
2.8676
3.2683
3.6797
5.2125
Percentage%
54% Poor
47% Poor
54% Poor
61% Med.
87%v.good
All the Iraqi universities have a good budget for building capacity
All the technical staff are excellent in English language
Training the administrative high staff is very important to develop the Iraqi universities
All the Iraqi universities academic staff have ICT skills
All the universities are atomized by ICT
It is better to the higher education sector to build capacity of its need in the training
centers of ICT companies better than in the independent training centers.
It is better to use the sandwich technique in training the staff better than complete
long time training programs.
It is better to the universities to establish and install its own networks by its technical
staff than referring to the outside universities companies.
It is better to the universities to find a kind of relationship with the big names of ICT
companies like Microsoft , Cisco , ….etc
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs and internet connections in all
of the Iraqi universities , and there is no leakage in this field
All the academic universities staff science works like researches, projects are likely to
be done with ICT.
All the Iraqi universities work very hard to shrinkage the gap of the technology with
outside global world and they are doing well
All the update technology are offer also to the lecturers in the class rooms like
computers , data show , and all other multi media instruments
It is best to use one system for student’s registration in the Iraqi universities.
It is better to link the Iraqi universities to an international e-learning network till
establish a domestic e-learning network in Iraq for the higher education sector.
It is important to design the universities websites similar to the international
universities and especially in the using of e-learning and e-gates.
It is very difficult to try to install e-learning system without international help from
outside Iraq
It is very important to import the experience from the international universities and try
not to start from zero point
The first step for any using of educational technology in the Iraqi universities is to
supply all the class rooms with all the updated computers, data show, OHP, TV and
complete audio system. And train the lecturers and push them to use it.
It is very important to push the universities academic staff to use the educational
technologies in the learning process.
I believe that E-learning should be adopted by the ministry of higher education and
the universities head quarters and we should work towards making it success.
I believe it is very important to send the professors and lecturers to outside Iraq
universities to see the e-learning and other technology and how they used it
It is better to establish academic centers for educational technologies
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the Iraqi Higher Education project for
establishing e-learning network
3.3101
3.324
4.7143
3.6028
3.1882
3.9268
55% Poor
55% Poor
78% Med.
60% Med.
53% Poor
65% Med.
5.3763
89% v.good
2.6376
44% Poor
5.4774
91% excel.
2.7108
45% Poor
4.3693
73% Med.
5.69
95% excel.
3.00
50% Poor
4.9521
5.0483
82% v.good
84% v.good
5.0418
84% v.good
3.6934
61% Med.
6.00
100% excel.
5.5645
92% excel.
5.4669
91% excel.
3.9791
66% Med.
6.00
100% excel.
5.2509
5.1533
87% v.good
86% v.good
Also result show us that using the quick specific courses (sandwich technique in training )
instead of the long the staff better than complete long time training programs is highly
recommended in the Iraq conditions and the urgent need their (M=5.37 , 89%).
Not starting from the zero, linking the e-learning network to network out side Iraq (M=5.04,
84%), asking the international help also was highly recommended (M=5.15, 86%) by the
academic staff.
The second a survey questionnaire for ICT and e-learning skills. the result (table. 2) shows
that there is a huge missing information about e-learning and also there is no experience at
all in e-learning software used in it like moodle or LMS or jusur, (50.9% , 50.9% , 51%) .
Most of the academic staff stated that e-learning could be useful to enhance the traditional
learning face to face methods (89%) since there is no using for any kind of educational
technologies (51%) because it is not offered in the university class rooms till now (M=3).
Most of the academic staff welcome the study tours or visits to the international standards
universities (79.5%) to see the e-learning projects and using, and also the joining the
international conferences about (M=83.1%) and the university role to help them by funding
these conference joining.
The university senior academic staff have a basic ICT skills like using MS Word (M=5.58)
and Power Point (4.83) but not more. Their skills in using MS Excel or other office
application is weak (M=3.38, 3.16). The result shows also that a lot of the academic staff still
using the traditional methods in their teaching duties and they do not have electronic
students records (M=3.94) and the main reason for that they do not have computers in their
offices till now (M=3.25) and their using for the ICT is to done from their houses that is used
for their researches, communicate with the others …etc and most if them using the internet
for around six hours weekly at least. Most of them highly welcomed training them outside
Iraq for e-learning or ICT skills (M=5.7). Also they believe that establishing national elearning center will be very useful (M=5.74) and also a center in each university (93.1%).
Table. 2: ICT and e-learning skills survey for senior UoMust academic staff
Statement
I think my student are ready to use the net to gain my courses after the class room
finish
I think the best way is to use the CAL with the face to face traditional learning
methods at the beginning
I have a lot of information about e-learning networks
All the university academic staff use the educational technologies
It is very important to establish national e-learning center
It is very important to establish e-learning center in all the universities.
It is very important to visit other universities in scientific study tours
It is very important to join e-learning conferences
It is very important to train the senior staff in universities out side Iraq
I have electronic records for all my students (now and passed)
I know how to use all the MS Office
I know how to use MS Word
I know how to use MS PowerPoint
I know how to use MS Excel and MS Access
I know how to use Moodle software
I know how to use LAMS software
I know how to use JUSUR software
I have a connected in computer my office in university
I will use the educational technologies if it is offered in the class rooms
A lot of training ICT courses are offered for the academic staff
I use ICT to organize and manage my work
I use ICT to prepare lessons
I use ICT to find digital learning resources
I use ICT to design and produce my own digital learning resources
I use ICT to communicate with colleagues
I use ICT to communicate with your pupils
I use ICT to communicate with school management and educ. administrations
I use ICT to analyze student achievement/ performance data
I can deal with most technical problems that arise when using ICT
I feel confident with ICT and would like to use it more effectively
I use the Internet on a regular basis (approx number of 6 hours per week)
I search for all the update technologies in ICT
I read all the up to date researches in e-learning
I have at least one research in e-learning
I follow all the up to date technologies in e-learning like e-learning2 and Mlearning…etc.
Mean
4.23
Percentage%
70.5% Med.
5.34
89% v.good
2.65
3.06
5.74
5.58
4.775
4.98
5.7
3.94
3.38
5.58
4.83
3.16
3.06
3.06
3.06
3.25
5.53
3.49
4.88
4.8
5.82
4.35
5.35
5.35
3.14
3.67
3.41
6
4.47
44% Poor
51% Poor
95.7% excel.
93.1% excel.
79.5% Med.
83.1% v.good
95% excel.
65.7% Med.
56.3% Poor
93% excel.
80.6% v.good
52.7% Poor
50.9% Poor
50.9% Poor
51% Poor
54.1% Poor
92.1% excel.
58.2% Poor
81.4% v.good
80% v.good
97% excel.
72.5% Med.
89.1% v.good
89.1% v.good
52.3% Poor
61.2% Med.
56.9% Poor
100% excel.
74.5% Med.
3.55
3.55
3.79
3.81
59.2% Poor
59.2% Poor
63.2% Med.
63.6% Med.
11. The HR Capacity Building Plan:
A complete plan for the BC HR development is shown in table.3. It is from three parts:
First is: the technology expertise transfer and that come from (e-learning projects study
tours, Join Internationals e-learning conferences) (1, 2, and 7)
Second: is the general ICT skill training course. (4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10)
Third is: the e-learning specific programs training courses. (3 and 12) and for hardware and
maintenance was (11).
Fourth is: the special training for the project management group. (9)
Table.3: The complete HR BC plan for the UoMust
Workshop
Number
of
activity
1
P.1
P.2
P.3
P.4
P.5
P.6
4
months
4
months
4
months
4
months
4
months
4
months
20
-
-
-
-
20
Total
joining
persons
40
1
Review of Targeting and eligibility determination
option for University senior academic staff
2
Targeting and eligibility determination
Study Tour
1
30
50
-
-
-
50
130
3
Moodle - LAMS and Jusur software’s
Training C.
1
30
30
20
20
20
20
140
4
Development Tools
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
5
Application Server
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
6
Database Management
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
7
International IT Conferences
Conferences
Subtotal
6
15
5
5
5
15
15
60
24
125
115
25
85
95
165
610
8
Website Training
Training C.
6
14
10
10
10
10
10
64
9
Training of Supervisors
Training C.
1
10
-
-
-
-
-
10
10
Training of System Operators
Training C.
2
56
-
-
56
-
-
112
11
IT Technical Training
Training C.
Training C.
6
6
40
30
40
30
20
30
20
30
20
30
20
30
160
180
12
UoMust Academic senior Staff IT Proficiency
Training (Word, Excel, etc) (10%)
Subtotal
21
150
80
60
116
60
60
526
Total
55
275
195
85
201
155
225
1136
Total time for the complete capacity building is 2 complete years (24 Months)
It is designed according to the World Bank capacity Building Standards
Figure (3): The Program time table
Figure (4): Training plan flow Chart
12. HR BC Location
Finding a place that can cover three main requirements was the target with the language
and the costs, it was the hardest part of the plan, these requirements of the training
proposed place was:
1-Advance in ICT technologies and have a good training centers.
2-Advance e-learning projects.
3-High standards universities.
4-Acceptable costs
5-The language
After searching a lot of studies in the Middle East, Gulf zone, and Islamic countries, it was
found that e-learning is still at the beginning steps in most of these countries, beside there is
a big differences in their higher education systems that used in these countries universities
.The best was found in four countries, and they are Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey and Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. One of the best between them was Malaysia, this country have a good
institutional structured , highly science and technology progressed universities and most of
them are British standards universities .A lot of the big ICT companies have a good centers
and branches in Malaysia like Intel , Microsoft , Cisco…etc, and all of them have training
centers with high standards . The Malaysian society is similar to the Iraqi from the Islamic
religion, the multi races, different cultures beside the using of the English language and also
there are a lot of e-learning and education summits, meetings and conferences .Here it was
found that the best place for the HR BC in UoMust or in Iraq as general is Malaysia, since its
universities have good e-learning projects.
The searching for the university guide us to the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM:
http://www.usm.my), this university have been implementing e-learning since 1983 with the
systematic redesign of learning materials into printed pedagogic self-instructional modules
incorporating audio and videocassettes, slides and filmstrips. The prominent inclusion of
telecommunications was brought about by the introduction of audio teleconferencing in 1988
and the incorporation of an electronic writing board in 1989. In June, 1995, USM once again
made history in distance education and e-;earning in Malaysia in particular, and the world in
general, by joining the elite universities of the world in using interactive full-motion video
conferencing and in August 1997. A home-grown electronic portal was launched in 2003 with
full migration to Moodle in December 2005. As of 2006, the video conferencing sessions are
steamed live on the Internet enabling student access from anywhere in the world (with
connection).
13. Conclusion:
Great challenging will face the executing of the proposed complete HR BC plan. Two
workshops is planned in the program , one at the beginning of the project and the other is at
the end for review of targeting and eligibility determination option for UoMust senior
academic staff and will invite to it a lot of the big expertise holders from all of the world and
the country where the program will be executed.
Training inside Iraq is better than train in out side Iraq , but since the security subject in Iraq
is still missing, and most of the big companies still put red lines against any project in Iraq
especially after the kidnapping of the British ICT expertise from the ministry of finance last
year 2009 , so the choices will be very limited and train outside Iraq is the best choice with
the additional benefit that could be gained and strength the relation with the ICT companies
and their updates.
The funding and the budget will be other challenge, since it is very difficult times in Iraq
because of the rebuilding cost and the government is to fund every where. Such program
need a special budget to complete it and achieved the targeted goals and it is better to look
for other ordinary ways for funding it like USAID, JICA, World Bank...etc. A lot of the UoMust
academic staff encourages that direction in the funding process for the project.
Executing such multi dimensional programs need for well structured institutions. The
institutional structures of the most of the Iraqi government bodies still very weak and in the
first step of repairing them, and universities are from these bodies. The role of the upper
ministry still controls the work view in Iraqi universities. The missing of the leadership role
taken into consideration and a special program is designed for that in the plan, and this is
also other challenge that must be solved.
The luck of the e-learning experience is also an other challenge and starting from the zero
point will be very difficult , so the program is designed to have the study tours and visits ,
joining the international conferences to gain the experience from the progressed others and
transfer it to Iraq. “Study Tours as an effective and efficient means to transmit institutional
development methods and experiences”.
http://www.escwa.un.org/divisions/ecri_editor/Download.asp?table_name=meetings&field_name=id&FileID=104
Malaysia as one of the leading countries in the e-learning is the best place for the academic
staff university visits especially.
Malaysia is the best place for executing the program and it is better to do it completely in
USM, and this university will play the additional adviser role for the Iraqi side since they have
along history in e-learning from 1983.
The cost of executing the program in Malaysia will be lower than from any other country
because of the lower living standards in it even with the big distance between the two
countries. The best way for that is to sign Memorandum of Understanding MOU between
UoMust and USM for this project.
The HR BC plan is cover all the required fields for the e-learning project and ICT, hardware
and software in UoMust and could be expand also to cover some other skills like
management, language, maintenance, and others if it is required.
Every thing in this small World is being changed by IT revolution (through the idea from Top
down to Bottom up), it become very important to all of us to obtain the skills of IT in this
information digital world and it is closely to be a world first language. In the fact and by the
experiments, gaining the technology itself only is not enough for a true empowerment. As
educators and educational technologies researchers, it is very important to change our self’s
and having informational mind to recognize what kind of information we should access and
analyzing information with learning or educational perspective.
Without strong local institutions and motivated staff, decentralization and human settlements
reform will not deliver the desired development outcomes. Yet, many local authorities lack
human resources required to meet urgent needs. HR Training as part of capacity building is
therefore a wise investment into the future sustainability of our UoMust.
14. References:
ICT in Education. (2004). Infor mation and communication technologies in teacher
education: A planning guide. Available at http://www.unes cobkk.org/inde
x.php?ld= 3806
World Bank (2009). Interim Strategy Note for the Republic of Iraq for the Period mid
fy09-fy11. World Bank: 73.
Paanakker, H. L. (2009). Higher Education in Iraq under Attack. School of Social
Sciences, PhD Thesis: 127, University of Amsterdam. , Amsterdam, , Netherlands
Khan, B. H. (2004). "The People–Process–Product Continuum in E-Learning: The ELearning P3 Model." Educational Technology 44(Issue of Educational
Technology): pp. 33-40.
Khan, B. H. (2005). E-learning Quick Checklist, Information Science Publishing , Idea
Group Inc, Hershey PA, USA .
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in an Information Society , Information Science
Publishing , Idea Group Inc, Hershey PA, USA:.
Mohammad, j. A. (2008). Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT
Applications in the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables ,
Journal of Educational & Psychological Sciences 9(3): 25-53.
Harb, I. (2008).,” Higher Education and the Future of Iraq”. Special Report No. 195. The
United States Institute of Peace. Washington, D.C.: 16., [online]
www.usip.org/resources/higher-education-and-future-iraq.
Husain, M. A. (2004). Iraq , Education in Transition ; Paris, Unesco , [online]
www.unu.edu/news/ili/Iraq.doc.
Idrus, R. M. (2006) Educational Media in Malaysia. Country Profiles. Commonwealth of
Learning.: Chapter Three ,pp. 25-33., Vancouver , Canada, [online]
www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/EdMediaAsia_P1.pdf .
Dezaye, N. K. A. (2009). Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq
Kurdistan: A Case Study , Quality in Higher Education, 15(1): pp.71-77.
Abdul Salam , Z.A. (2006) , MyGfL: A Lifelong Learning Platform for Malaysian Society."
The Electronic Journal of e-Learning 4(1): 7-14
Chanthan, Chhuon , Chanrithy , S. & Tha, S.(2006) The Current Status of e-learning in
Cambodia , Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology, 6(1) , pp.45-55
Kurti, E. (2008) Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of
Prishtina, Kosova. School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering. Prishtina,
University of Prishtina,.
Abualsaoud, M. S. (2009). The Development of Education and its Role Building Knowledge
Society. Paper presented at the First International Conference on e-Learning and
Distance Learning (eLi 2009), Riyadh , KSA.
Bank, W. (2009). Interim Strategy Note for The Republic of IRAQ for The Period Mid FY09FY11 (No. Report No. 47304-IQ)o. Document Number)
Harb, I. (2008). Higher Education and the Future of Iraq (Education and Conflict).
Washington, D.C. (T. U. S. I. o. Peace o. Document Number)
Idrus,
R.
M.
(2006).
Educational
Media
in
Malaysia.
from
http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/EdMediaAsia_P1.pdf
Kaghed, N., & Dezaye, A. (2009). Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq
and Kurdistan: A Case Study Quality in Higher Education, 15(1), 71-77.
Khan, B. H. (2004). The People–Process–Product Continuum in E-Learning: The E-Learning
P3 Model. Educational Technology, 44(Issue of Educational Technology), 33-40.
Khater, M. (2008). e-Learning Information Portal Design Using PHP/MySQL. Paper
presented at the The first e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East 2008, Dubai,
UAE.
Kubba, J. (2009). Expedited Revival for Iraqi Higher Education Institutions. Paper presented
at the 1st International Conference for Iraqi Experts in the Diaspora. from
www.parliament.iq/iete/1-5.pdf
Mayes, T. (2009). Six Challenges for Higher Education in the World of TechnologyEnhanced Learning. Paper presented at the First International Conference on eLearning and Distance Learning (eli2009).
Mohammad, j. A. (2008). Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT
Applications in the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables.
Journal of Educational & Psychological Sciences, 9(3), 25-53.
Ramkissoon, H. (2008, May 22nd–24th). Capacity Building. Paper presented at the Launch
of the International Science & Technology Centre for South-South Cooperation,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
penang – malaysia
DecemberDecember- 2010
Malaysian Journal of Educational
Technology ( MYJET)
THE SOFTWARE NEEDS FOR THE EELEARNING MODEL IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF MUSTANSIRIYAH
(UOMUST) BAGHDADBAGHDAD-IRAQ
The Software Needs for the e- Learning Model
in the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) Baghdad-Iraq
Amer Saleem Flayyeh Elameer, Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract
All the universities in the globalization new world now days apply technology to enhanced and enriched learning in order to
help students, and change the traditional face to face learning methods to raises the efficiency of leaning process. The
technology influence enhanced learning offers, effective learning in all contexts is using it and most of universities are trying to
adopt it. One of these universities is the case of the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust), Baghdad, Iraq that is subject of this
research. Choosing the software required for the e-learning system is one of the big problems that could face any e-learning
designer and planner where a big numbers of software’s presented freely. Since the revolution of moodle that begin in Australia
and daily progressed in this field. These programs simplest the procedures in front of the educators and programmers to design
the technological life and environments in front of the academics. We have choose three software’s to implement completely
our Khan e-learning model and these programs outputs cover all the university needs at the beginning step toward e-learning
.A survey in between the academics and university students shows very clearly for us that there is no afraid from adopting any
e-learning LMS or LAMS system for our proposed model because it is the first step for the university towards the educational
technologies world where there are no experience at all. A capacity building needed after preparing the university infrastructure
for e-learning and ICT. The university start and made some good steps to adopt e-learning.
Keywords:
1. Introduction:
Higher Education by it all types and levels is responsible and holds the key to solving most
of the living problems and challenges in this small world. Higher education organizations and
universities in this new century is driven by the technology and conviction that will help for
sure to remove all the old limitations, foster innovation, enable both students and teachers to
live up to their full potential, and the concept of the education in this revolution of the
technologies that students is the core of the learning and education process. The
combination of learning and technology give us high value integrated learning and it is ELearning which is anytime and anyplace. It is being presented as the next education
evolution. Technology is the most important element and the rolling key for the e-learning
and more further options in e-learning. It become now days limitless potential and control its
progressed are impossible mission to any one . Researches are currently widely distributed
and published by the internet. This progressed and the flexibility in e-learning appear as a
result for the technology growing up in the computers capabilities to support the media (A/V)
, speed increasing , bandwidth increasing , storage , memory , and the reducing in sizes and
shapes and its mobility. “enthusiastic claims for technology’s ability to provide high-guilty
education for all” (John Stephenson, 2003).
Most of the word countries targeted to build information based society whish is leading for
sure for better future .To reach it we need a lot of hard working in strengthen information
infrastructures , promote innovation in ICT and a big and catholic plans for building capacity
for human resources. E-learning is one of the tools that must be considered in building this
society. E-learning have invades a lot of world countries and in the way to the other and
“become an important part of most modern educational systems” (Bates, 1995).
Figure.1: The way to the
information based society
Figure.2: The relation between
E-learning & Education
Figure.3: UoMust after
2003 war
1-1. The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
UoMust is one of public universities in Iraq which is established in 1963 as re born for the old
abbaysian Mustansiriyah School that constructed in 1267. This university destroyed,
burned, and looted completely in Mar-April 2003 war. Figure.3.
UoMust faces a lot of challenges when it comes to introduction of technology enhanced
learning... It become quite common in developed third world countries universities where
the traditional work methods still their and strong for several reasons, one of them is the
believing that e-learning applications is as an extension to their ordinary infrastructure and
do not take the technology influence into the consideration.
As a public university in a conflict country with un stable and vulnerable economy because
of the continuous political changes still lacks the basic technological infrastructure for
learning.
Before 2003 war it was calculated that the UoMust have more than 3000 computer in its
main campus only but they are not connected or networked at all. It main campus that
contain three colleges only and university HQ and the other remain colleges are outside
main campus and for sure till nowadays colleges and centers still lack proper computer
networks labs with internet connectivity. Implementing a university network infrastructure
with broadband internet is a prerequisite and the target for successful implementation of an
e-learning system , but it seems very difficult with a lot of challenges to face like the:
Lack of the Information Communication Technology infrastructure which is the trade mark of
all Iraqi government bodies and it is reflected also in the technological proficiency of the
UoMust academic staff. A report to UNESCWA which is the United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Western Asia from the Iraqi Commission of Computers
and Information which is one the Higher Education Ministry bodies in Iraq , published at
the end of year 2007 shows that there is a great weakness in all of the ministry and
universities infrastructures with luck of computers networking and expertise in both field
of hard ware and software ,and in the UoMist the report shows that university have only
five shared v-sat internet connection and the working is only three of them and for sure
now the situation in the university is better than what the report have stated . With
students it is a completely different situation especially because of the internet and mobile
culture that exists widely among youth population in Iraq now days and according to the
mobile companies it are over 14 million of Iraqi people now days holding mobiles.
1-2. Educational Technologies in Iraq and UoMust
Between 1975 and 1985, Iraq was build with great and high international standards and it
was the golden days of the new Iraq that goes with winds. The building revolution were
every where you look and higher education have its budget from that and a lot of billion was
spent in this important sector. All the offered educational technologies at that time were
supplied to all universities like computer centers, close circuit TV, and computer labs. A
great attention to the educational technologies benefits was paid , and all the class rooms
was supplied with all the educational technologies , closed circuit TV especially in the main
universities of Iraq , Baghdad , Mustansiriyah , Technology , Mosul , Salahaddin and Basra.
But the time was very short cause the first gulf war start at the end of the first year of the
eighteen decade and there was a big shortage in the all the sector budget. Only university
of Technology which open a special college and Foundation of Technical Education that
establish a special institute for that, continuous focus on the educational technologies. After
1990 Iraq was under UN economic sanctions and every thing was stopped. In truth their
was a limited trails at that time and it was for using these educational technologies but for
the shortage of its numbers we can not call it more than it was just trials not real using. After
2003 the situation changed completely but the focus was on rehabilitation the building, labs,
supplying equipments …etc because of the 90% percentage of destroying that take place in
this sector in Iraq.
1-3. As a final result
1-Three great wars and heavily sanctions against Iraq in years between 1980-2003 have
severely damaged higher education system completely especially in ICT field.
2-No real or good achievements have been take place from 2003-2009 to rebuild Iraq higher
education system, because of the huge internal violence that happen their.
3-Iraqi Universities still working with old and traditional education standards and regulations,
and no real national strategies were adopted and for sure Iraq is still far from changing into
Institutional Iraq.
4-Implementing a university network infrastructure with broadband internet is a prerequisite
and the target for successful implementation of an e-learning system seems very difficult
with a lot of challenges to face
5-Most of the Iraqi University staff from presidents, academic, technical, administrative need
to be trained out side Iraq and join the International universities world and a big capacity
building plan for human resources is to be adopted in ICT field inside higher education
sector in Iraq.
6-A huge shortage in the university budgets because of the un stable economic situation
even with all the trials to reform it.
1-4 . E-learning benefits for UoMust and IRAQ Higher Education Universities
A UNESCO report ( Education under Attack ) (O’Malley, 2010) published in February 2010 ,
stated that between March 2003 and October 2008, 31,598 violent attacks against
educational institutions were reported in Iraq, at least 30 per cent of professors, doctors,
pharmacists and engineers had fled the country since 2003 .Even with the security situation
in Iraq is to be improved and with the drop in the overall level of violence in Iraq , Threats to
education institutions remained at a high level in some areas , Most of the academics killed
were tracked down and assassinated at their place of work, at home or in a vehicle .Highly
percentage of student absence from the universities especially in Baghdad and Mosul were
stated also . UoMust is one of the government bodies in Iraq and what is stated in the report
is a good view for what the university facing it. UoMust need for the e-learning for solving the
problems of:
4-1.Brain drainage of the Lectures and Professors and the shortage of well-trained lecture
and professors.
4-2.The huge shortage of the Educational Materials like laboratory equipments, libraries, text
books, photo copies machines, etc,
4-3.The old and traditional face to face methods of Teaching which are outdated and need to
be changed, updated and expand, and focus on the student as the core of the learning
process not the teacher.(ELDahshan, 2009)
4-4.Closing the knowledge gap that has existed since the 1980s between Iraqi universities
and those in some neighboring countries and in the West...
4-5.Start using the new educational technologies in order to increase the effiency of the
learning process.
4-6.Rebuild the university infrastructures with high ICT level standards of the international
universities in the world.
4-7.Alot of the student problems, like student absence, differences in cultures, differences in
political backgrounds….etc.
2. The objective of the research
The main objective of our research is fixing the Technological software’s need according to
the proposed complete e-learning system for the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust),
Baghdad – Iraq according to the university needs to put the tools in the hands of the subject
matter expert in an attempt to leverage technology and knowledge to build quality e-learning
system in a short period of time.
3. Methodology
The idea of this research is to investigate UoMust academic staff experiences, opinions
regarding the implementation of full scale e-learning system. The methodology model that
has been used by the researchers is the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation,
Evaluation (ADDIE) model and it was for all the research parts and was a special ADDIE
instructional waterfall design for the university of Mustansiriyah e-learning project has been
designed and it is summarize with all its activities in the figure.3 below, but for the
technological part of the research it was the ADDIE ring model that was used and with
evaluation process in each step of technological research work., and summarize with all its
activities in the figure.4 below.
ADDIE –Instructional Design
Classic UoMust Model
Analyze
*e-Learning is the
future of the learning
process .
*Iraq
higher
education
sector
&universities
completely
destroyed
*Old
universities
standards
*Great brain drain
from Iraq
*ICT & Educational
Technologies is part
of rebuilding this
sector
Universiti
Sains
Malaysia (USM) which
have a complete elearning system with a
state of the art video
conferencing delivery
system
and
an
electronic portal. This
was complemented by
the Badrul Huda Khan
octagonal
eight
dimensions e-Learning
model.
The
educational activities
were taken as a
yardstick in the design
of e-learning systems
and
educational
activities for Iraq.
Implement
Evaluate
Design
Establish eLearning center
ICT Infrastructure required
Equipments
specifications
&
Capacity building needed
Develop
Strategy for executing the
project
Budget required
International help
Complete Implementation
plan and stages
Figure.3: the instructional UoMust
ADDIE instructional waterfall design
Figure.4: the instructional UoMust
ADDIE instructional ring design
3-1. the Analysis
The study is based on two data sources: the previous studies about the Iraqi higher
education sector (Bank, 2009; Harb, 2008; Husain, 2004; Kubba, 2009), interviews and all
related documents. A clear set of contrasts has become apparent from these two data
sources set out the framework of the research.
3-2. The Design and Development
For this purpose the research was led using the octagonal theoretical model for e-learning.
This model is Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning model.(Khan,
2005, 2006) The eight factors in this model have then been grouped in three major
domains: educational, technological and organizational.(Grewal, Rai, Phillips, & Fung, 2005;
Kurti, 2008)
3-3. The e-learning model
In Iraq now it is very difficult to change the traditional styles directly. We need to organize
and prepare the ground for the changes first (Masami, 2006), this preparation will take place
by adopt the e-learning as support activity to the face to face traditional learning method.
The way of the supporting will be the teacher present in self study (Abualsaoud, 2009; AlBusaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010; Chendeb & Nasr, 2010) .The self study with the teacher is a mix of
self-paced learning and teacher lead learning and by this way we can checks on the both
types the learners' progress and because of that a comprehensive e-learning system has
been designed with model that were found through discovering the using of e-learning in one
of the pioneers of universities in Asia; the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)(Idrus, 2006)
which have a complete e-learning system with a state of the art video conferencing delivery
system and an electronic portal. This was complemented by the Badrul Huda Khan
octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning model and this model have then been grouped in
three major domains: educational, technological and organizational . The educational
activities were taken as a yardstick in the design of e-learning systems and educational
activities for Iraq. The e-learning systems are based on Moodle software with the concept of
offering courses for the students and control their activities (LAMS) which stand for Learning
Activity Management System and is used for designing, managing and delivering online
collaborative learning activities. This is done through a visual authoring environment for
creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual
tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and
collaboration.(Dzakiria, Mustafa, & Bakar, 2006)
3-3-1. e-Learning in the School of Distance Education at USM
School of distance Education in USM start the journey with educational technologies since
1971 and now days they have a complete e-learning system that use LAMS in its system
activities with standards that learning must be informal non linear dynamic process with rapid
application and knowledge management development and learner not instructor control
(figure 5). Researches their discover that in order to ease the transition towards the elearning system, there should be an appropriate pedagogical training focus on issues
regarding the formulation and design of the new learning environment . Moreover the
continoues researches and carefully studies for the using of this educational technology in
USM in general and in the school of distance education in USM as specific discovered that
to avoid the situations where the technology could potentially increase distance between
teachers and students, e-learning system should include videoconference capabilities . In
USM-School of Distance Education they have a complete e-learning system with a state of
the art video conferencing delivery system and an electronic portal and that create a real
electronic learning enviorment for the learners without any difficulties.
3-3-2. Moodle software Moodle is Australian free CMS released in 2002, and was called
Moodle 1.0. This software is designed and created by Martin Dougiamas a WebCT
administrator in the Curtin University of Technology in Australia, He design it to be a
typical database driven web application, which does not require a client to be installed
since it only uses web browser for displaying the information.(Kurti, 2008)
The name of Moodle come from the wards Modular Object- Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment and it is a Australian online e-learning system software which is designed ,
architecture and developed from two basic components to organizes it and they are :
MySQL (Structured Query Language which is one of the world's most popular open
source database) and PHP. Daily a large number of developers working to develop this
open free software according to their believes and they provide different modules and
plugged it into the main software to enhanced this great software capabilities.
AV in
Education
Close circuit
TV
1970-1980
Computers
in
Education
CAL & CAI
1980-1990
Satellite & Cables ,
Internet , Networking ,
e-learning,
learning,
Blogging,Internet
Radio,Videocasting,
Radio,Videocasting,
Photocasting , Mobile
Casting , Podcasting ,
Satellite radio, Digital
Terrestrial , Internet
Streaming
1990-2000
ML
2000-2010
1983 USM START JOURNEY WITH EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES
Figure 5: USM journey with the
educational technologies and e-learning
Figure 6 : the e-learning model
proposed for UoMust
3-3-3. LAMS
Also other Australian free software and its inventor is Professor James Dalziel from
Macquarie E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE) in Macquarie University, Australia.
The first copy of the free software called LAMS v1.1 was released in February 2005. This
was the first open source version of LAMS , and in December 2008 they released LAMS
2.2 co-incide with the 3rd International LAMS Conference in Sydney, Australia . This version
included the Tool Wrappers for external tools (such as Moodle) and in LAMS 2.3 other
features and improvements (all LAMS releases are also open source). This software is a
revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning
activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for
creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual
tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and
collaboration.(Almazroa & Alkhudair, 2009)
3-3-4. Jusur LMS System
Jusur is an LMS designed by the National Center of E-learning and Distance Learning
(NCeDL) in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in order to manage the E-Learning process.
This software which is based on METEOR-OUM’s, the Malaysian Open University popular
LMS , and this software which its first copy is released in 2007 in the first year under the
contract between Malaysian METEOR Company and Ministry of higher education in KSA
which start at end of 2006 and the current version is 1.5 now. Using Jusur system, users can
log on and easily access the training courses. As the student completes the course, scores
are tabulated and reports generated. Likewise, managers and administrators can access
reports on the LMS and track the students’ progress. Jusur also has a learning content
management system (LCMS), which is a system that can access learning object repository
which enable subject matter experts, with little technology expertise, to design, create,
deliver, and measure the results of e-learning courses rapidly. LCMS applications
fundamentally change the value of e-learning content delivery by offering a scalable platform
to deliver proprietary knowledge to individual learners and researchers. This software was
evaluated widely by a lot of researchers and expertise and (Al-Khalifa, 2009) stated that
JUSUR LMS appears to be user friendly and easy to use, besides using the system has
increased the students confidence in the technology.(Asirvatham et al., 2005; Bates, 2001)
E-learning tools
E-learning System
Traditional
Face to Face
Learning Methods
Internet e-learning
space
Teachers
E-Learning Model
Video
Conference
Video
Conference
lectures
International universities ARL
Individuals
Figure. 7: the complete elearning model for the UoMust with the activities details
This theoretical model was followed with empirical study using a questionnaire and mail
interviews as data collection techniques. The questionnaire data have been collected from
350 academic staff member in UoMust and have targeted issues regarding the educational
and technology domain. The mail interviews where conducted with two teachers and
addressed all domains, but the technological domain was addressed more from an attitude
and requirements perspective. This approach was needed because none of the interviewed
teachers have had previous experience with an e-learning system. (Birch & Burnett, 2009)
It is not only about delivering the courses through the web; it is about managing the whole
learning process including students’ registration and progress reports. The methodology
makes use of various technologies to enhance or transform the learning and teaching
process, achieving real educational value, and reaching a larger, more diverse learner
population with minimal expenditure. (Bowles, 2005)
Learning Management Systems enable an organization to effectively implement enterprise
learning. With a Learning Management System, or LMS, training and e-learning are
managed by the LMS software allowing users and administrators alike to easily access
courses and reports.
4-The Instrument & Statistical Procedure
The data was collected by two preliminary questionnaires after examine a group of previous
studies and surveyed related literature to the research subject. The questionnaires divided in
to two parts, the first is the general and personal questions and the second which is included
the statement to collect the data required.
All the statements was releated to the technological needs to the e-learning in Iraq higher
education sector and UoMust. The questionnaires Validity have been achieved in two ways
(Mohammad, 2008).
4-1. Apparent and Descriminant Validity :
To do this type , the questionnaires were submitted to 6 of professors , 2 from USM , 4 from
Iraq from different universities in Baghdad. And are majors in the field of IT, measurements
and evaluation , educational technologies , management and most of them are decision
makers. They give me their opinions about the clearness of the statements , the relevance of
each item to its topics and the research. Therefore In the light of the judgments ,remarks,
notices , and comments , some statements were deleted and some were re-worded and
others were added.
For the descriminant validiy this was achieved by applying questionnaires to pilot group of
academic staff members .The highest and the lowest of the means of 25 % of the responses
were collected in order to find out if there were any statistically significant differences, and ttest used to examine the differences between the means .and there was a difference of 0.05
between the means which it highly assures that the developed questionnaires was valid for
the study.
4-2.The questionnaires Reliability
It was checked by chose randomly group of 20 faculty member and their names were written
on the questionnaire after tell them the purpose of the writing names and after three weeks
the same instrument was applied on them. The correlating factor between the total score of
the survey sample in the first and the second applications were calculated and the
correlation coefficient was 90 % which indicated a high correlation.
4-3. Sample & Population
The target population for the first preliminary questionnaire consisted of all the faculty
academic staff members in the 12 colleges of the university of Mustansiriyah (The total
number (N) =3200 last statistic number in May 2010 ) , (more than 670 of them holding
Professor degree) who are employed by the university for the academic year 2010, while the
sample that we try to use was (345) (about 10 %) , but the returned questionnaire was only
(287) with complete answers formed (9 %). For the second preliminary questionnaire we
targeted a (10%) of the total number from have ICT skills and it was survey for the elearning and ICT skills was through a survey questionnaire from 35 statemant related. it was
distributed between 250 of UoMust senior academic staff but the complete answers come
only from 160 , and they are 112 Ass.Professor all holding PhD degrees (80 female and 32
male) and 48 Professor (30 male and 18 female) and all are above 15 years of the public
service in the Iraqi higher education sector but the are now in the UoMust senior academic
staff.
4-4. Likert Scale
All these statement were placed into Likert scale : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 , Agree(A) 5
,Neutral(N) 4 ,DisAgree(DA) 3 ,Strongly DisAgree(SDA) 2 ,Don’t Know(DK) 1.(Khater, 2008)
4-5. Statistical Procedure
All the questions answers and the data that had been taken from the questionnaire were
computerized using the Statically Package for Social Science (SPSS) and enter to the
computer to be statistically calculated to find the (Mean(M)), Standard deviation (St.D),
Percentages (%),Chi Square , T-Test. All the results from the SPSS are used to examine the
technological needs and challenges that could face the e-learning system implementing in
UoMust.
5. Results & Discussion
The analysis of the data shows generally positive attitude among academic staff for an elearning system, also raise some important issues that should be taken into consideration
while implementing e-learning system. The results answer the questions :
5-1. What is the real situation of the ICT in higher education sector & universities?
We can not give a clear judgment here but in the other hand and for the human resources
we can said it is widely known that people of Iraq are the most well educated in the zone, and
they are the civilization creators but the problem that they always sink in wars and fighting’s.
Most of the closed countries to Iraq progressed in the ICT fields and if you search after the
people and experts working in that for sure you will find a lot of immigrated Iraqis especially in
universities and research centers.
For the technology Iraq is a completely wide open area and a lot of up to date technologies
like computers , servers , satellites , ..etc enter Iraq but the problems is still missing the
infrastructures for using these technologies. And we can summarize the subject as man buy
a Ferrari car and he is good driver but not for Ferrari and he parked this car because he is
waiting to find a street to drive his car. The result shows that ((there is no networks at all in
UoMust , no digital library , weakness in the numbers of computers and in great need to be
increased (( only 30 PC work in the main computer center in UoMust HQ (4-5-2010) ,no
special network for UoMust staff or students, no main network between Iraqi universities , no
wireless networks inside university campus , weakness in the numbers of internet
connections that students can used it , ..etc)).The results are shown in the table .1 below.
Table.1 : Some of preliminary questionnaire results related to 5.1
Statements
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of ICT technical
staff
The technical staff are well trained
They can achieved all the responsibilities they ask to hold it
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs and
internet connections in all of the Iraqi universities , and
there is no leakage in this field
There are a good numbers of computers in the
administrative offices
Each staff have its own computer for his daily work and it is
connected to the main university network
All the Iraqi universities have it own computer network
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one higher
education network
All the Iraqi universities have its own wireless network and
it is with a good bandwidth that cover all needs inside these
universities campuses
SA
21
A
50
N
97
DA
28
SDA
3
DK
88
mean
3.28
%
1.691
42
40
13
28
60
26
86
65
28
25
48
24
21
22
190
85
46
6
3.26
3.67
2.71
1.789
1.626
1.238
8
18
19
21
34
187
1.85
1.409
4
4
16
48
201
14
2.32
0.826
0
0
0
0
52
45
128
136
63
102
44
4
2.65
2.77
0.947
0.720
0
0
47
152
85
3
2.84
0.692
All the students are allowed to use the wireless network
inside these universities from their private laptops
There are a good numbers of internet cafes and
connections to cover the needs of the students and
university staff
There are a good computers maintenance centers inside
each universities
There is a good electronic library and virtual library inside
each school and department instead of main big library
supplied with all ICT needs from A to Z.
All the student affairs and academic achievements works
are atomized from A to Z by using ICT.
All the academic universities staff science works like
researches, projects are likely to be done with ICT.
All the universities are atomized by ICT
0
0
11
137
136
3
2.54
0.588
22
45
19
18
181
2
2.96
1.430
25
36
89
10
73
54
3.19
1.604
0
20
78
21
166
2
2.81
1.052
0
0
17
126
136
8
2.52
0.651
35
175
12
13
30
22
4.36
1.456
7
13
129
19
116
3
3.18
1.124
5-2. Are the higher education sector & universities in Iraq ready to accept the elearning?
Till now, we can not say Iraqi higher education sector can accept the complete e-learning
systems because of the bad or missing ICT and networks infrastructures and
communications and the old traditional ways of management especially in the governmental
bodies ( till now Iraqi people without a union statical number or ID).
E-learning is not some A/V information’s in computer screens ….etc it is a complete
education digitized system and to implement it they need to rebuild universities standards
before any forward step towards e-learning systems. There is a strong believe that e-learning
are similar to distance education which is not allowed or certified in Iraq till now ( some of
the key players in higher education ministry , University Presidents , Deans and Directors do
not understand principles and application of open and distance education). and e-;earning
for them is not more than some A/V science information’s, but they can accept it as a
supporting tool to the traditional face to face learning styles that is used widely in Iraqi higher
education sector which can enhanced also the learning process in the universities. The result
shows there is a real need to increase governmental budgets to universities, no instructional
media and educational technologies offered till now, universities standards must be changed
according to the international universities standards, and others shown in the table .2 below.
Table.2 : Some of preliminary questionnaire results related to 5.2
Statements
The universities budgets are enough to develop the Iraqi
universities.
All the classic instructional medias are offered to the
lectures in the class rooms
All the update technology are offer also to the lecturers in
the class rooms like computers , data show , and all other
multi media instruments
It very important to stop any kind of illegal dealing with
software for the using of the ICT
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce the law
that protect the authors from stealing their offers
especially in ICT
All the Iraqi universities standards are similar to those on
the international universities standards especially those
related to the academic affairs
All the educational foundation in Iraq has the capability to
accept the modern and advanced educational technology
and have all the requirements that needed.
It is better to use the English language as dialogue
language in any using of educational technologies in the
learning process especially in the e-learning process.
The first step for any using of educational technology in
the Iraqi universities is to supply all the class rooms with
all the updated computers, data show, OHP, TV and
complete audio system. And train the lecturers and push
them to use it.
It is very important to push the universities academic staff
to use the educational technologies in the learning
SA
43
A
66
N
17
DA
53
SDA
20
DK
88
mean
3.28
%
1.885
80
180
2
9
13
3
5.03
0.994
3
14
69
97
102
2
3.00
0.957
22
29
138
56
8
34
3.64
1.289
251
7
13
0
0
16
5.60
1.203
29
90
44
32
82
10
3.٧٢
1.٤٨٩
14
21
16
27
192
17
٢٫٥٦
1.٢٢٧
35
38
32
68
111
3
3.33
1.436
215
40
19
8
2
3
5.56
0.917
217
23
26
6
15
0
5.46
1.089
process.
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in all of the
Iraqi universities
It is better to establish academic centers for educational
technologies
194
18
53
6
7
9
5.25
1.268
194
18
53
6
7
9
5.25
1.268
5-3. What are the directions towards e-learning in Iraq?
All the universities in Iraq searching after the e-learning now days, the ministry and the
minister call for that but they do not adopt it till now officially under an a law, they believe it is
the way for the future and most of the professors and HQ believe on it and the minister just
announced (( Much more efforts need to be made by professors in capturing at least 20 % of
the complete physical lecture experience and making it available to students through the
Internet )). There are a strong believe that e-learning are the shortest way to develop Iraqi
higher education and universities. In out target UoMust they have established a small elearning center and in truth it is very good step even it is very small center and they connect
it institutionally to the main university computer center and as a gift from South Korean
government they gain a video conference system and they try to use it .This small step show
us very clearly that there are a real start and move towards e-learning. Also the university
starts very hardly to train its academic staff on a lot of ICT information’s and to be a
university academic staff member now you have to have basic skills in ICT. USM will help
the UoMust in this step as future step also and will use the video conference to connect
UoMust and give them lectures and transfer experience through reviewing university plans to
move towards e-learning and monitor our implementing e-learning model. The result shown
in the table .3 below .
Table.3 : Some of preliminary questionnaire results related to 5.3
Statements
I believe that E-Learning is the future of the learning
process
I believe that E-learning is a new thing and it is the best if I
adopt a wait and see the attitude
I believe that E-learning should be adopted by the ministry
of higher education and the universities head quarters and
we should work towards making it success.
The universities have encourage the lecturers and tutors to
incorporate technology into instruction
I believe that all colleagues in the university are ready for
E-Learning deployment
I believe it is very important to send the professors and
lecturers to outside Iraq universities to see the e-learning
and other technology and how they used it
Universities have to encourage their professors to do
researches in and about e-learning in Iraq
It is best to use one system for student’s registration in the
Iraqi universities.
SA
197
A
4
N
19
DA
22
SDA
39
DK
6
mean
4.97
%
1.620
197
4
19
22
39
6
4.97
1.620
67
63
41
34
77
5
3.97
1.581
67
63
41
34
77
5
3.97
1.584
208
50
8
3
10
8
5.45
1.606
287
0
0
0
0
0
6.00
-
45
93
16
50
78
5
3.86
1.536
191
9
17
26
40
4
4.95
1.603
5-4. Do we need to ask help from the outside Iraq world to establish e-learning?
It is better for UoMust to start not from zero point but to take into the consideration the other
countries and universities experience to reduce the way to the e-learning system. A complete
country with all new and un experienced head quarters and management’s staff with out
enough experience will not be able to do it without external family world help. Any planner will
said it is for sure you have to ask the most experienced people to help us. The results shows
highly request for asking help from the universities whom progressed very well in using elearning and they do not think that UoMust can achieved that without international
universities or international organizations like UN or World Bank Help especially if we take
into consideration the weakness of the private sector and other Iraqi universities experience .
The result shown in the table .4 below .
Table.4 : Some of preliminary questionnaire results related to 5.4
Statements
It is better to link the Iraqi universities to an international elearning network till establish a domestic e-learning
network in Iraq for the higher education sector.
It is important to design the universities websites similar to
the international universities and especially in the using of
e-learning and e-gates.
It is very difficult to try to install e-learning system without
international help from outside Iraq
It is very important to import the experience from the
international universities and try not to start from zero point
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the Iraqi
Higher Education project for establishing e-learning
network
The Malaysia e-learning experiments are one of the best in
all of the world in this field
USM e-learning standards are best in all of Malaysia
There are a wide area of freedom in Iraq and there is no
limit against any kind culture or science building
There are many Providers of e-learning materials in Iraq
SA
187
A
30
N
18
DA
4
SDA
45
DK
3
mean
5.04
%
1.534
179
37
9
33
24
5
5.04
1.467
46
69
14
73
79
6
3.69
1.525
287
0
0
0
0
0
6.00
-
213
١١
١٥
3
٣٢
١٣
5.15
1.598
21
٦
٢٥
٤٦
11
178
2.06
1.578
24
287
28
0
12
0
0
0
0
0
223
0
1.93
6.00
1.779
-
0
0
7
140
17
123
2.10
1.002
5-5. Is the academic staff ready to use e-learning in UoMust
The academic staff ICT skills in most of the Iraqi universities is not at the required level that
needed to implement and execute e-learning system with a complete education system such
that we propsed for the university. A very low level at the e-learning software level and for
sure after being away from the civilized world for more than 22 long years, you need to re
adjust your self if you want to be part of the globalize world. This adjustment will come from
the capacity building for the human resources. The result shown in the table .5 below.
Table.5 : Some of preliminary survey results for the e-learning and ICT skills related to
5.5
Statement
I think the best way is to use the CAL with the face to face traditional learning
methods at the beginning
I have a lot of information about e-learning networks
I know how to use all the MS Office
I know how to use MS Word
I know how to use MS PowerPoint
I know how to use MS Excel and MS Access
I know how to use Moodle software
I know how to use LAMS software
I know how to use JUSUR software
I have a connected in computer my office in university
I will use the educational technologies if it is offered in the class rooms
A lot of training ICT courses are offered for the academic staff
I use ICT to organize and manage my work
I use ICT to prepare lessons
I use ICT to find digital learning resources
I use ICT to design and produce my own digital learning resources
I use ICT to communicate with colleagues
I use ICT to communicate with your pupils
I use ICT to communicate with school management and educ. administrations
I feel confident with ICT and would like to use it more effectively
I read all the up to date researches in e-learning
I follow all the up to date technologies in e-learning like e-learning2 and Mlearning…etc.
Mean
5.34
Percentage%
89% v.good
2.65
3.38
5.58
4.83
3.16
3.06
3.06
3.06
3.25
5.53
3.49
4.88
4.8
5.82
4.35
5.35
5.35
3.14
6
3.55
3.81
44% Poor
56.3% Poor
93% excel.
80.6% v.good
52.7% Poor
50.9% Poor
50.9% Poor
51% Poor
54.1% Poor
92.1% excel.
58.2% Poor
81.4% v.good
80% v.good
97% excel.
72.5% Med.
89.1% v.good
89.1% v.good
52.3% Poor
100% excel.
59.2% Poor
63.6% Med.
6. Conclusion
Many educational institutions especially in the third world countries lack the necessary
resources to build e-learning systems to either offer complete courses online or supplement
classroom courses. In Iraq this is the case where most of the universities budgets goes for
wages and salaries now days(Harb, 2008) and there is a huge lack about the ICT
information and its resources. Iraq is very rich country but the wars and UN sanctions
destroyed it economic completely and reform it need years and years.
UoMust start the first steps towards using the educational technologies to enhance the
learning in its colleges and centers. They start train a lot of its staff on ICDL and IC3 and the
trained staff achieved excellent results. The HQ of UoMust installs the complete video
conferencing system and start to use it. The university starts from beginning of 2009 to
supply all the class rooms with computers, laptops and data shows. These indicators show
us very clearly that UoMust in the correct way to computerize its learning process. We were
in direct contact with previous university president and he was following our steps but the
changing in the HQ delay our steps now days.
Even though a good number of the Iraqi universities and colleges have already started
moving towards the application of e-learning in its beginning styles which are very good step
towards the real e-learning using. Most of them are mainly using AV facilities in the learning
face to face traditional methods to support their students. The last ministerial decision in Iraq
is to record at least 20% of their lectures and documented it in the ministry virtual library was
a good start and push to universities to start.
In general we have added to our e-learning activities as one of the learning management
system for three main reasons and they are :
1-JUSUR LMS is contains four main functionalities that required in UoMust and they are:
- Registration: registering students in the portal.
- Schedule: Planning the course and the way of teaching it.
- Delivery: Making the course available for users.
- Evaluation: testing students through quizzes and examinations and grading them , and
that what exactly the UoMust needed in the beginning.
2- Arabic language interface which is highly needed especially in the humanities studies
where the study language is still in Arabic in the four of the university colleges at least.
3-JUSUR software is based on METEOR-OUM’s, the Malaysian Open University popular
LMS which are widely used in more than 14 public university in Malaysia and hold the same
e-learning Characteristics in the USM-Distance Education.
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usa
April - 2011
2011
Apr. 2011, Volume 8, No.4 (Serial No.77,ISSN1548-6613,USA
Journal
Journal of
USUS-China Education Review
NATIONAL EE-LEARNING STRATEGY
TO ENHANCED AND ENRICHED
THE IRAQI UNIVERSITIES
National E-Learning Strategy to Enhanced and Enriched the Iraqi
Universities
Amer Saleem Flayyeh Elameer, Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract: Nowadays, the higher education (HE) sector of Iraq has suffered severe disruption
and mass destruction due to the war and in general only 10% of its remaining operational sectors
are in the acceptable conditions. This research is an attempt to plan a proposed strategy (PS) for
the Iraqi higher education sector that can be executed easily in Iraq as part of the rebuilding of
the country and critical sectors, especially education. Before designing the PS, a specially
formulated questionnaire using Six-point Likert scale was distributed to 350 of Iraqi professors
and universities academic staff; the results that was obtained showed that the problems faced in
establishing such an e-learning network in the higher education sector included missing
infrastructure, well trained staff, outside world help and the relevant budgets. A comprehensive elearning strategy has been designed with models that were found through discovering the using
of e-learning in one of the pioneers of distance education universities in Asia; the Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) which has a complete e-learning system with a state of the art video
conferencing delivery system and an electronic portal. This was complemented by the Badrul
Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning model. The educational activities were taken
as a yardstick in the design of e-learning systems and educational activities for Iraq. The PS
plays a major role in fixing an e-learning policy to the government and the ministry of higher
education in Iraq.
Keywords: Higher Education , e-learning, Infrastructure, e-learning Model, Education
Management, Education Policy
1. Introduction
Iraq is located at the heart of the world in the Middle East and bordered by Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia from the south, Iran from the west, Turkey from the north, and Syria, Jordan from the
west. The Tigris and Euphrates are the biggest two rivers in Iraq. The last updated population in
2005 was 24,011,816, with an annual growth rate (2002 est.) of 2.82%. Education is compulsory
at the primary education level (age 6 to age 12 and through 6 years), the secondary education
level take 6 years before starting the tertiary level. Life expectancy in Iraq is 67 years.
1.1. Iraqi Higher Education
The higher education has a great effect on the society through policy-making, funding, and
planning. Iraq’s universities flourished in the 1960s and 1970s and its free schooling system (Iraqi
government invested huge amounts of fund in education in the provision of free education from
the primary level up to the PhD) also it was long seen as a model of Arab education, fostering the
strongest and most liberal educational system in the region‘ Higher education used to be one of
the pillars that modern Iraqi society was based on, ever since the founding of the modern Iraqi
country in 1921’ (Paanakker 2009). The UN sanctions and total embargo imposed on the country
in response to that have gradually isolated and impoverished the higher education sector and has
abolished much of its intellectual dynamism and independency (Harb 2008:1)
Iraq after 1991 and the second gulf war in 1991, the Kurds in the north of Iraq have their own
federal governorates under the name of Kurdistan Region or Iraqi Kurdistan and this region is
officially governed by Kurdistan Regional Government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan) . This situation is continuous after 2003 also.This
Iraq enjoyed a long and proud tradition of distinguished universities, but the sequence of wars
and UN economic sanctions in years (1991-2003) have severely damaged all the Iraqi higher
education system and now days in Iraq we have Iraq’s current higher education system ( all Iraq
Arabic governorates in the Federal Government without the 3 Kurds governorates) comprises of
19 universities ( philosophy of the government is same from during the last 20 years and it is the
policy of establishing a university in each governorate responded to both the demands of equity
and the growing demand for higher education thus 3 new universities were founded after 2003), 2
Commissions for: 1-Medical Specialization and 2- Computer and Information, and the last are the
Foundation of Technical Education which have 27 Technical institutes and 13 Technical colleges
under the management of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR)
which is located in Baghdad and as shown in the figure.1. These universities and structures
included more than 200 colleges, 800 departments and 28 research centers. The Iraqi
Commission for Computers and Informatics offers specialized course for postgraduates in ICT.
There are in addition 15 private colleges offering programs in computer sciences, business
administration, economics and management (Harb 2008).
(( in Our study we focus only about the Federal Iraqi Area which is all era of the Iraq without
Kurdistan Region because they are an other case and do not suffer from what the people of Iraq
suffer under the wars and UN economic sanctions)).
1.2 Iraqi Higher Education after 2003
After the devastation of most of the Iraq facilities and infrastructures following the United Nations
Security Council economic sanctions (from 1991 to 2004) and the last war (Mar-Apr 2003), the
whole of the country’s infrastructures was affected and damaged ( On March-April 2003 started
the war on Iraq and delivered nearly (1750) tons equivalent to 400000 a nuclear bomb similar to
the bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japanese and the equivalent of 5.5 times as much as the
quantity, which was thrown in 1991 in the first Gulf war on Iraq ); http://www.middle-eastonline.com/iraq/?id=93739 , the higher education sector, directly or indirectly, disrupted the
primary, secondary and higher education activities.
After April 2003, the demand for all types of higher education (Bachelors, Masters, and PhD) in
Iraq has increased as a result of the social development process then after, particularly due to
the increase in family’s incomes and the re-growth of the Iraqi economy. However, there were
many sectors that suffered technical, secure, violence, political and financial problems, which
delayed the construction, rebuilding, rehabilitation, capacity building and provision of the
necessary requirements and supplies (Paanakker 2009).
The traditional approach of managing the higher education sector has been rendered useless in
the need to rebuild the educational environment with high academic standards. E-learning was
identified as a student centered approach to teaching and learning and requires a conducive and
good ICT infrastructure, communication technologies to build a rich learning environment.
Figure .1 : Iraq higher education map and the location of the universities
1.3.Main Challenges to Iraqi Academics since 2003
Hester Luna Paanakker stated in her thesis “Higher Education in Iraq under Attack”
(Paanakker 2009) that :
1-Higher education in Iraq decrease of professionalism (71%).
2-Universities academics Take-over by political parties and militias (63%).
3-Universities educational infrastructure Brain drain of highly-qualified academics Low (38%).
4-Iraqi degradation of higher education (75%).
5-Low security due to the specific targeting of academics(63%).
6-Sectarian or politicized higher education(46%).
7- The de-Ba’athification or unemployment (29%).
8-One cannot use any kind of educational technologies in all education sectors because there is
no real communication infrastructure and most of the Iraqi used wireless networks and mobiles to
communicate and the government does not reinstall the cabling systems and do not fund for its
repair even though they are old systems and networks.
9-Computers and its accessories have been around since 2003 and are now out-dated.
10-Iraq higher education sector suffer like all other sectors from the same problems that face all
Iraqi people and sectors and the real needs is to find whom plan and can execute big projects.
11-Most of the Iraqi HQ systems are lacking in experienced personnel even in the higher
educational sector.
12-The overall investments dedicated to the Iraq education sector in 2005-2008 reached
1723.60 billion dinars (1.39 billion dollars) and a budget of 832.41 billion dinars (0.67 billion
dollars) for higher education is very low and not enough (Bank 2009).
1.4.How to enhanced and enriched the Iraqi Universities
The knowledge revolution at the end of the twentieth century, and above all in the field of
information technology, has brought society to the threshold of a new age and there are exists a
triadic relationship among knowledge, development, and freedom.(MBRF and UNDP 2009)
Enhancing higher education in Iraq will give the opportunity to reduce the violence and it is a
major part from the rebuilding this country towards the progress and better future but leaders
their does not know that or pay the required attention to that and a lot of examples in the world
we can stated.
The Iraqi academics have proven from the period 1980-2003 that they are truly hard workers and
have the capability to work under very difficult conditions, but they are unable to address the
forthcoming probable problems as they are lacking in tools and experience to provide a forwardpush to higher education.
The utilization of educational technologies is identified as a solution to enhance higher education
in Iraq. It has been proven that the systematic and planned use of educational technology will
have a great influence to effectively provide the impetus in the infrastructure of the university to
provide e-learning.
E-Learning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan viewed , “an innovative approach for
delivering well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to
anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilizing the attributes and resources of various digital
technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and distributed learning
environment” .
In 2008, in Arab Middle east countries and Iraq one of them, it has been recorded levels of
development in technological performance exceeding those observed in all other regions of the
world but the problem its used randomly without planning or achieving goals from this using or
performance especially in education.
1.5.E-Learning Constraints
The main Constraints that facing establishing e-learning projects in Iraq are :
1.Financial Constraints : At the end of April 2003 Iraq was only ruins of destroyed buildings
and most of government departments and bodies have been stolen completely and burnt like the
museums, universities, libraries, electric, factory’s, even oil industry and refineries. Iraq is known
as the country of oil and agriculture, and in general Iraq depends in its economy on oil imports
only because the agricultural sufficiency is not in full of the Iraqi people requirements.
After the return of Iraq to the international community, after years of long blockade on the Iraqi
people bloody wars fought by the old regime in Iraq, unfortunately this return was not easy and
not welcomed because this return was return with huge and heavy debts which made the return
of the Iraqi economy and its growth restricted and definite and too slow.
The reconstruction of higher education requires substantial big money amounts, in particular, and
most universities depend on the governmental financial sources, but the government budget is
not enough now and the ministry with its heavy cover over universities restrict heavy enumerates
all cultural activities and scientific and trade under its auspices direct under the title fight against
corruption and integrity and impede universities to find other resources to finance its activities
and the development of its facilities.
For that most of the reconstruction operations in this sector was only the reconstruction of
buildings and processing furniture , without focus on ICT and other scientific matters such as
laboratories and organs of modern computers and server , books and reference sources…..etc.
The Iraqi universities are still looking into who can save them, despite the passage of more than
seven years. The international organization and the UN and others NGOs estimated that Iraq
need for a 300 billion U$ for a complete reconstruction and rebuilding this country again and the
United states have spend till now about 53 billion U$ alone.http://www.sigir.mil/files/audits/10-011.pdf ,and
http://www.coe-dmha.org/HARIraq.cfm .
2.Ethical & Legal Constraints : Iraq was the country of the one ruling party one and the source
of legislation is one person, suddenly after 2003 everything changed and we find that Iraq has
become a federal country multi-parties, races, and languages, a step is fully valid and correct, but
not by the way in which carried out in Iraq. Now there are many parts of the legislation and many
of the legal authorities and all have the capability of the issuance of laws,( The federal Court of
Iraq , the prime Minister , The house of Parliament…etc) although they say that the House of
Parliament is the source of legislation alone but this is not true. Changing the laws and
regulations of a country with more than 86 years of history in full is not a simple operation and it
needs as expected to long years to reach legal stability.
In 2008 they issue a new law for the academics service and they do not made any difference
between the academic degrees in the salaries (Professor , Ass.Professor . lecturer) in the new
law. Also till now the lack of academic freedom has come repeatedly to the fore and it has been
hinted at it is a phenomenon of great importance. However, academic freedom deserves some
specific attention and it need for issuing a specific law for it . As well as, for example, the number
of the control & finance monitor bodies operating in Iraq is more than five governmental
organizations clear overlap between its works, however, Iraq under UN statistics among the
ranks of the states most corrupt.
3. Technological Constraints : Iraq, after April 2003 are without any infrastructures in any area
of the services in general and in the areas of information and communication, in particular,
because of the thousands of bombs dropped on Iraq , which destroy all the Iraq infrastructures
and the rest, the sabotage that followed the war terminate it completely.
Although as part of rebuilding this country thousands of computers and a lot of others types of
technologies were introduced to Iraq from after 2003, but did not to operated in the correct format
or way and no investing its advantages for lack of necessary infrastructures.
Universities are still experiencing a shortage of the numbers and types of computers, servers ,
peripherals, lacking the existence of networks of computers in every Iraqi universities even at the
level of scientific departments , also there is no central higher education network linking
universities among themselves or linking universities in the ministry.
Poor , weak and bad providing of Internet service in Iraq in spite of prevalence and there is only
a name for government company to internet service without any real action. Although the Internet
had arrived to all the Iraqi houses by the private sector that provide shared service within 30 U$
monthly. We can the said that Internet culture increased very largely as the number of mobile
phone users in Iraq jump to more than 20 million users at a rate of about 70% of the Iraq
population and number of three companies work in that but with second generation. Those
companies, did not support the communication sector or education sector , for example, a mobile
company called Zain work in Bahrain and Iraq ,they establish Zain e-learning center in university
of Bahrain while it did not do anything in Iraq, despite the fact that the size of their work in Iraq is
more than twice their work in Iraq. Ministry of Communications also suffered from various
problems.
4. Socio-Culture Constraints : Educational institutions in Iraq are understandably greatly
influenced by the political, social and cultural environment in which they are situated and play a
large role both in passively undergoing or reflecting these conditions and in actively shaping
them, either positively or negatively.
The functioning of educational institutions is a reflection of these larger societal conditions.
Understandably, conflict has a huge impact on the way the system is run and on how well it is
able to keep functioning. There are several ways in which conflict is detrimental to education.
It disrupts the social structure of society, leading to the forced displacement or even death of
teachers and pupils/students, or to losses within families that force pupils/students to contribute
to the household or other income generating activities rather than attending school (Novelli and
Lopes Cardozo 2008:478). A decreased security situation makes it difficult to reach school safely,
or to sit through class safely (Buckland 2006, Wright 2006)
Conflict undermines this foundation and also contributes to the conditions that perpetuate
violence.” (UNDP 2005:159)
5. Human Resource Constraints : Iraq have a great wealth of humans and great experience
people, academics, engineers ,….etc but, unfortunately the circumstances in which passed on
Iraq, with the security deterioration and missing that has occurred and the continuation of acts of
violence, bombings and displacement killing for the identity paid a lot of recent of those great
brains to leave Iraq and push them for migration to other countries in search of a better life and
stability without the desire to return to Iraq once again. The rest of them were in with the
circumstances of the blockade and discontinuation of the world therefore capabilities needs to be
develop and capacity building for them are an urgent need according to studied plans and
international organizations such as the United Nations , USAID , EC and other international
organizations whom involved in the reconstruction of Iraq's capabilities. A lot of capacity building
programs executed but the results so far after more than seven long years is still far away and far
from each ambitious.
6. Institutional Constraints : The lack of regulations and lack of proper planning has become
the hallmark now in Iraq because most of the government departments and bodies in Iraq in
structured for wok within old standards and most of them still work with the laws of very old up to
1940s of the last century and even before when announced the formation of the Iraqi Kingdom in
1921. These governmental structures must be restructured again with the institutions concepts ,
and work with technologies and by management information system (MIS) in order to keep pace
with the times and the new century and developments . Most of the politician in Iraq talk about
building Iraq with institutions concept but nothing take place or occur in the ground.
This concept “ Country of Institutions “ is a new term fully on the Iraqis who adopted, without the
knowledge of the meaning of these terms that added to Iraqi recently, especially for
administrative and managerial employers. , and now in Iraq most of the universities missing the
complete
independency
(MHESR
speech
on
Monday,
June
14,
2010)
(http://radionawa.com/ar/NewsDetailN.aspx?id=18360&LinkID=158) . A lot of the leaders in Iraq
is obliged to leave their managerial positions under the designation of favoritism or loyalty to the
former regime, uprooting Baath (de-Ba’athification process ) or accountability and justice
laws , and as a result of this situation the government start unloading or brought new staff without
any experience and handing them over to continue the public works , and most of them do not
handle even the minimum requirements for these positions.
7.Planning Constraints: Iraq in real shortage for planner s and designers whom can made a
road maps for executing projects with the new international standards. Planning for projects in
wars conditions need for highly experienced expertise whom know the conditions very well not
outside Iraq. One of the big mistakes of the Iraqi that they relay on the UN & WB expertise to plan
and design for them and most of them does not visit Iraq before. Planning for e-learning projects
in Iraq is not a case of bring computers and servers in Iraq this year , but it is a long term plan
that need a road map to do it that start with policy reform and development , universities
developments and changing its old standards , install a real infrastructures and reform or upgrade
that on the ground and at the last plan a complete plan for capacity building as stated in figure. 2
Figure.2:Road map for e-learning
Figure.3: E-learning Constarints in Iraq
2. The statement of purpose
During his speech in the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Prof. Datuk Dr. Md. Zabid Hj. Abdul
Rashid (2007) of the Universiti Tun Abdul Razak Malaysia said that ICT provides technological
modes of learning and vehicles for borderless education and training . Intensify e-learning
as complimentary mode of learning. Establishing an e-learning system in the Iraqi higher
education sector is the focus of the research, the need for the information about e-learning
includes the science information about the e-learning strategies, theories , models , systems ,
software engineering, computer networking, website development, CBT development , e-learning
& education networking, building capacity and the management of e-learning. The goal of the
research is to propose an national e-learning strategy for Iraq to enhanced and enriched the Iraqi
universities.
2.1 The e-learning model
An e-Learning strategic approach has been proposed to leapfrog and address the educational
needs and challenges in the present time. A model of the combination of Badrul Huda Khan
octagonal eight dimensions e-learning model and sixty sub-components’ frame work (Khan 2004;
Khan 2005; Khan 2006) with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia
(USM) e-learning system, which have a complete e-learning system with a state of the art video
conferencing delivery system and an electronic portal designed by Moodle software, was proposed
after devlopment for the higher education sector. The model was completely accepted by Iraqi
academic staff to stimulate the Iraqi educational society in executing their academic duties.
3. Methodology
The ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) was utilized
in the study. A specially formulated questionnaire was designed and distributed between a group
of Iraqi university staff to investigate the direction towards the e-learning, management &
institutional problems which are the basic elements of the proposed strategy and that could face
the implementing e-learning projects , the benefits that will be gained to the higher education
sector, and the technology problems. The research framework is given in Figure 2. Attention was
accorded to the Malaysian national e-learning strategy which proved to be a successful strategy
among other countries from middle-east or Islamic developing countries.
National ee-learning Center
IHE ee-learning Model
Figure 4: The proposed e-learning model for IHE
Figure 5 : The research framework
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the
research work, and according to ( Marczyk et al. 2005) “in most types of research studies, the
process of data analysis involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the data for analysis, (2)
analyzing the data, and (3) interpreting the data”. A survey technique was used to collect the data
and prepare it for the analyzing through a questionnaire of 44 statements for the e-learning and
ICT skills in the UoMust. Preparation of the data for analysis was collected from the
questionnaire which was divided into two parts, the first was the general and personal information
the second included the targeted questions that as divided into 5 categories of management,
institutional, technology, human resources and general.
The questionnaire was distributed to 350 academicians from the Iraqi academics staff, but the
completed feedback were received from only 287 respondents comprising of 131 male and 156
female, 189 PhD degree holders and 98 Master degree holders; 35 of them are professor, 95
assistant professor, 111 lecturers and 46 assistant lecturer and only 25 of them are without
enough skills in using computers. The other group’s general information is shown in the Tables
1, 2 and 3.
5.Statistical Procedure
All the statements and feedback were analysed and computerised using the statical package for
social science (SPSS) to obtain the mean (M), standard deviation (St.D), percentages (%). A
Likert scale of six points was used (Gelin 2003) , and they are: strongly agree (SA)-6, agree (A)5, neutral (N)-4 ,disagree (DA)-3, strongly disagree (SDA)-2, don’t know-(DK)-1 (Mohammad
2008; Kaghed and Dezaye 2009).
6. Results & Discussion
Table 4 shows the questionnaire statements and the mean results of the study. The results
showed that there was a big motivation towards the e-learning from the university academic staff
and also showed that there was a big fear from the technological aspects (mean =3.121)
because there are no infrastructure or networks that can be used in e-learning activities. The
result showed that the universities are still uphold old practices and need to be changed quickly.
The universities budgets were not enough to implement the e-learning projects; the classrooms
were still old and are not provided with any educational technologies, with face to face being the
prominent way of teaching. It also showed that the management needed to use up to date
technologies and ICT in universities .The ministry of higher education need to pay more attention
to establish computers networks between Iraqi universities and the HQ of the ministry and
ministry directorates .The universities have inadequate Internet and most of them have a web
sites but these sites are static and not interactive sites and are not useful for any educational
activity. There a huge need for a complete building capacity plan that can cover all technological
needs. There is a strong believe that connecting Iraqi universities to the international world
universities is the best for implementing e-learning projects.
Table 4: Questionnaire statements and the mean results
Statement
Establishing e-learning networks in the Iraqi universities
can develop these universities
Using e-learning can develop the higher education
sector in Iraq
e-learning can solve the problem of brain drain
establishing the e-learning networks can support the
universities professors in their duties
The universities can accept using e-learning as a tool to
developing.
The Iraqi higher education regulations is good now to
establish e-learning networks and start using it in the
education process.
It is useful for the higher education sector in Iraq, to
establish and start distance education studies.
SA
213
A
59
N
10
D
2
SD
0
DK
3
Mean
5.65
St.D
0.74
%
94
230
43
8
2
0
4
5.70
0.76
95
11٠
158
١٤٣
104
14
6
0
12
0
1
20
6
5.05
5.35
1.24
0.99
84
89
175
91
5
11
1
4
5.44
0.91
90
30
42
70
99
42
4
3.66
1.23
61
56
54
64
46
48
19
3.88
1.54
64
Distance education can support the believing in the elearning .
Changing the traditional post graduate studies systems,
and certified the other systems like research programs
and modes is a way to increase the education
effeminacy.
The universities budgets are enough to develop the
Iraqi universities.
All the universities are atomized by ICT
It is better to the universities to establish and install its
own networks by its technical staff than referring to the
outside universities companies
It is better to the universities to find a kind of relationship
with the big names of ICT companies like Microsoft ,
Cisco , ….etc
It very important to stop any kind of un legal dealing with
software for the using of the ICT
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce the law
that protect the authors from stealing their offers
especially in ICT
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs
and internet connections in all of the Iraqi universities ,
and there is no leakage in this field
Each staff have its own computer for his daily work and
it is connected to the main university network
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one higher
education network
All the Iraqi universities have its own wireless network
and it is with a good bandwidth
There is a good electronic library and virtual library
inside each school and department instead of main big
library supplied with all ICT needs
All the student affairs and academic achievements
works are atomized f using ICT
All the academic universities staff science works are
likely to be done with ICT.
All the Iraqi universities work very hard to shrinkage the
gap of the technology with outside global world and they
are doing well
All the Iraqi universities cancel the using of the
traditional wooden boards in the class rooms.
All the universities have a clear strategy for develop
their universities and reduce the gap with the
international universities standards
All the Iraqi universities have a clear and transparency
educational strategy for the next years in the new Iraq.
All the universities have design its instructional
environments according to the international standards.
All the Iraqi higher education institutes are well
structured foundations according to the international
universities standards
It is best to use one system for student’s registration in
the Iraqi universities.
It is better to link the Iraqi universities to an international
e-learning network till establish a domestic e-learning
network in Iraq for the higher education sector.
It is important to design universities websites similar to
international universities and especially in using of elearning and e-gates.
It is very difficult to try to install e-learning system
without international help
The first step for any using of educational technology in
the Iraqi universities is to supply all the class rooms with
updated technologies
It is very important to push the universities academic
staff to use the educational technologies in the learning
process.
I believe that E-Learning is the future of the learning
process
I believe that E-learning should be adopted by the
ministry of higher education and the universities head
quarters and we should work towards making it
success.
٥١
٥٧
٦١
٣١
١٥
٧٢
3.58
1.82
59
١٣٥
١٧
٤٣
٤٥
٤٤
3
4.50
1.59
75
43
66
17
53
20
88
3.28
1.88
54
7
13
13
23
129
25
19
15
116
208
3
3
3.18
2.63
1.12
1.20
53
43
226
15
18
20
1
7
5.47
1.15
91
22
29
138
56
8
34
3.64
1.28
60
251
7
13
0
0
16
5.60
1.20
93
13
26
28
24
190
6
2.71
1.23
45
4
4
16
48
201
14
2.32
0.82
38
0
0
45
136
102
4
2.77
0.72
46
0
0
47
152
85
3
2.84
0.69
47
0
20
78
21
166
2
2.81
1.05
46
0
0
17
126
136
8
2.52
0.65
42
35
175
12
13
30
22
4.36
1.45
72
245
17
3
22
0
0
5.69
0.83
94
79
130
8
3
0
67
4.29
1.89
71
245
17
3
10
10
2
5.64
1.01
94
245
17
3
10
10
2
5.64
1.01
94
25
7
113
53
86
3
3.38
1.21
56
24
23
39
19
143
39
2.77
1.48
46
191
9
17
26
40
4
4.95
1.60
82
187
30
18
4
45
3
5.04
1.53
84
179
37
9
33
24
5
5.04
1.46
84
46
69
14
73
79
6
3.69
1.52
61
215
40
19
8
2
3
5.56
0.91
92
217
23
26
6
15
0
5.46
1.08
91
197
4
19
22
39
6
4.97
1.62
82
67
63
41
34
77
5
3.97
1.58
66
I believe it is very important to send the professors and
lecturers to outside Iraq universities to see the elearning and other technology and how they used it
Universities have to encourage their professors to do
researches in and about e-learning in Iraq
Centers of educational technology must pay more
attention into using of e-learning and monitor the
universities profress in this field
There are many Providers of e-learning materials in Iraq
There are a wide area of freedom in Iraq and there is no
limit against any kind culture or science building
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in all of the
Iraqi universities
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the Iraqi
Higher Education project for establishing e-learning
network
The Malaysia e-learning experiments are one of the
best in all of the world in this field
287
0
0
0
0
0
6
-
1
45
93
16
50
78
5
3.86
1.53
64
225
19
8
12
6
17
5.37
1.40
89
0
287
0
0
7
0
140
0
17
0
123
0
2.1
6
1.00
-
35
1
194
18
53
6
7
9
5.25
1.26
87
213
١١
١٥
3
٣٢
١٣
5.15
1.59
85
21
٦
٢٥
٤٦
11
178
2.06
1.57
34
6.1 Role of the Ministry
The results showed that the onus is on the Ministry to take the first step towards establishing elearning practices in the universities. This is followed by the feedback from the academics that elearning must be adopted by the Ministry. They also believed that e-learning could help develop
the higher education sector in Iraq (Mean = 5.7), and it will provide assistance for the senior
academics and professors in their academic duties (Mean=5.3).
Since the Ministry plays a major role in the higher education sector, they are also encumbered
with establishing networks between the Iraqi universities as well as furnishing university
classrooms with the relevant hard wares and communication systems.
6.2 Role of the Universities
The results showed that the traditional teaching and learning approaches were still prevalent and
any notion of e-learning was not forthcoming. There is also a need to put in place the appropriate
technological needs in the classroom, such as the TV, projectors, computers and an up-to-date
library system.
After six years of freedom, the universities still have an uphill battle to attain international
standing and most universities have budget constraints. At best, most universities have a website
that is only loaded with pictures and a message from the President.
6.3 International Help
Feedback from the respondents indicated that it would be better to link Iraqi universities to
international e-learning networks since there are no e-learning providers in Iraq ( Mean=2.1), and
to create e-learning centers in all of the universities ( Mean=5.2) to be the connecting point to
facilitate for a uniform course delivery. It also shows that a strong believe that UN/World Bank
should help the Iraqi Higher especially with the human capital in terms of a good planner and
project managers .
6.4 Capacity Building
It is a standard requirement for any e-learning projects to include a special ICT training plan for
the universities staff. Results also showed that there is a need to cater for the needs for training
among the academic and the understanding of the ecology of e-learning.
7. Proposed strategy
There are many ways of using the electronic technologies in education , but for Iraq the best is
using the technologies to support or supplement the classical learning methods of face to face
and also integrating online activities to strengthen and enhancing the learning process. ( Abdul
Karim 2004)
From this stand point a strategy designed according to some of the East Asian countries
experience in this field (Masami 2006) especially the countries where their conditions are similar
to the conditions in Iraq such as like Cambodia (Chanthan 2006) or Vietnam, South Korea and
Thailand (Pineda 2007) and Malaysia (Abdul Salam 2006). Mishra (2007) also mentioned that elearning in India is still at an infant stage.
The Strategy Framework has the potential to guide the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq
(MHESR) to:
• Develop A National E-Learning programme.
• Establish National Center of E-Learning
• Analyse Current Regulations of Distance education
• Formulate E-Learning Policies .
• Formulate E-Learning Technical Standards .
• Formulate E-Learning Instructional Standards .
• Formulate E-Learning Disability Standards .
• Develop Accreditation Criteria E-Learning Programs .
• Establish Research Funding Criteria for E-Learning Projects .
• Establish National Digital Library .
• E-Learning Faculty and Staff Training .
The strategy framework of the e-learning in the higher education in Iraq can be focused in three
main thrust areas:
First thrust - is the government where a supporting role would play a major part by partaking
projects by supplying the required funds and policies that can help the full adoption of e-learning,
such as the establishment of an Iraqi commission of e-learning. Regulation and certification of elearning and distance education should also be addressed. Generally it seems that the
government still focused on rebuilding for the face to face traditional methods of learning.
Second thrust - is the Ministry (MHESR) and its role is to emphasise the role and the function of
ICT in higher education as a learning tool and formulate the technical and instructional standards
for it. Establish e-learning network between Iraqi universities, establish a main e-learning center
in similar way to the Iraqi commission of information and computers in each university .
Third thrust - is the implementation area which emphasis’s in the
Technological aspects by strength or install networks for students and academic staff, building
new labs and Internet cafes , supplying the internet to cover all the universities areas and provide
all the classrooms with all update IT supplies like computers , data show and smart boards
(Brandon 2007).
Capacity building and here the responsibility is the sharing between government and ministry, the
required budget for training. Universities must be given priority and the freedom to plan and train
the academic and support staff according to its own need
abolishment of restrictions on ICT uptake and increase the use of technology in university
management, academic affairs and daily works so that they can be more efficient and productive
The proposed strategy flow chart is summarized in Figure 6.
Figure 6: The proposed strategy flow chart
The first phase of the strategy would be to establish a national e-learning programme for the
Republic of Iraq, and this programme will be from the MHEDSR responsibilities. For financial
reasons, the programme must be under the control of the Minister’s cabinet and the technological
support under MHEDSR. Research has shown that e-Learning will never be successful without a
supportive climate for learning, strong management support (Marc Rosenberg 2010).
It is important that the e-learning center must be a completely independent center with high
standards, and clear duties to inculcate the e-learning culture and the benefits that could be
gained from the e-learning (Brandon 2007). The lack of academic freedom has come repeatedly
to the fore and it has been hinted at it is a phenomenon of great importance (Paanakker 2009).
The academic staff should also be sent for training or further studies like joining international
conferences or study tours for human resource development to address the needs of the country.
8. Conclusion
Strategies must be based on prevailing conditions and existing institutions, and preferably be
developed by in-country researchers and policy-makers. The main problem in Iraq after a long
seven years is the lack of and brain drain of planners and designers. Many skilled personnel
have left Iraq after more than 30 years of continuous wars. Further, they did not express any
desire to return after securing a better life in their new location. The new planning personnel were
shocked at the extent of destruction in the infrastructures for electric, water, communications,
oils, etc. Higher education is one of the most damaged sectors. Rebuilding projects have started
since 2004 but it is still in an infancy stage.
Strategic decisions taken in many Arab countries have given the greatest share of attention to
infrastructure issues and legislation and have not given equivalent attention to issues related to
applications, digital content, and development of the use of the Arabic language on the net.
In the last quarter of a century, Arab states have achieved remarkable progress on all indicators
used to gauge the dissemination of knowledge among their people, from lower illiteracy rates to
higher numbers of university graduates
Some Arab countries are in the top third of countries in the world with respect to a number of ICT
indicators, but the Arab country with the highest levels of internet use ranks only thirty-eighth with
respect to internet use by education and other kind of using.
In today’s changing world, the idea of internationalization of higher education especially in
developing countries has been deduced from globalization of education process. The
international aspect of higher education is becoming increasingly important, composite, and
confusing.(Zolfaghari, Sabran et al. 2009).
Iraq as one of the Arab countries have made noteworthy progress in most of the pivotal aspects
of ICT. There is a great perception that most of the Iraqi problems can be solved by technology
and ICT. In higher education it is very important to give the attention to all educational
technologies with specific centers to implement e-learning as most of the senior Iraqi academics
are asking for educational technologies and e-learning.
National e-learning projects should be done after studies for the international universities
programs such as in Malaysia (Asirvatham 2005) (Idrus 2006), where national pilot projects are
conducted the process prior to its implementation. We emulate the Malaysian e-learning
experiment cause it is at the forefront of e-learning in Asia as “the evolutionary nature of
technological infusion into the education system in Malaysia is very much a planned approach,
and advances in ICT has hastened the pace of nation-states to develop a world-class quality
education system” (Idrus 2006).
There are many critical factors to be considered in any planning for e-learning strategies , and in
our strategy we cover the rules and polices , infra-structures and the technical support , capacity
building and training , universities standards and researches output of the project . Most of the elearning projects in the middle east and gulf zone or even in Africa (Unwin 2008) is still in the
early stage.
Advancing infrastructures and up to date hardware, are one of keys to the success of e-learning
on the continent but there should be a special ICT and e-learning capacity building for
universities governance and management of Iraqi universities (HQ), and it is very important and it
must take the priority and they must believe in that.
References:
Abdul Karim , M. R. (2004) , The Experience of the E-Learning Implementation at the Universiti
Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia, Malaysian Online Journal of Instructional Technology
(MOJIT) .1(1): pp 50-59.
Asirvatham, D., Azizah, P., Tat, E. H. , Woods , P. , Puteri ,T., & Rohani (2005) “Country Report:
Development of e-learning in Malaysia” , [online] www.adb.org/Education/malaysiacountry-analysis.pdf .
Bank, W. (2009). Interim Strategy Note for The Republic of IRAQ for The Period Mid FY09-FY11.
W. Bank: 73.
Brandon, Bill (2007) “162 Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools” [online] The
eLearning Guild, www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.896
Chanthan, Chhuon , Chanrithy , S. & Tha, S.(2006) The Current Status of e-learning in
Cambodia , Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology, 6(1) , pp. 45-55
Dezaye, N. K. A. (2009). Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq and Kurdistan:
A Case Study , Quality in Higher Education, 15(1): pp.71-77.
Gelin , M. N. , Beasly T.M. , Zumbo ,B. D. (2003). What Is The Impact On Scale Reliability And
Exploratory Factor Analysis Of A Pearson Correlation Matrix When Some Respondents
Are Not Able To Follow The Rating Scale?,. Annual Meeting of the American Educational
Research Association (AERA) ,. United States , Chicago, Illinois.
Harb, I. (2008).,” Higher Education and the Future of Iraq”. Special Report No. 195. The United
States Institute of Peace. Washington, D.C.: 16., [online] www.usip.org/resources/highereducation-and-future-iraq.
Husain, M. A. (2004). Iraq , Education in Transition ; Paris, Unesco , [online]
www.unu.edu/news/ili/Iraq.doc.
Idrus, R. M. (2006) Educational Media in Malaysia. Country Profiles. Commonwealth of
Learning.:
Chapter
Three
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25-33.,
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[online]
www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/EdMediaAsia_P1.pdf
Kaghed, N. and A. Dezaye (2009). "Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq and
Kurdistan: A Case Study " Quality in Higher Education 15(1): 71-77.
Khan, B. H. (2004). "The People–Process–Product Continuum in E-Learning: The E-Learning P3
Model." Educational Technology 44(Issue of Educational Technology): 33-40.
Khan, B. H. (2005). E-learning Quick Checklist, Information Science Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in an Information Society Information Science Publishing
Kurti, E. (2008) Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of
Prishtina, Kosova. School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering. Prishtina, University
of Prishtina,.
Marc Rosenberg , A. (2010). In to Implementation: Setting a Successful e-Learning Strategy
Masami, Y. (2006). "Feasibility of a University e-Learning Project." Malaysian Journal of
Educational Technology 6(Special Issue - ASEAN Seminar on e-Learning 2005): 13-22.
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Intercommunication for Knowledge. Dubai-UAE, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Foundation (MBRF) and the United Nations Development Programme/ Regional Bureau
for Arab States (UNDP/RBAS).
Mohammad, j. A. (2008). "Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT
Applications in the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables." Journal of
Educational & Psychological Sciences 9(3): 25-53.
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The eLearning Guild , www.elearningguild.com/showFile.cfm?id=3715 .
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Sciences. Amsterdam,Netherlands, University of Amsterdam. Master in International
Development Studies: 127.
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Thailand, First International Conference on e-Learning and Distance Learning (eLi 2009),
Riyadh , KSA.
Unwin, T. (2008). Survey of e-Learning in Africa. Based on a Questionnaire Survey of People on
the e-Learning Africa Database in 2007. Paris-France, UNESCO.
Zolfaghari, A., M. S. Sabran, et al. (2009). "Internationalization of higher education: Challenges,
strategies, policies and programs." US-China Education Review 6(5): 1-9.
OMAN – MUSCAT
6-8 DECEMBER - 2011
2011
First International Conference of
The Omani Society for
Educational Technology 2010
HARMONIZING
BLENDED LEARNING IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF MUSTANSIRIYAH,
BAGHDAD , IRAQ
Harmonising Blended Learning in the
University of Mustansiriyah, Iraq
Amer Saleem Elameer & Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com, rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract
The word harmonisation is traditionally used in music to describe the structure of music with
respect to the composition and progression of chords. In the University of Mustansiriyah
(UoMust), Iraq, most of the academic staff welcomes the use of e-learning to compliment the
face to face delivery method which is highly reliant on the government that lend little support
to the higher education sector. Moving forward, blended learning pedagogy is seen as the
way to develop UoMust academic activities and educational transaction, modeling from the
experience of one of the pioneers of distance education universities in Asia, namely the
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which operate a blended learning system with a state of the
art video conferencing delivery system and an electronic portal for online learning in tandem
with the face to face learning traditional learning method. A pre-test questionnaire was
designed and a Likert scale of six points was used to obtain the data required to design and
organize the steps to the blended learning in harmonious way. The ADDIE methodology was
used to produce blended learning approach for UoMust by adopting the modified Khan
octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning model with a state of the art video conferencing
delivery system and an electronic portal as a model for e-learning in the educational activities
which were taken as a yardstick in the design of e-learning systems and educational activities
for UoMust.
Keywords: UoMust , blended learning, video conference, electronic portal, blended learning
pedagogy
1.0
Introduction
One of the products of this information revolution was the advent of e-learning pivoting on
multimedia and Internet as strategic option for educational transaction and to apply e-learning
in an institution, we must re-engineer the learning institutions to accept it, and reinforced it
with all the appropriate support systems.
In Iraq and some of the Arab Middle East countries like Jordan concerns about the quality of
qualifications earned through open education and distance education universities; it becomes
crucial to revamp old education systems in line with scientific and technological
developments and the revolution in modern information technologies.
For example, the e-learning strategies for Higher Education of most of the Arab countries
currently focuses on the blended learning and it has yet to address the distance learning issues
because distance education is not yet accredited in most of the Arab educational systems.
Blended learning is an approach for learning which provides harmonisation technologically
enhanced learning methods and the best of traditional face to face learning .
By improving quality, governing regulations and recognition for the new methods, traditional
face to face will be transformed into the new revolution of the learning methods that pivots
on information and communication technologies that has underlined our future.
Many esteemed universities and academic institutions especially those with a public-service
mandate in the world adopted blended learning for its education activities along with the
traditional face to face type by considering synchronous and asynchronous learning as the
key to advancing their educational activities including post-graduate studies to all the people
who might otherwise not be able to access it.
Figure.2: UoMust location in
Baghdad
Figure.1: The relation between
Technologies & Education
2.0
The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) is one of the public universities in Iraq located at
the heart of Baghdad (figure.2) and providing higher education studies via various degrees;
BA, B.Sc,, M.Sc, MA, & PhD. It was opened in 1963 again with the name of the Complete
University and in 1968 they change it to Al Mustansiriyah University referring to the
AlMustansiriyah Madresa which built by Al Mustansir Billah in Baghdad. It was the first
university in middle ages in the Islamic world and it was opened previously 5th of May Rijiab in 1234- 631. UoMust was completely destroyed in 2003 war in Iraq after it was looted
and burned and in general only 10 % of Iraq higher education sector remain in acceptable
condition.
UoMust restarted on 17-5-2003 till the completion of the academic year with new leadership
of the university nominated after free election by its academic staff. It was the first university
to restart even though there was no government or ministries and also without salaries.
This UoMust academic staff capabilities was noticed and remarked by the international world
organizations (UN, USAID,…etc) and other world countries. The elected universitiy
authorities decided to rebuild this university according to the world international standards by
making it a research university and adopt all up to date educational technologies , and they
made a decision to adopt the e-learning to enhanced and enriched face to face traditional
delivery method .
UoMust, according to the numbers of its academic staff and students, is considered to be one
of the biggest governmental universities in Iraq. The total number of the students in UoMust
is 42315 students and this biggest number of the students is in Bechalore level (B.Sc or B.A )
and UoMust have two types of studies in this level , one is the ordinary and known as the
Public free studies ( Morning studies )( students nominated from the ministry according to
their achievements in secondary schools which is enter to the central Iraqi acceptance system
that run by higher education ministry ) , and the other is Private studies ( Evening studies )( it
is and it is not free and open for all the ages ) and this number is distributed between twelve
colleges ( Students numbers and distribution shown in figure . 3.)
UoMust also have a five centers of excellence ( 1-Arabic and International Studies center, 2National Center for Hematology , 3-Iraqi Center for Cancer Researches , 4-National
Diabetics
Center
,
5Computer
&
Internet
Center).
http://www.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/english_index.html. The total number of the working
academic staff UoMust is 3141 distributed between (132 Professors, 528 Ass.Pofessor, 897
Lecturers , and 1584 Ass.Lecturers ).as shown in the figure.4.
Figure . 3 : Students distribution numbers in colleges
3.0
Figure . 4 : Academic Staff distribution
E-Learning & Khan’s Framework
E-Learning as defined by Khan (2004, 2005, 2009) stated that it is an innovative approach for
delivering well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to
anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilising the attributes and resources of various digital
technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and distributed
learning environment.
Based on the previous studies, literature reviewed and meeting with experts, one of the most
comprehensive theoretical e-learning model is the Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight
dimensions e-learning framework. However, Khan frame work can be divided into three
major domains; first is the Educational domain consisting of the Pedagogical, Ethical &
Evaluation dimensions. The second domain is Technological, consisting of the Technology
and Interface design dimensions and thirdly the Managerial domain Institutional, Resource
support and Management dimensions (Kurti, 2008).
The emergence of a Khan framework made a great impact in the revolution of e-learning that
has emerged in the various learning sector since this frame work describe all the education
and learning process from a logical base for all the e-learning instructional designers on how
to design and implement effective learning environment considering factors that could affect
the proposed designs. In retrospect, it might even be called an e-education system due to the
comprehensiveness of the dimensions. However, the eight dimensional framework (main and
sub dimensions) (Figure 5) introduced in 1997 has remained till this day (Khan, 2009).
Figure . 5 : Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions Blended Learning model with its
sub components e-Learning model
3.1
Modification of the Khan framework
The Khan’s framework was utilised in the consideration for the eLearning Framework for the
Iraqi Higher Education. The framework was fitted to the needs and constraints of UoMust,
taking into account current technology, human support needs, learner focused strategies and
the massive growth of content in the form of OER and learning objects. Customising the
Khan framework into a working model for the UoMust eLearning effort required a degree of
modification to Khan’s model. Our deliberations have resulted in the following
considerations (Figure 6);
• We rearranged the dimensions locations inside the octagonal such that the technology
domain is located at the base, denoting the pivotal nature of technology.
• A wireless technologies element was added as sub-components to the technological
dimension as it relates to current communication modes and is an important factor in the
total cost of the e-learning.
• In the Khan’s resources support dimension, we added the technological human resources
capacity building which was missing from the frame work; human resources capacity
building in ICT plays a critical role in supporting hardwares, softwares and the instructors
on new and emerging technologies.
• Content was given its own domain in light of the focus on learning objects and educational
resources and repositories.
• Learner was given a central dimension moving towards learner-centred teaching and
learning environment. The concept of personalization or personalized learning
environment should now be highlighted.
• Khan does not take in to the consideration the time as a dimension or sub-dimension but if
we want to use his frame work in blended learning we have to take this important factor in
to consideration. Time is an important factor in the construction of eLearning in UoMust.
Figure . 6:
3.2
Modified Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning to
be used in UoMust e-Learning model
Why this modification
There is no doubt that Khan frame work is an encompassing educational framework but our
investigation and discovery of related researches portrayed a clear view that it is suitable and
appropriate at the time that it was formulated and constructed. However, many factors and
emerging trends have taken prominence that could gave way for an extended approach taking
into account current focus and issues.
In a country like Iraq which there is no stability in all of the life conditions which start from
its political system , new democracy concepts, infrastructure, learners, material resources; it
would be difficult to wholly adopt the Khan framework as it stands. As a case in point in the
Iraqi higher education, we found that Iraqi universities are still without any up to date
technologies and it is very difficult to ask its academic staff to adopt e-leaning into its
academic activities and more than 70% have not even heard about a Moodle , LAMS , …etc.
Here we have to solve this problem which provided us the impetus to consider relevant the
modification in the framework. Also in the Iraq we found that the government do not give
due attention to the ICT infrastructures and currently wireless technologies could play a big
role in the learning scenario. Naturally, pivotal issues will have to be included and the Khan
framework in its original state will have to undergo modification to address impending local
issues especially in designing the framework of the Iraqi higher education.
3.3
The Framework for the e-learning framework of UoMust
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world initiate the adoption of elearning as teaching and learning aid to the students in a the face to face traditional learning
approach. It would be equally important for the UoMust to adopt the e-learning as a blended
learning approach, mixing face to face and online learning that becomes a natural extension
of traditional classroom learning.(Fook et al, 2005).
The modified Khan 2009 frame work was the base of the e-learning framework of UoMust
together with the distance education electronic support system of the School of Distance
Education of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). USM pioneerd distance education in
Malaysia and delivered many ‘firsts’ in the country in the use of technology to enhance
learning. USM was the first to introduce audio teleconferencing (ATC) in 1988 followed by
the incorporation of the electronic writing board with the ATC in 1989. Full two-way video
teleconference was introduced in 1995 in all of the states in West Malaysia. A home-grown
learning management system ( LMS) was launched in 2003 until the migration to Moodle in
2005. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) via the School of Distance Education thus utilised a
blend of self-instructional text, state of the art video conferencing learning environment
(VCLE) delivery system and an electronic portal including the Learning Activity
Management System (LAMS).
Then the combined frameworks between the USM model with its VCLE with our
modified Khan model have resulted in a new framework that is customised for the need and
purpose of the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) as it fulfilled all the university
educational needs. The combined framework has resulted in an e-learning system
centralising on the learner with content and time control. As a matter of fact, the combined
framework can be deemed as an e-education system due to its comprehensiveness to cater for
any impending changes in the environment. Since the University of Mustansiriyah and all of
Iraq are lacking in an official e-learning policy or system, the new framework will serve as a
functional framework in the technology enhanced learning landscape.
4.0
Blended Learning
Graham define blended learning as the systems that combine face-to-face instruction with
computer-mediated instruction (Graham, 2004) while New South Wales Department of
Education and Training (2002) provided a simpler definition in that, blended learning is
learning which combines online and face-to-face approaches. A stance of appropriateness is
considered in our deliberation for the approach, blending, online activities of educational
content with the best features of face to face class room interaction and the live instruction to
personalize learning, allow thoughtful reflection, and differentiate instruction from student to
student across a diverse group of learners.
Khan’s blended e-learning framework, referred to Khan’s Octagonal Framework enables one
to select appropriate ingredients that serves as a guide to plan, develop, deliver, manage, and
evaluate blended learning programmes. Organizations exploring strategies for effective
learning and performance have to consider a variety of issues to ensure effective delivery of
learning and thus a high return on investment (Singh, 2003).
New developments in the learning sciences and technologies provide opportunities to create
well designed, learner-centered, engaging, interactive, affordable, efficient, easily accessible,
flexible, and meaningful distributed and facilitated e-learning environments (Khan, 2004).
In 2003, Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad from the Open University Malaysia (OUM) presented a
blended learning approach which become one of the best and the key factor of the great
successes OUM ( figure. 7) (Ong et al, 2009).
Prof Anwar Ali, the President of stated that “ We have developed comprehensive printed
modules, which were designed on the basis of self-managed learning. We have developed and
implemented Learner Management System to provide the platform for on-line learning, and
at OUM, we still do offer the face-to-face sessions. This approach that we have taken helps us
to meet the changing scenarios in this field, especially in our programmes conducted outside
of Malaysia” (Ali, 2007).
Figure . 7 : OUM blended Learning activities
Abdullah Sanusi Ahmad 2003
5. 0
Figure . 8 : OUM blended Learning Module
The University of Mustansiriyah Research
This research was undertaken to solve the problems of the University of Mustansiriyah
through the proposal of a blended learning framework which is based on face to face
traditional learning method and an online e-learning model which is a combination of
modified Badrul Huda Khan eight dimensions model (Khan, 2006) with the distance
education electronic support system and learning blend of the School of Distance Education
in the University Sains Malaysia. The ADDIE model was used as the methodology in the
research, namely, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation.
ADDIE have a lot of types like the straight , waterfall , the ring…etc , and here we use the
half ring model because of the fixings elements and specifications of the design methodology
that we used and also it is a part of a big e-education system to be proposed for UoMust.
5.1
Data Collection
Figure 9 UoMust BL frame work
Figure 10
UoMust BL methods
Two questionnaires was designed using survey technique that was used to collect the data
from the UoMust, the first was a general questionnaire and the results gives us a complete
view about the academic situation and standards, problems suffers, ICT real situation,
managerial and institutional structures; the second survey was used to obtain information on
the ICT practice among UoMust faculty members. A six-point Likert scale was used to
analyse the questionnaires adhering to the appropriate statistical procedures such as apparent
validity , discriminate validity and reliability.(Mohammad, 2008).
6.0
UoMust Blended Learning Framework
In Iraq it is currently very difficult to implement the e-learning courses without the routine
structures of a traditional class, for fear that student acculturation in e-learning is still low
and the fear that they may get confused about course activities and deadlines thus affecting
their learning.
UoMust has suffered in the provision of even basic academic activities from the missing
security , infrastructures and lack of all educational resources up to date materials and
equipments and deprived of a real information technology (IT) or Management Information
system (MIS) systems. As such the e-learning system will play and assistive role the the
blended learning approach to support its face to face traditional learning methods in UoMust.
Figure 11 summarises the blended learning framework of UoMust.
Figure . 11 : UoMust blended learning activities, module and methods
6.1
Technical Infrastructure
UoMust are in need of basic ICT infrastructure having experienced a huge shortage in the
numbers of computers and servers. USM has the capability to play a role having experienced
the use of technology from its inception.
6.2
Face to Face reform
The traditional F2F teaching and learning practices in UoMust classrooms are without any
educational technologies and even some of them are without any cooling systems but have
begun reformation in 2007 with an uptake of about 43% progress from the limited budget
allocation. Training of academic staff to use these technologies especially information
technologies is under way and a video conference and e-learning unit have been established
and pilot run of its use will be implemented.
6.3
HR capacity Building
A is also very difficult to UoMust to reform its human resources because of the non-existent
of budgets and funds required for that and the centralization and the heavy cover role of the
higher education ministry which control this activities in all Iraqi universities . A complete
HR capacity building plan was proposed for UoMust was completed by researchers (Table.1)
Table.1 CB HR proposed plan for the UoMust BL
6.4
Implementation and Evaluation
UoMust just start to move very slowly and start with its very little capabilities and they have
to put at least five years plan to start its blended learning in complete to achieve and reach its
goals. Evaluation cannot be achieved without a real implementation for the project.
7. 0
The Blended Approach
The harmonizing of the learning environments is the key to the success in blended learning
because it is very complex mix between two different virtual and physical environments. In
order to reach the target of blended learning which would incur less cost and more effective
learning in UoMust, the appropriate procedures would be to;
1- build a real IT environment in all of the academic affairs in UoMust and start using
MIS for harmonizing the learning activities for both students and academic staff.
(Start training Senior academic staff , provide all required equipments to start ,
establish the UoMust e-learning center ,Choose the subjects to start with it. , Supply
all the class rooms with equipments required (Computer + data Show) as min. ,
increase internet bandwidth as possible and cancel any sharing in that) .
2- Adopting e-learning and online learning activities officially in UoMust learning
activities. (Ask academic staff to: (publish at least one paper about the effective of
using the e-learning programs, and joining international e-learning conferences
outside Iraq)).
Our blended approach in UoMust is focused on a mix between F2F courses and online
courses because we are still required for certain F2F courses in Iraq and it is very difficult to
change the learning system in UoMust. It is found and observed that blends in higher
education are often occurring at the degree (BA or B.Sc) program level.(Graham, 2004).
Since our BL model is based on three domains as shown in the Figure 6 ( technological ,
Organizational , and Educational ) we should note that the heavily rely on Technological and
organizational does not mean we achieved the effective BL , because the educational and
especially the pedagogy play a big and important part in this process of BL and for that a well
defined pedagogy will guide us to a ( blended pedagogy ) which it is used and improved in
OUM as the most effective learning system.(Ali & Bahroom, 2008) and our module for that
is shown in the figure.12.
Our step by step approach is to start first steps towards with:
1- Continues F2F as the main learning method in the UoMust .
2- Using the online learning as a supported tool to the F2F method.
3- 40% of the two important subjects materials to be digitized after choosing the way to
program it (A/V or Computer programs ) along the first academic year of start in each
class in each department.
4- Upload the programmed materials into the internet
5- Choose the internet materials that could also help the learner and start to reform the
UoMust library system and also international academic resources library (ARL)
6- Start making researches for and about e-learning and blended learning in UoMust as
continues evaluation to the process.
7- Put a special blended pedagogy time table for the activities in the class for each subject
and print a guide to be distributed to the learners about the F2F times and online
learning and places with their websites on the net and also the video or computer
conferences.
8- Starts educate the learners about using e-learning widely and also asking them to search
for subjects materials.
9- Evaluate the first 2 subjects trail at the end of the academic year and correct all the
mistakes and publish new pedagogy learning for each subject with its module after
complete programming they remain 60% of the subjects.
10- Start programming four subjects and to complete 40% as min of the subjects materials
to start with them in the beginning of the next year.
Figure . 12 : UoMust blended Learning Module
Conclusion
UoMust needed to develop its appropriate learning structures and standards to promote
detailed strategic university and government objectives for the growth and enrichment of the
eLearning experience for both the staff and students.
UoMust as tertiary institutions , need for the adoption of blended learning in oder to widen
participation, enhance the learning process and flexibility of provision, computer aided
assessment and encouraging technological adoption and this is what UoMust needed now
days .
Technology have changed everything in our life and in learning it changed the traditional
tutorial face to face class rooms and in general E-learning environment together with tutorial
and practical classes facilitates the learning process.
Identifying learning objects is the most important parts of the blended learning in order to
control this learning approach outcome, and teachers now have the ability to focus on
activity-based learning due to the presence of learning material over the Internet, provided
opportunities for cooperative learning.
Teachers now spend less time in front of the class and more time working with small groups
of individuals. The learning process is activity based and focuses on group and individual
work with presentations and discussions. These changes should be considered as a strategy to
implement e-learning systems.
Findings of the results and with refer to Khan speech in KSA in 2008, we find adopting his elearning frame work (Khan, 2005a) show us very clear the educational strongest of this
model even it is not cover all the educational process dimensions, and this model can help in
reform UoMust and re structured institutionally by way or another, and this truly what Iraqi
universities need for it now and what international organization ask Iraqi to do it. For us and
here we can define e-learning as : E-Learning : Is the near past , today , future of the learning
and teaching .It is a complete electronic educational system which use all the up to date
technologies in the ICT filed to enhance and enrich the learning process and change it core
from the teacher to the student .
And our experimental definition is : Is the using of the ICT technologies that offered in Iraq
in a special comprehensive e-learning system which has been designed with models that were
found through discovering the using of e-learning in one of the pioneers of distance education
universities in Asia; the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which have a distance education
electronic support system with a state of the art video conferencing delivery system and
complemented by the modified Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-Learning
model which take into consideration the human resources and its importance to be important
dimension in the frame work and centralized the all the frame work around the learner with
content and time control , to enhanced and enriched the e-learning process in the University
of Mustansiriyah , Baghdad , Iraq (UoMust) which face a lot of educational problems and it is
a part from rebuilding this university which is completely burned and looted in 2003 War in
Iraq. For example, Malaysia allocates an average 20% of its development budget for
education and this amount ranks Malaysia very high compared to many other countries and
reinstates Malaysia’ vision to become a knowledge powerhouse in the region and its
education system ranked 52 which is very good for a country from the third world , and also
Malaysia is a very sophisticated country that developed very well in the field of information
and communication technology and they ranked 28 between world countries (Inboden &
Streeter, 2009) which it gives us a very clear that the Malaysian government has been very
proactive towards ICT development (Asirvatham et al., 2005)
References
Ali, A. (2007). Higher Education in Malaysia Towards a Goal of Global Excellence. digital
LEARNING, Volume III, issue 2 , February 2007.
Ali, A., & Bahroom, R. (2008). Integreated E-Learning at Open University Malaysia
[Electronic Version], from http://apps.intan.my/psimr/vol2.2/Article%207%20%20Prof%20Tan%20Sri%20Anuwar%20.pdf
Fook, F. S., Kong, N. W., Lan, O. S., Atan, H., & Idrus, R. (2005). Research in E-Learning in
a Hybrid Environment - A Case for Blended Instruction. Malaysian Online Journal of
Instructional Technology, 2(2), 124-136.
Foong, S. K., Rahman, Z.A., Atan, H.,, & Mohamad, A. H., Hamdan, Z. & Idrus. (2005). The
distance education electronic portal: a study of the communicative dimensions in an
asynchronous Forum Board. Paper presented at the Ed-Media 2005 World
Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunication.
Graham, C. R. (2004). Blended Learning Systems: Definition, Current Trends, And Future
Directions. In Handbook of blended learning: Global Perspectives, local designs:
Pfeiffer Publishing . San Francisco, CA.
Khan, B. H. (2004). The People–Process–Product Continuum in E-Learning: The E-Learning
P3 Model. Educational Technology, 44(Issue of Educational Technology), 33-40.
Khan, B. H. (2005). Learning Features in an Open, Flexible, and Distributed Environment.
AACE Journal, 13(2), 137-153.
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in an Information Society Information Science
Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2009). E-Learning - The Global e-Learning Framework. In S. Mishra (Ed.),
STRIDE Handbook 8 (Vol. 1, pp. 42-52). New Delhi–110 068 , Maidan Garhi: The
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
Kurti, E. (2008). Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of
Prishtina, Kosova. University of Prishtina,, Prishtina.
Mohammad, J. A. (2008). Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT
Applications in the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables.
Journal of Educational & Psychological Sciences, 9(3), 25-53.
Ong, V., Cheng, S., & Wei, C. C. (2009). MalaysiaAQualitative Study of Blended Learning in
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Singh, H. (2003). Building Effective Blended Learning Programs. Issue of Educational
Technology,, 43(6), 51-54.
riyadh – ksa
2121-23 feb 2011
2011
The Second International
Conference of E-learning
ICT CAPACITY BUILDING PLAN
FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF
MUSTANSIRIYAH (UOMUST), IRAQ
BLENDED LEARNING PROJECT
Abstract:
E-Learning deployments in the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) Baghdad, Iraq can be
challenging because of the many different aspects that must consider. One of the basic
challenges is the capacity building and the human resources which are important part from
any e-learning project and a pre survey for some senior academic staff show us very clearly
the weakness in ICT skills in general and in e-learning as particular in UoMust. Khan elearning frame work was one of the great designs in this field but it is a design for idle
conditions and stable societies and cannot be used without a modification in Iraq which
suffers a lot of different problems. The modified frame work comes from our deeply
investigation inside the e-learning process, environment, learning type and the new revolution
of wireless technologies. A modification in khan frame work have made taking into
consideration that weakness and re arrange the frame work dimension according to the
UoMust status.
A complete human resources capacity building plan for two years is
proposed and designed according to UoMust needs to establish e-learning network as a part
of a complete solution for it, with the World Bank institutional standards confirming that
planned program and its relative components cover all the requirements after fair
understanding to the ICT field needed, for a total e-learning deployment in UoMust . The
program is designed to be done in six phases (each is 4 Months), and it have divided into two
major parts, one for the academic staff and the other is for the technical staff. It covers 580
academics from a total number of 3141. The program also is designed to train and capacity
building of 556 IT employees in UoMust from about 1000 ICT technical employee working
in it.
Keywords: HR Human Resources, Capacity Building CB, The University of Mustansiriyah
(UoMust), Modified e-learning framework.
1. Introduction
In general, the meaning of building capacity is the Human Resource development,
Institutional Capacity, Physical Infrastructure (Building, Equipment, Communications:
ICT Infrastructure, Libraries, Journals), Receptive Society (Public Relations, Media)
(Ramkissoon 2008). Resources support was one of the dimensions of Badrul Huda
Khan octagonal eight dimensions e-learning frame work(Khan 2009) that we
modified it into human resources capacity building
for the importance of this
dimension to any ICT project. Investments in human’s resources known always as
the winning way for most of the educators in the entire world and who invest in it for
sure will never lose.(Abualsaoud 2009).
Iraq as a new born country after 2003 needs it for a capacity building projects in all the fields
of science and technology because of the United Nations Security Council economic
sanctions (from 1991 to 2004), the old regime affairs , and the huge brain drainage of all the
Iraqi experts to outside Iraq.(Harb 2008)
Iraq was a country of disallowed of up to date technologies under the word of security before
2003, inside disallowed was a national security and outside disallowed was the international
security council and as a result no technologies, no mobiles, no satellites, no wireless, no
computer networks, no internet, no…..etc. and this disallowed keep this country completely
away from the civilized technological world in the time of the ICT revolution.
As word of truth the old regime have understand clearly that no development for Iraqi higher
education sector without information technologies and start to reinforced the high academic
degrees in the Iraqi universities with ICT skills by gifting them a complete computer with
printer to let them train them self’s individually and they complete supplying all the
Professors and some of the Ass. Professors before the war start in 2003.
From this point of stand Iraq without correct, well planned capacity building projects for the
academics in ICT in general and in e-learning and its software as particular, and others
software is an urgent need not a request.
Without real adoption of ICT and related technologies, rebuild this country higher education
will be very difficult and could be impossible to develop its human resources and transform
its higher education system and universities which are the prerequisites for development.
After design a complete e-learning system for UoMust and proposed its blended use(Elameer
and Idrus 2010; Elameer and Idrus 2010) , we find it is very important to plan a complete
ICT capacity building for the senior academic staff and technical staff.
Most of the UN rebuilds Iraq conferences, USAID, JIACA, KOIKA, and other international
organizations all reported and stated that HR building capacity is very important to the
rebuilding of this country, and as a word of truth some have their programs for that but in
general it was random programs without a clear goals expect from the Foundation of
Technical Education plans and programs which is work correctly in its HR CB for its
academic staff.(Harb 2008; Bank 2009; Kaghed and Dezaye 2009; Kubba 2009).
2. The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
It is one of the biggest governmental universities in Iraq which is located at the heart of
Baghdad and providing higher education studies by all it degrees (BA, B.Sc, M.Sc, MA, &
PhD. It was opened in 1963 again holding the name of the Complete University and in 1968
they change it into Al Mustansiriyah University referring to the ( AlMustansiriyah Madresa )
which built by Al Mustansir Billah in Baghdad and was opened 5th of may - Rijiab in 1234631.
The total number of the students in UoMust is 42315 students and this biggest number of the
students is in Bachelor level (B.Sc or B.A ) and UoMust have two types of studies in this
level , one is the ordinary and known as the Public free studies ( Morning studies )( students
nominated from the ministry according to their achievements in secondary schools which is
enter to the central Iraqi acceptance system that run by higher education ministry ) , and the
other is Private studies ( Evening studies )( it is and it is not free and open for all the ages )
as shown in figure.1.
UoMust also have five centers of excellence ( 1-Arabic and International Studies center, 2National Center for Hematology, 3-Iraqi Center for Cancer Researches, 4-National Diabetics
Center, 5- Computer & Internet Center).
http://www.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/english_index.html.
The total number of the working academic staff UoMust is 3141 distributed between (132
Professors, 528 Ass.Pofessor, 897 Lecturers, and 1584 Ass.Lecturers).as shown in the
figure.2. The number of the employs in the UoMust is 2955 and they are 1765 female and
1199 male and most of them holding bachelor degrees and this higher number is due to the
high number of the security and guards because of the violence in Baghdad as shown in
figure.3. UoMust suffers from the leakage in number of the computers and peripherals and it
have only 2669 computer which it mean about 18 students to one computer which is for sure
is very low percentage beside that a college like Basic Education does not have only 52
computers in front of 8167 students, as shown in figure.4.
This university was the most damaged university in 2003 in Iraqi higher education sector in
Iraq and it was completely looted and burned in very sad pictures and views “ Mustansiriyah
University may be considered as an example of these damages. Mustansiriyah is the second
largest university in Iraq and has an architectural design similar to the University of Baghdad.
After the war, 5 of its buildings were extensively damaged, i.e., the university administrative
building, presidency, College of Education building, Political Institute and the Student’s
Club” (Husain 2004) (Paris :UNESCO2004 ) .
Figure . 1 : Students distribution numbers
in UoMust
Figure . 2 : Academic Staff distribution
in UoMust
Figure.3: The UoMust employees
distribution
Figure.4: The UoMust computers
distribution
3.The E-Learning Model
In Iraq now it is very difficult to change the old traditional learning delivery styles directly.
We need to organize and prepare the ground for the changes first (Masami, 2006), this
preparation will take place by adopt the e-learning as support activity to the face to face
traditional learning method. The supporting approach will require that the teacher is present
in the self-study (Abualsaoud, 2009; Al-Busaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010; Chendeb & Nasr, 2010).
3.1 Badrul H. Khan e-learning frame work
The Khan framework is one of the most best and complete comprehensive theoretical elearning models. E-Learning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan stated: An innovative
approach for delivering well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning
environment to anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilizing the attributes and resources of various
digital technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and
distributed learning environment (Khan, 2005a, 2005b, 2006, 2009).
This framework can be divided into three major domains: first is the Educational Sector
containing the elements of Pedagogical, Ethical and Evaluation. The second is the
Technological Sector containing the elements of Technology and Interface Design) and the
third domain is the Managerial Sector containing the elements of Institutional, Resource
support and Management (Kurti, 2008).
The emergence of this frame work made the greatest impact in the revolution of e-learning
that take place in the all of the learning sector since this framework, for the last 13 years,
described all the education and learning process. Further, the framework also offered the
logical base for all the e-learning instructional designers on how to design and implement
effective learning environment in the e-learning process using the interactions afforded via
computers and internet, taking into consideration and stating all the factors that could affect
the proposed designs. The Khan framework is still widely utilized until today. (Aloraini,
2009; Kurti, 2008; Suhail & Mugisa, 2007)
Nonetheless, from our point of view Khan Framework is a complete education system that
can even be defined as an e-education or framework for technology enhanced education. Redefining the framework as e-education denotes that the Khan framework could be used for
any other educational technologies in education.
3.2. Khan Framework Modification
Our stated differences with this framework is a trial to reinforced it only and for that we
called it the modified framework and not new framework because we retained all the original
dimensions
Inside Khan Frame work and these difference comes from our deeply investigation inside the
e-learning process, environment, learning type, the new revolution of wireless technologies.
(Prof. Dr. Khan on his last book and all his writing agrees that)(Khan, 2009).
In Khan Framework that consisted of eight dimensions. Our deliberations have resulted in the
following considerations;
•
We rearranged the dimensions locations inside the octagonal such that the technology
domain is located at the base, denoting the pivotal nature of technology.
•
A wireless technologies element was added as sub-components to the technological
dimension as it relates to current communication modes and is an important factor in the total
cost of the e-learning.
•
In the Khan’s resources support dimension, we added the technological human
resources capacity building which was missing from the frame work; human resources
capacity building in ICT plays a critical role in supporting hardware's, software's and the
instructors on new and emerging technologies.
•
Content was given its own domain in light of the focus on learning objects and
educational resources
•
Learner was given a central dimension moving towards learner-centered teaching and
learning environment.
•
Khan does not take in to the consideration the time as a dimension or sub-dimension
but if we want to use his frame work in blended learning we have to take this important factor
in to consideration.
Our modified model is 11 dimension frameworks consist from the: 1-Pedagogicaal, 2-Ethical,
and 3-Evaluation. 4-Managerial, 5- Institutional, 6-Technological, 7-Human Resource
Capacity Building, 8-Inteface Design, 9-Content Control, 10-Time, 11-Learner.
3.3. Why the Modification
There is no doubt that Khan frame work is an encompassing educational framework but our
investigation and discovery of related researches portrayed a clear view that it is suitable and
appropriate at the time that it was formulated and constructed. However, many factors and
emerging trends have taken prominence that could gave way for an extended approach taking
into account current focus and issues.
In a country like Iraq which there is no stability in all of the life conditions which start from
its political system , new democracy concepts, infrastructure, learners, material resources; it
would be difficult to wholly adopt the Khan framework as it stands. As a case in point in the
Iraqi higher education, we found that Iraqi universities are still without any up to date
technologies and it is very difficult to ask its academic staff to adopt e-leaning into its
academic activities and more than 70% have not even heard about a Moodle , LAMS , …etc.
Here we have to solve this problem which provided us the impetus to consider relevant the
modification in the framework. Also in the Iraq we found that the government do not give
due attention to the ICT infrastructures and currently wireless technologies could play a big
role in the learning scenario. Naturally, pivotal issues will have to be included and the Khan
framework in its original state will have to undergo modification to address impending local
issues especially in designing the framework of the Iraqi higher education.
3.4. New Framework for the E-Learning
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world’s adoption of e-learning
commenced in a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning and the instruction
occur both in the classroom and online, and where the online component becomes a natural
extension of traditional classroom learning (Fook et al, 2005).
Our modified Khan 2009 framework was the base of our framework along with an exemplary
e-learning system of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) via the School of Distance
Education; utilizing a blend of self-instructional text, state of the art video conferencing
learning environment (VCLE) delivery system and an electronic portal including the
Learning Activity Management System.
Then we combined between the USM model with its VCLE with our modified Khan model
we have a new framework that is customized for the need and purpose of the University of
Mustansiriyah (UoMust) as it fulfilled all the university educational needs.
The combined framework has resulted in an e-learning system centralizing on the learner
with content and time control. As a matter of fact, the combined framework can be deemed as
an e-education system due to its comprehensiveness to cater for any impending changes in
the environment. Since the University of Mustansiriyah and all of Iraq are lacking in an
official e-learning policy or system, the new framework will serve as a functional framework
in the technology enhanced learning landscape.
Figure.3: Modified e-learning frame work with its sub-components
4. The statement of purpose
Any adopting of technology project can not be completed without training (how to use these
technologies and get the most benefits of it). UoMust try to establish e-learning network to
enhance learning as a part of rebuild this destroyed university in Iraq. An e-learning frame
work was adapting, the technologies (hardware & software) required have a fixed
specification. The remain is the goal of the research which is planning a complete and detailed
HR Building Capacity Program for e-learning UoMust project as a major part of this project
and to cover more than 1000 employees within two years from all types of employees in
UoMust according to the university needs for the project since there is a huge leakage in all
ICT science information about e-learning strategies, theories , models , systems , software
engineering of e-learning systems , computer networking , website development , CBT
development , e-learning & education networking..etc, and the way of coordinate the
education activities in Iraq.
5. (ADDIE) Methodology
The methodology model that has been used by the researchers is: Analysis, Design,
Development, Implementation, Evaluation, (ADDIE) model. (Figure 4).
The idea of this research is to plan after an investigate for UoMust academic staff experiences
and skills in ICT, opinions regarding the implementation of full scale e-learning system and
also the technical staff and their skills in ICT networking. The methodology model that has
been used by the researchers is the Analysis, Design, ADDIE methodology model was for the
general for all the research parts and was a special ADDIE instructional waterfall design for
the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) e-learning project and it is summarize with all its
activities in the figure.4 below
Figure 4: The ADDIE methodology for the UoMust
6. Theoretical frame work
It was understandable and fixed that UoMust need for a special ICT infrastructure and HR
building capacity to implement the e-learning UoMust system. In order to plan for HR BC
we have to know and answer these questions:
1-Who will attends these training courses (academic, technical and others)? ,
2- What is the goal of this plan?
3-What are the types of these courses and what type of training technique to be used?
4-When training occurs? and Where?
5-What are the needs to execute the training plan? The means training needs fulfilled?
6-The cost and the budget?
7-The HR CB plan evaluation?
The first phase was one of the most important ones, is to assess the needs of the UoMust from
the HR BC plan and for that we made the preliminary questionnaire that was distributed
between the academic staff in UoMust.
The goal was fixing the general training plan
outlines. Since the e-learning is completely depend on the academic staff and especially the
senior between them, and for that we made the quick survey for the ICT and e-learning skills
between the senior academic staff. After evaluated the results , the required BC programs and
types have been proposed as a plan for the university with taking into consideration the
investigation of previous studies, literature reviewed and meeting with experts, the HR BC
plan are fulfill all the university educational needs from ICT needed to implement the elearning system needs and others needs also. It could be even for all the Iraqi universities or
higher education sector in Iraq. The research framework is given in Figure (5).
Figure 5: The research framework
7. Timing
Most of the project timing in Iraq after 2004 is two years for executing because of the urgent
needs in this country. Two years in the ICT field is a long time within the daily technology
updates but it is a complete project and need for this time which is calculated not estimated
where the work conditions are not ordinary conditions and for example it was the best timing
for the United Nations Assistance Strategy for Iraq 2008-2010 which was the first of its kind
to be adopted in the country since the 1990s.
http://www.uniraq.org/newsroom/getarticle.asp?ArticleID=758 and also the European
Commission that launched 2009-2010 Assistance Package a program for Iraq.
8. The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the
research work, and according to ( Marczyk et al. (2005) “in most types of research studies,
the process of data analysis involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the data for
analysis, (2) analyzing the data, and (3) interpreting the data”.
A survey technique was used to icollect the data and prepare it for the analyzing through a
ICT skills survey questionnaire for the e-learning and ICT skills in the UoMust.
The survey for the e-learning and ICT skills was through designing a survey questionnaire
from 35 statemant covering all the data required for the HR BC needed and it was distributed
between 250 of UoMust senior academic staff but the complete answers come only from 160
, and they are 112 Ass.Professor all holding PhD degrees (80 female and 32 male) and 48
Professor (30 male and 18 female) and all are above 15 years of the public service in the Iraqi
higher education sector but the are now in the UoMust senior academic staff.
Also there was a pre evaluation for the plan as part of the post evaluation for all the elearning solution that was proposed for UoMust .
9. Statistical Procedure
All the Statement answers and the data that have been taken from the questionnaire and the
skills survey were analyzed and
computerized using the Statically Package for Social
Science (SPSS) . From SPSS calculation we find the Mean (M), Standard deviation (St.D),
Percentages (%) . All the results is used to examine the real ICT ,networks , e-learning
situations in the UoMust. ICT skills avaliable for academic , technical , and adminstrative
staff . The capabilities of using internet in e-learning and other academic research works.
The academic staff directions and the attitude to the e-learning and training them to use elearning softwares . We use the result to proposed the BC HR plan for the UoMust. A lakert
scale of six points was used (Michaela N. Gelin 2003) , and they are : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 ,
Agree(A) 5 ,Neutral(N) 4 ,Disagree(DA) 3 ,Strongly Disagree(SDA) 2 ,Don’t Know(DK) 1
.(Khater 2008; Mohammad 2008).
10. Results
The survey questionnaire for ICT and e-learning skills. the result (table. 1) shows that there
is a huge missing information about e-learning and also there is no experience at all in elearning software used in it like moodle or LMS or jusur, (50.9% , 50.9% , 51%) . Most of
the academic staff stated for us that e-learning could be useful to enhance the traditional
learning face to face methods (89%) since there is no using for any kind of educational
technologies (51%) because it is not offered in the university class rooms till now (M=3).
Most of the academic staff welcome the study tours or visits to the international standards
universities (79.5%) to see the e-learning projects and using, and also the joining the
international conferences about (M=83.1%) and the university role to help them by funding
these conference joining.
The university senior academic staff have a basic ICT skills like using MS Word (M=5.58)
and Power Point (4.83) but not more. Their skills in using MS Excel or other office
application is weak (M=3.38, 3.16). The result shows also that a lot of the academic staff still
using the traditional methods in their teaching duties and they do not have electronic students
records (M=3.94) and the main reason for that they do not have computers in their offices till
now (M=3.25) and their using for the ICT is to done from their houses that is used for their
researches, communicate with the others …etc and most if them using the internet for around
six hours weekly at least. Most of them highly welcomed training them outside Iraq for elearning or ICT skills (M=5.7). Also they believe that establishing national e-learning center
will be very useful (M=5.74) and also a center in each university (93.1%).
Table. 1: ICT and e-learning skills survey for senior UoMust academic staff
Statement
Mean
Percentage%
I think my student are ready to use the net to gain my courses after the class room
4.23
70.5% Med.
5.34
89% v.good
I have a lot of information about e-learning networks
2.65
44% Poor
All the university academic staff use the educational technologies
3.06
51% Poor
It is very important to establish national e-learning center
5.74
95.7% excel.
It is very important to establish e-learning center in all the universities.
5.58
93.1% excel.
It is very important to visit other universities in scientific study tours
4.775
79.5% Med.
It is very important to join e-learning conferences
4.98
83.1% v.good
It is very important to train the senior staff in universities out side Iraq
5.7
95% excel.
I have electronic records for all my students (now and passed)
3.94
65.7% Med.
I know how to use all the MS Office
3.38
56.3% Poor
I know how to use MS Word
5.58
93% excel.
I know how to use MS PowerPoint
4.83
80.6% v.good
I know how to use MS Excel and MS Access
3.16
52.7% Poor
I know how to use Moodle software
3.06
50.9% Poor
I know how to use LAMS software
3.06
50.9% Poor
I know how to use JUSUR software
3.06
51% Poor
I have a connected in computer my office in university
3.25
54.1% Poor
I will use the educational technologies if it is offered in the class rooms
5.53
92.1% excel.
A lot of training ICT courses are offered for the academic staff
3.49
58.2% Poor
finish
I think the best way is to use the CAL with the face to face traditional learning
methods at the beginning
I use ICT to organize and manage my work
4.88
81.4% v.good
I use ICT to prepare lessons
4.8
80% v.good
I use ICT to find digital learning resources
5.82
97% excel.
I use ICT to design and produce my own digital learning resources
4.35
72.5% Med.
I use ICT to communicate with colleagues
5.35
89.1% v.good
I use ICT to communicate with your pupils
5.35
89.1% v.good
I use ICT to communicate with school management and educ. administrations
3.14
52.3% Poor
I use ICT to analyze student achievement/ performance data
3.67
61.2% Med.
I can deal with most technical problems that arise when using ICT
3.41
56.9% Poor
I feel confident with ICT and would like to use it more effectively
6
100% excel.
I use the Internet on a regular basis (approx number of 6 hours per week)
4.47
74.5% Med.
I search for all the update technologies in ICT
3.55
59.2% Poor
I read all the up to date researches in e-learning
3.55
59.2% Poor
I have at least one research in e-learning
3.79
63.2% Med.
I follow all the up to date technologies in e-learning like e-learning2 and M-
3.81
63.6% Med.
learning…etc.
11. The HR Capacity Building Plan
After fixing the e-learning frame work and the technological needs after complete the designs
layout and maps (as shown in the figure 6 & 7)
A complete three parts plan for the BC HR development is shown in table.3. are:
First is:
the technology expertise transfer and that come from (e-learning projects study
tours, Join Internationals e-learning conferences) (1, 2, and 7)
Second: is the general ICT skill training course. (4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10)
Third is: the e-learning specific programs training courses. (3 and 12) and for hardware and
maintenance was (11).
Fourth is: the special training for the project management group. (9)
The websites training plan and the to Interface Design was apart of the plan and it is not
secret that thousands of good learning programs failed to achieve its goals even it was
programmed and designed with top quality e-learning software with using up to date
computers specifications. The program will help the trainers on how to create the required
interaction and motivation, the feedback control the learning speed and time and other
website and interface deign elements. figure.6
Figure.6 : the interface design elements
Figure.7 : The e-learning activities in UoMust
Table.2: The
complete
double HR
CB plan for the UoMust
Number
of
Total
P.1
P.2
P.3
P.4
P.5
P.6
joining
activity
4
4
4
4
4
4
months
months
months
months
months
months
persons
Workshop
1
20
-
-
-
-
20
40
Review of Targeting and eligibility determination
1
option for University senior academic staff
2
Targeting and eligibility determination
Study Tour
1
30
50
-
-
-
50
130
3
Moodle - LAMS and Jusur software’s
Training C.
1
30
30
20
20
20
20
140
4
Development Tools
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
5
Application Server
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
6
Database Management
Training C.
5
10
10
-
20
20
20
80
7
International IT Conferences
Conferences
6
15
5
5
5
15
15
60
24
125
115
25
85
95
165
610
8
Website Training
Training C.
6
14
10
10
10
10
10
64
9
Training of Supervisors
Training C.
1
10
-
-
-
-
-
10
10
Training of System Operators
Training C.
2
56
-
-
56
-
-
112
11
IT Technical Training
Training C.
6
40
40
20
20
20
20
160
Training C.
6
30
30
30
30
30
30
180
Subtotal
21
150
80
60
116
60
60
526
Total
55
275
195
85
201
155
225
1136
Subtotal
UoMust Academic senior Staff IT Proficiency
12
Training (Word, Excel, etc) (10%)
Total time for the complete double capacity building is 2 complete years (24 Months)
It is designed according to the World Bank capacity Building Standards
Figure (9): The Program time table
Figure (10): Training plan flow Chart
13. HR CB Location
Finding a place that can cover three main requirements was the target with the language and
the costs, it was the hardest part of the plan, these requirements of the training proposed place
was:
1-Advance in ICT technologies and have a good training centers.
2-Advance e-learning projects.
3-High standards universities.
4-Acceptable costs
5-The language
After searching a lot of studies in the Middle East, Gulf zone, and Islamic countries, it was
found that e-learning is still at the beginning steps in most of these countries, beside there is a
big differences in their higher education systems that used in these countries universities .The
best was found in four countries, and they are Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey and Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. One of the best between them was Malaysia, this country have a good
institutional structured , highly science and technology progressed universities and most of
them are British standards universities .A lot of the big ICT companies have a good centers
and branches in Malaysia like Intel , Microsoft , Cisco…etc, and all of them have training
centers with high standards . The Malaysian society is similar to the Iraqi from the Islamic
religion, the multi races, different cultures beside the using of the English language and also
there are a lot of e-learning and education summits, meetings and conferences .Here it was
found that the best place for the HR BC in UoMust or in Iraq as general is Malaysia, since its
universities have good e-learning projects.
The searching for the university guide us to the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM:
http://www.usm.my), this university have been implementing e-learning since 1983 with the
systematic redesign of learning materials into printed pedagogic self-instructional modules
incorporating audio and videocassettes, slides and filmstrips. The prominent inclusion of
telecommunications was brought about by the introduction of audio teleconferencing in 1988
and the incorporation of an electronic writing board in 1989. In June, 1995, USM once again
made history in distance education and e-;earning in Malaysia in particular, and the world in
general, by joining the elite universities of the world in using interactive full-motion video
conferencing and in August 1997. A home-grown electronic portal was launched in 2003
with full migration to Moodle in December 2005. As of 2006, the video conferencing
sessions are steamed live on the Internet enabling student access from anywhere in the world
(with connection).
12. Conclusion
As general post evaluation for the complete e-education UoMust show us very clear that there
are a great welcome and moralization towards the HR CB plan by the university academic
staff. ( Mean was 4.32 ,75%) and also the plan was well organized and planned (M=4.3 ,
71%) and UoMust must do its HR CB according to its needs and must not controlled by the
ministry of higher education (85%).
The HR BC plan is cover all the required fields for the e-learning project and ICT, hardware
and software in UoMust and could be expand also to cover some other skills like
management, language, maintenance, and others if it is required.
Outside Iraq universities visiting and conferences joining is very important element in the HE
CB because of the big technological gap between Iraqi universities and others international
universities,
Table.3: Some of the post evaluation project results related to the HR CB
Statement
Focusing on the capacity building for the senior
academic staff is very important and urgent
UoMust trials towards IC3 & other activities are
good steps towards adopting e-learning
The proposed human resources capacity building is
well planned and organized plan.
It is a big mistake to control universities international
human resources capacity building by the ministry in
conditions like Iraq conditions
There must be continues CB evaluation
Dealing with human resources capacity building
dimension plan and fix its required budget is very
important element in the project implementation.
SA
123
A
39
N
11
DA
5
SDA
2
DK
51
MEAN
4.352
%
75.54
83
19
37
29
45
18
4.051
67.53
107
16
31
19
33
25
4.3
71.71
147
9
43
17
12
3
5.095
84.92
105
99
38
41
33
49
18
13
27
12
10
17
4.632
4.653
77.2
77.56
Great challenging will face the executing of the proposed complete HR BC plan. Two
workshops is planned in the program , one at the beginning of the project and the other is at
the end for review of targeting and eligibility determination option for UoMust senior
academic staff and will invite to it a lot of the big expertise holders from all of the world and
the country where the program will be executed.
Training inside Iraq is better than train in out side Iraq , but since the security subject in Iraq
is still missing, and most of the big companies still put red lines against any project in Iraq
especially after the kidnapping of the British ICT expertise from the ministry of finance last
year 2009 , so the choices will be very limited and train outside Iraq is the best choice with
the additional benefit that could be gained and strength the relation with the ICT companies
and their updates.
The funding and the budget will be other challenge, since it is very difficult times in Iraq
because of the rebuilding cost and the government is to fund every where. Such program need
a special budget to complete it and achieved the targeted goals and it is better to look for
other ordinary ways for funding it like USAID, JICA, World Bank...etc. A lot of the UoMust
academic staff encourages that direction in the funding process for the project.
Executing such multi dimensional programs need for well structured institutions. The
institutional structures of the most of the Iraqi government bodies still very weak and in the
first step of repairing them, and universities are from these bodies. The role of the upper
ministry still controls the work view in Iraqi universities. The missing of the leadership role
taken into consideration and a special program is designed for that in the plan, and this is also
other challenge that must be solved.
The luck of the e-learning experience is also an other challenge and starting from the zero
point will be very difficult , so the program is designed to have the study tours and visits ,
joining the international conferences to gain the experience from the progressed others and
transfer it to Iraq. “Study Tours as an effective and efficient means to transmit institutional
development methods and experiences”.
http://www.escwa.un.org/divisions/ecri_editor/Download.asp?table_name=meetings&field_n
ame=id&FileID=104
Malaysia as one of the leading countries in the e-learning is the best place for the academic
staff university visits especially.
Malaysia is the best place for executing the program and it is better to do it completely in
USM, and this university will play the additional adviser role for the Iraqi side since they
have along history in e-learning from 1983.
The cost of executing the program in Malaysia will be lower than from any other country
because of the lower living standards in it even with the big distance between the two
countries. The best way for that is to sign Memorandum of Understanding MOU between
UoMust and USM for this project.
Every thing in this small World is being changed by IT revolution (through the idea from Top
down to Bottom up), it become very important to all of us to obtain the skills of IT in this
information digital world and it is closely to be a world first language. In the fact and by the
experiments, gaining the technology itself only is not enough for a true empowerment. As
educators and educational technologies researchers, it is very important to change our self’s
and having informational mind to recognize what kind of information we should access and
analyzing information with learning or educational perspective.
Without strong local institutions and motivated staff, decentralization and human settlements
reform will not deliver the desired development outcomes. Yet, many local authorities lack
human resources required to meet urgent needs. HR Training as part of capacity building is
therefore a wise investment into the future sustainability of our UoMust.
14. References:
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Society. First International Conference on e-Learning and Distance Learning (eLi 2009),
Riyadh , KSA.
Bank, W. (2009). Interim Strategy Note for The Republic of IRAQ for The Period Mid
FY09-FY11. W. Bank: 73.
Dezaye, N. K. A. (2009). Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq
Kurdistan: A Case Study , Quality in Higher Education, 15(1): pp.71-77.
Elameer, A. and R. Idrus (2010). E-learning model for the University of Mustansiriyah in
Baghdad, Iraq. 3rd International Future-Learning Conference On Innovations in Learning for
the Future 2010:e-Learning , May 10-14, 2010. Istanbul - Turkey
Elameer, A. and R. Idrus (2010). E-Learning Strategy for the Iraqi Higher Education Sector.
The 5th International Conference on e-Learning Penang , Malaysia , 12-13 July , 2010 . pp.
101-109, Academic Publishing Limited, Reading , UK.
Harb, I. (2008). Higher Education and the Future of Iraq. Special Report No. 195. The United
States Institute of Peace. Washington, D.C.: 16.
Husain, M. A. (2004) IRAQ , Education in Transition Volume, DOI:
ICT in Education. (2004). Infor mation and communication technologies in teacher
http://www.unes cobkk.org/inde
education: A planning guide. Available at
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Idrus, R. M. (2006) Educational Media in Malaysia. Country Profiles. Commonwealth of
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Chapter
Three
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25-33.,
Vancouver
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Canada,
[online]
www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/EdMediaAsia_P1.pdf .
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and Kurdistan: A Case Study " Quality in Higher Education 15(1): 71-77.
Khan, B. H. (2004). "The People–Process–Product Continuum in E-Learning: The ELearning P3 Model." Educational Technology 44(Issue of Educational Technology): pp. 3340.
Khan, B. H. (2005). E-learning Quick Checklist, Information Science Publishing, Idea
Group Inc, Hershey PA, USA.
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in Information Society, Information Science
Publishing, Idea Group Inc, Hershey PA, USA:
Khan, B. H. (2009). E-Learning - The Global e-Learning Framework. STRIDE Handbook 8.
S. Mishra. New Delhi–110 068 , Maidan Garhi, The Indira Gandhi National Open University
(IGNOU). 1: 42-52.
Khater, M. (2008). e-Learning Information Portal Design Using PHP/MySQL. The first eLearning Excellence in the Middle East 2008, Dubai, UAE.
Kubba, J. (2009). Expedited Revival for Iraqi Higher Education Institutions. 1st International
Conference for Iraqi Experts in the Diaspora.
Kurti, E. (2008) Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of
Prishtina, Kosova. School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering. Prishtina,
University of Prishtina,.
Mohammad, j. A. (2008). "Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT
Applications in the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables." Journal of
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Paanakker, H. L. (2009). Higher Education in Iraq under Attack. School of Social
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Sakarya – Turkey
April, 2011
The Turkish Online Journal of
Educational Technology - TOJET
THE HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS
FOR THE E- LEARNING
FRAMEWORK IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF MUSTANSIRIYAH (UOMUST) ,
BAGHDAD – IRAQ
The Hardware Specifications for the e- Learning
Framework in the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) ,
Baghdad - Iraq
Amer Saleem Elameer, Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education,
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com , rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract
The world ICT revolution is a concept that Iraqi people only hear about. A 2009 report from a prequestionnaire from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNENSCWA) about ICT in Iraq showed clearly the real ICT data and situation. Seven years after the
war, the Iraqi people have failed to rebuild the electric system of the country and are now in urgent
need for the support from the International world community. Based on the modified Khan e-learning
model, a complete hardware layout and specification was designed for the university, fixing 5 GB for
each student from the 40266 students studying in the university as part of the e-Education system. A
comprehensive wiring and wireless hardware design have been completed according to university elearning framework covering an area of six campuses of the university located in different areas in
Baghdad. At least two Internet providers are required for each of the university e-learning centers.
The connection between university campuses will be through the VSAT systems. A minimum number
of 62 servers and 1630 computers are required kick-start its’ electronic education activities.
1. Introduction:
With scientific and technological enormous developments and the use of information and
communication technology in education , scientific research , management (MIS) and the emergence
of the information revolution, It has become an urgent need to the develop of education and to
establish new strategies for the new digitized education.
One of the products of this information revolution was the advent of e-learning which is adopted on
multimedia and Internet as strategic option for the development of education.
To apply e-learning we must re-engineering the learning institutions to accept it, and reinforced it with
all the technologies that it need it.
These sophisticated technical needs when it applied in universities and learning institutions that have
administrative perfect build on scientific bases in the framework of educational planning and
education management, for sure the achievement of the education goals will be great.
In Iraq and most of the Arab Middle East countries, it becomes very urgent to change old education
systems in line with scientific and technological developments and the revolution in modern
information. Most of these countries start its steps towards the new ICT in education and learning
procedures but in Iraq and because of the internal problems it does not start till now correctly.
2. The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
It is one of the biggest governmental universities in Iraq which is located at the heart of Baghdad and
providing higher education studies by all it degrees (BA, B.Sc, M.Sc, MA, & PhD. It was opened in
1963 again holding the name of the Complete University and in 1968 they change it into Al
Mustansiriyah University referring to the ( AlMustansiriyah Madresa ) which built by Al Mustansir
Billah in Baghdad and was opened 5th of may - Rijiab in 1234- 631.
The total number of the students in UoMust is 42315 students and this biggest number of the
students is in Bachelor level (B.Sc or B.A ) and UoMust have two types of studies in this level , one is
the ordinary and known as the Public free studies ( Morning studies )( students nominated from the
ministry according to their achievements in secondary schools which is enter to the central Iraqi
acceptance system that run by higher education ministry ) , and the other is Private studies ( Evening
studies )( it is and it is not free and open for all the ages ) as shown in figure.1. UoMust also have
five centers of excellence (1-Arabic and International Studies center, 2-National Center for
Hematology, 3-Iraqi Center for Cancer Researches, 4-National Diabetics Center, and 5- Computer &
Internet Center). http://www.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/english_index.html.
The total number of the working academic staff UoMust is 3141 distributed between (132 Professors,
528 Ass.Pofessor, 897 Lecturers, and 1584 Ass.Lecturers).as shown in the figure.2. The number of
the employs in the UoMust is 2955 and they are 1765 female and 1199 male and most of them
holding bachelor degrees and this higher number is due to the high number of the security and guards
because of the violence in Baghdad as shown in figure.3. UoMust suffers from the leakage in number
of the computers and peripherals and it have only 2669 computer which it mean about 18 students to
one computer which is for sure is very low percentage beside that a college like Basic Education does
not have only 52 computers in front of 8167 students, as shown in figure.4. This university was the
most damaged university in 2003 in Iraqi higher education sector in Iraq and it was completely looted
and burned in very sad pictures and views “Mustansiriyah University may be considered as an
example of these damages. Mustansiriyah is the second largest university in Iraq and has an
architectural design similar to the University of Baghdad. After the war, 5 of its buildings were
extensively damaged, i.e., the university administrative building, presidency, College of Education
building, Political Institute and the Student’s Club” (Husain, 2004)(Paris :UNESCO2004 ) .
Figure.1: The UoMust students distribution
Figure.2: The UoMust Academic staff
distribution
Figure.3: The UoMust employees distribution
2. Current ICT Initiatives and Projects in Iraq
Figure.4: The UoMust computers distribution
In Iraq we cannot said that the government does not pay the attention to the ICT , but the efforts that
paid in the budget that is funded for that is not what the ICT needed or the benefits that will come from
it .(ESCWA, 2009). A lot of a good efforts have paid for that but not in the ministry of higher education
(O’Malley, 2010), it is in the ministry of science and technology and ICT initiatives are currently in
very well progress in Iraq by this ministry which start to work even in e-government in Iraq but in very
difficult conditions (Baghdad ranked (215) and it is the world’s least safe city).
(http://www.mercer.com/summary.htm?idContent=1309430 ) .With support from CRDF, the Ministry
of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq developed a virtual science library in collaboration
with 25 Iraqi universities and five ministries.196 Currently, some 6,350 users are registered for
services of this library, which contains more than 4,000 books and articles from major scientific
publishers.(ESCWA, 2009)
Iraq located in the level that is characterized by poor use of ICT applications in Government,
weakness or absence of e-commerce and related legislation, limited usage of ICT in education ,
inferior usage of ICT in health care, and barely perceptible use in the employment sector.(ESCWA,
2009).
The international organization does not support this sector, and for example a big project sponsored
by UNESCO and the Libyan government, involves the establishment of the Libyan Higher Education
and Research Network (LHERN) nut they do not do such project in Iraq. It is roughly estimated that
Iraqi universities needed at least for more than 250000 computers to start rebuild its infrastructure
again. Iraqi have to transfer the technology from the advanced countries in this field , and use the
relation between the Iraqi universities and the other progressed world universities for design its
infrastructure and implement the ICT networks and for example in Malaysia now and in Universiti Tun
Hussien Onn Malaysia (UTHM) it is expects that its new network platform from 3Com will use 60 per
cent less power than solutions from other providers , and 3Com's new H3C data-centre solutions will
enable UTHM to consolidate operations and lower networking costs , and that what Iraqi really in
need for it . (http://www.mis-asia.com/news/articles/malaysian-universitys-network-upgrade-will-useless-power-3com). Ministry of higher education in Iraq need to design its universities network with a
very high quality standards with great efficiency to connect the universities between them and the
outside world and they have learn from others and one of the samples that we proposed for them is
the CTENT the city university of Hong Kong network design which is one of the best and good
network with high standards and quality as shown in figure.5 , or like the university Sains Malaysia
(USM) network design that shown in figure.6.
Figure.5: The city university of Hong Kong
network design
Figure.6: The USM network design
4. Iraq & Internet
Internet now days become the language, the food, the air, the friend, the book ….etc, and play a big
role in the higher education progress and as shown in the figure. That states for us that most of the
achieved countries in education have a good internet service. In the last few years, universities reach
the internationalization and globalization in the field of the higher education. Communication and
information technologies represented by the Internet made the provision of higher education services
across national borders possible. Internationalization and globalization promote mutual understanding
between different countries; to attract skilled workers in a globalised economy , to generate additional
revenues by higher education institutions; or to build a more educated workforce.(Aoki, 2005)
Before the 2003 internet was limited allowed in Iraq and under high monitor from the security bodies
in Iraq. After 2003 everything in Iraq changed and become a completely free country but the problem
that present in front of Iraqi is the destroying of all the communications and its infrastructures. Internet
invade Iraq but by using the wireless signals in very busy sky of signals and by using old styles of
transformation the internet signals by using access point or old devices. As a result the service that
reach all the Iraqi institutions and house is very bad but it is better than not reach. The Internet reach
users in Iraq without any capability for download or upload and very slow and most of the bandwidth
is shared with a lot of users and not continuous because of the signals overlap and security signals
disturbance. The cost of the service is about to be 30 U$ per a month of a service.
5. UoMust and Internet
Implementing a university network infrastructure with broadband internet is a prerequisite and the
target of the UoMust, but for such successful implementation of an e-learning system, it seems very
difficult and it is reflected also in the technological proficiency of the UoMust academic staff. A report
to UNESCWA which is the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
from the Iraqi commission of Computers and information which is one the Higher Education
Ministry bodies in Iraq , published at the end of year 2007 shows that there is a great weakness in
all of the ministry and universities infrastructures with luck of computers networking and expertise
in both field of hardware and software ,and in the UoMust the report shows that university have
only five shared v-sat internet connection and the working is only three of them and for sure now
the situation in the university is better than what the report have stated .
With students it is a completely different situation especially because of the internet and mobile
culture that exists widely among youth population in Iraq now days and according to the mobile
companies it are over 20 million of Iraqi people now days holding mobiles which is about to be (70%)
of the Iraqi population with three International companies and they still using the second mobile
generations in a world reach the fourth mobile technology. Just a small example in front of us that the
biggest mobile company in Iraq which is called Zain also work in Bahrain and their work in Iraq is at
least double sized in Bahrain but this company build a big e-learning center for the University of
Bahrain (http://www.elearning.uob.edu.bh/ ) and do a lot of conferences and workshops and
complete covered it while it do nothing in Iraq and have no influence. The Iraqi universities still far
away from the internationalization and globalization concepts but they are in the way and will reach
soon. The UN figure. below in 2007 and modified data in January 2010 shows that Iraq is in the
lowest of the world countries for the number of the internet users and we think that this graph even it
is useful for us but is not correct because of the increasing of the Iraqi internet users with all bad
living conditions in Iraq without electricity and continuous violence.
Figure.7:Countries Education achievement (UN)
Figure.8:Internet users in some countries (UN)
6. E-Learning
E-Learning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan viewed “an innovative approach for delivering
well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to anyone, anyplace,
anytime, by utilizing the attributes and resources of various digital technologies along with other forms
of learning materials suited for open and distributed learning environment” .(Khan, 2009)
For us and here, E-Learning:
Is the near past , today , future of the learning and teaching .It is a complete electronic educational
system which use all the up to date technologies in the ICT filed to enhance and enrich the learning
process and change it core from the teacher to the student .
7. The Statement of the purpose
From 1990 the universities in all of the world start to respond to emerging challenges such as the
continual developments in information and communication technology (ICT) and they start to use the
Information management systems in their daily academic works. But Iraq at that time was far away
from the civilized world and globalization and under heavily UN economic sanctions.
The main objective of our research is to put the tools in the hands of the subject matter expert in an
attempt to leverage technology and knowledge to build quality e-learning system in a short period of
time by fixing the Technological needs according to the proposed complete e-learning system for the
University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust), Baghdad – Iraq according to the university needs.
8. Methodology
The methodology model that has been used by the researcher is: The Analysis, Design,
Development, Implementation, Evaluation (ADDIE) model. A special ADDIE instructional ring design
for the university of Mustansiriyah e-learning project has been done, and summarize with all its
activities in the figure.9 below after fixing the e-Learning Constraints in Iraq. Figure.10.
Figure.9: the instructional UoMust ADDIE design
Figure.10: E-Learning Constraints in IRAQ
8.1. The Analysis
The study is based on two data sources: interviews and a study of documents. A clear set of contrasts
has become apparent from these two data sources set out the framework
8.2. The Design and Development
For this purpose the research was led using the octagonal theoretical model for e-learning. The eight
factors in this model have then been grouped in three major domains: educational,
technological and organizational.
8.3. The E-Learning Model
In Iraq now it is very difficult to change the traditional delivery styles directly. We need to organize
and prepare the ground for the changes first (Masami, 2006), this preparation will take place by adopt
the e-learning as support activity to the face to face traditional learning method. The supporting
approach will require that the teacher is present in the self-study (Abualsaoud, 2009; Al-Busaidi & AlShihi, 2010; Chendeb & Nasr, 2010).
8.3.1 Badrul H. Khan e-learning frame work
The Khan framework is one of the most best and complete comprehensive theoretical e-learning
models. E-Learning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan stated: An innovative approach for
delivering well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to
anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilizing the attributes and resources of various digital technologies
along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and distributed learning
environment.(AlMusawi, 2010; Khan, 2005, 2006, 2009)
This framework can be divided into three major domains: first is the Educational Sector containing
the elements of Pedagogical, Ethical and Evaluation. The second is the Technological Sector
containing the elements of Technology and Interface Design) and the third domain is the Managerial
Sector containing the elements of Institutional, Resource support and Management.(Kurti, 2008)
The emergence of this frame work made the greatest impact in the revolution of e-learning that take
place in the all of the learning sector since this framework, for the last 13 years, described all the
education and learning process. Further, the framework also offered the logical base for all the elearning instructional designers on how to design and implement effective learning environment in the
e-learning process using the interactions afforded via computers and internet, taking into
consideration and stating all the factors that could affect the proposed designs. The Khan framework
is still widely utilized until today.(Aloraini, 2009; Kurti, 2008; Suhail & Mugisa, 2007).
Nonetheless, from our point of view Khan Framework is a complete education system that can even
be defined as an e-education or framework for technology enhanced education. Re-defining the
framework as e-education denotes that the Khan framework could be used for any other educational
technologies in education.
8.3.2. Khan Framework Modification
Our stated differences with this framework is a trial to reinforced it only and for that we called it the
modified framework and not new framework because we retained all the original dimensions
Inside Khan Frame work and these difference comes from our deeply investigation inside the elearning process, environment, learning type, the new revolution of wireless technologies. (Prof. Dr.
Khan on his last book and all his writing agrees that)(Khan, 2009).
In Khan Framework that consisted of eight dimensions. Our deliberations have resulted in the
following considerations;
•
We rearranged the dimensions locations inside the octagonal such that the technology
domain is located at the base, denoting the pivotal nature of technology.
•
A wireless technologies element was added as sub-components to the technological
dimension as it relates to current communication modes and is an important factor in the total cost of
the e-learning.
•
In the Khan’s resources support dimension, we added the technological human resources
capacity building which was missing from the frame work; human resources capacity building in ICT
plays a critical role in supporting hardware, software’s and the instructors on new and emerging
technologies.
•
Content was given its own domain in light of the focus on learning objects and educational
resources
•
Learner was given a central dimension moving towards learner-centered teaching and
learning environment.
•
Khan does not take in to the consideration the time as a dimension or sub-dimension but if
we want to use his frame work in blended learning we have to take this important factor in to
consideration.
8.3.3. Why the Modification
There is no doubt that Khan frame work is an encompassing educational framework but our
investigation and discovery of related researches portrayed a clear view that it is suitable and
appropriate at the time that it was formulated and constructed. However, many factors and emerging
trends have taken prominence that could gave way for an extended approach taking into account
current focus and issues.
In a country like Iraq which there is no stability in all of the life conditions which start from its political
system , new democracy concepts, infrastructure, learners, material resources; it would be difficult to
wholly adopt the Khan framework as it stands. As a case in point in the Iraqi higher education, we
found that Iraqi universities are still without any up to date technologies and it is very difficult to ask
its academic staff to adopt e-leaning into its academic activities and more than 70% have not even
heard about a Moodle , LAMS , …etc.
Here we have to solve this problem which provided us the impetus to consider relevant the
modification in the framework. Also in the Iraq we found that the government do not give due
attention to the ICT infrastructures and currently wireless technologies could play a big role in the
learning scenario.
Naturally, pivotal issues will have to be included and the Khan framework in its original state will have
to undergo modification to address impending local issues especially in designing the framework of
the Iraqi higher education.
8.3.4. New Framework for the E-Learning
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world’s adoption of e-learning commenced in
a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning and the instruction occur both in the classroom
and online, and where the online component becomes a natural extension of traditional classroom
learning (Fook et al, 2005).
Our modified Khan 2009 framework was the base of our framework along with an exemplary elearning system of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) via the School of Distance Education; utilizing
a blend of self-instructional text, state of the art video conferencing learning environment (VCLE)
delivery system and an electronic portal including the Learning Activity Management System.
Then we combined between the USM model with its VCLE with our modified Khan model we have a
new framework that is customized for the need and purpose of the University of Mustansiriyah
(UoMust) as it fulfilled all the university educational needs.
The combined framework has resulted in an e-learning system centralizing on the learner with
content and time control. As a matter of fact, the combined framework can be deemed as an eeducation system due to its comprehensiveness to cater for any impending changes in the
environment.
Since the University of Mustansiriyah and all of Iraq are lacking in an official e-learning policy or
system, the new framework will serve as a functional framework in the technology enhanced learning
landscape.
Figure. 11: the complete e-learning framework for the UoMust with the activities details
9. The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the
research work, and according to ( Marczyk et al. (2005)) “in most types of research studies, the
process of data analysis involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the data for analysis, (2)
analyzing the data, and (3) interpreting the data”.
A survey technique was used to investigate the attitude to the e-learning in the University of
Mustansiriyah , the directions of the academic staff towards the e-learning , the model of the
combination of Badrul Huda Khan eight dimensions model with the school of distance education in the
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning system that we proposed for the University of
Mustansiriyah, the variables that effect the quick movement toward the using of IT in the educational
process in Iraqi higher education sector or delay it…..etc.
Preparing the data for analysis was by designing a questionnaire after examine a group of previous
studies and surveyed related literature to the research subject to collect the required data.
The questionnaire divided into two parts, the first was the general information and personal questions
(Academic Degree, Experience years, ICT skills, Age, Qualifications ...etc) and the second is
included the targeted and investigation questions and it were divided in to 9 categories (
Management, Institutional, Technology, Evaluation, Ethical, Interface Designs, Human Resources,
Pedagogical & General ) .
The questionnaire was distributed and given to 350 academics from the university academic staff, but
the complete answers come from only 287 person and they were 131 male and 156 female, 189 PhD
degree holders and 98 Master degree holder, 35 of them are professor, 95 assistant professor, 111
lecturer and 46 assistant lecturer, only 25 of them are without enough skills in using computers. The
other group general information showed in the tables 1, 2 and 3 below.
10. Statistical Procedure
All the Statement answers and the data that had been taken from the questionnaire were analyzed
and computerized using the Statically Package for Social Science (SPSS) to be statistically
calculated to find the Mean (M), Standard deviation (St.D), Percentages (%), and it was big data .All
the results from the SPSS is used to examine the directions and the attitude to the e-learning
establishment in the University of Mustansiriyah and Higher Education Sector in Iraq in general and
the proposed e-learning model. A lakert scale of six points was used (Michaela N. Gelin 2003) , and
they are : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 , Agree(A) 5 ,Neutral(N) 4 ,Disagree(DA) 3 ,Strongly Disagree(SDA) 2
,Don’t Know(DK) 1 .(Mohammad, 2008), Dezaye, 2009)
establishing the e-learning networks can
support the universities professors in their
educated duties
5.3519
0.99202
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in
all of the Iraqi universities
5.2509
1.26814
The universities budgets are enough to develop
the Iraqi universities.
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of the
administrative staff
All the Iraqi universities have a good budget for
building capacity
Training the administrative high staff is very
important to develop the Iraqi universities
All the universities are atomized by ICT
3.2857
1.88532
3.2822
1.69134
2.8676
1.66512
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of
ICT technical staff
The technical staff are well trained
3.2683
1.78997
3.3101
1.78122
3.324
1.24156
4.7143
1.77647
3.6028
1.59158
3.1882
1.1248
3.9268
1.49996
It is better to use the sandwich technique in
training the staff better than complete long time
training programs
It is better to the universities to find a kind of
relationship with the big names of ICT
companies like Microsoft , Cisco , ….etc
5.3763
1.23662
2.6376
1.2065
5.4774
1.15208
3.6481
1.28935
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce
the law that protect the authors from stealing
their offers especially in ICT
5.6063
1.20388
2.7108
1.23893
There are a good numbers of computers in the
administrative offices
1.8537
1.40908
2.3275
0.82617
All the Iraqi universities have it own computer
network
All the Iraqi universities have its own wireless
network and it is with a good bandwidth that
cover all needs inside these universities
campuses
There are a good numbers of internet cafes and
connections to cover the needs of the students
and university staff
There is a good electronic library and virtual
library inside each school and department
instead of main big library supplied with all ICT
needs from A to Z.
All the academic universities staff science works
like researches, projects are likely to be done
with ICT.
2.6551
0.94767
2.7735
0.72004
2.8467
0.69276
There are a big numbers of computers ,
computer labs and internet connections in all of
the Iraqi universities , and there is no leakage in
this field
Each staff have its own computer for his daily
work and it is connected to the main university
network
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one
higher education network
All the students are allowed to use the wireless
network inside these universities from their
private laptops
2.5436
0.58896
2.9652
1.43099
There are a good computers maintenance
centers inside each universities
3.1916
1.60469
2.8188
1.05202
All the student affairs and academic
achievements works are atomized from A to Z
by using ICT.
2.5296
0.65178
4.3693
1.45666
All the Iraqi universities work very hard to
shrinkage the gap of the technology with outside
global world and they are doing well
5.69
0.835
All the Iraqi universities standards are similar to
those on the international universities standards
especially those related to the academic affairs
3.٧٢٨٢
1.٤٨٩٨٣
3.00
0.95712
It is best to use one system for student’s
registration in the Iraqi universities
4.9521
1.60345
3.3833
1.21448
It is better to link the Iraqi universities to an
international e-learning network till establish a
domestic e-learning network in Iraq for the
higher education sector.
It is very difficult to try to install e-learning
system without international help from outside
Iraq
The first step for any using of educational
technology in the Iraqi universities is to supply
all the class rooms with all the updated
computers, data show, OHP, TV and complete
audio system. And train the lecturers and push
them to use it.
I believe it is very important to send the
professors and lecturers to outside Iraq
universities to see the e-learning and other
technology and how they used it
There are many Providers of e-learning
materials in Iraq
5.0483
1.53436
All the update technology are offer also to the
lecturers in the class rooms like computers ,
data show , and all other multi media
instruments
All the universities have design its instructional
environments according to the international
instructional designs and standards.
It is ordinary to learn the students the etiquette
3.5993
1.52476
3.6934
1.52945
2.777
1.48626
5.5645
0.91712
All the Iraqi higher education institutes are well
structured foundations according to the
international universities standards
All the educational foundation in Iraq has the
capability to accept the modern and advanced
educational technology and have all the
requirements that needed.
٢٫٥٦١
1.٢٢٧١٤
6.00
-
It is important to design the universities websites
similar to the international universities and
especially in the using of e-learning and e-gates.
5.0418
1.467
2.108
1.00288
6.00
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the
Iraqi Higher Education project for establishing elearning network
I believe that all colleagues in the university are
ready for E-Learning deployment
establishing the e-learning networks can
support the universities professors in their
educated duties
5.1533
1.59862
5.4599
1.6067
5.3519
0.99202
It is very important to import the experience from
the international universities and try not to start
from zero point
It is very important to push the universities
academic staff to use the educational
technologies in the learning process.
I believe that E-Learning is the future of the
learning process
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in
all of the Iraqi universities
The universities budgets are enough to develop
the Iraqi universities.
3.2857
1.88532
All the technical staff are excellent in English
language
All the Iraqi universities academic staff have ICT
skills
It is better to the higher education sector to build
capacity of its need in the training centers of ICT
companies better than in independent training
centers
It is better to the universities to establish and
install its own networks by its technical staff than
referring to the outside universities companies
It very important to stop any kind of un legal
dealing with software for the using of the ICT
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of
ICT technical staff
5.4669
1.08942
4.9756
1.62027
5.2509
1.26814
3.2822
1.69134
All Iraqi universities have a good numbers of the
administrative staff
All the Iraqi universities have a good budget for
building capacity
Training the administrative high staff is very
important to develop the Iraqi universities
All the universities are atomized by ICT
2.8676
1.66512
The technical staff are well trained
3.2683
1.78997
3.3101
1.78122
3.324
1.24156
4.7143
1.77647
3.6028
1.59158
3.1882
1.1248
3.9268
1.49996
It is better to use the sandwich technique in
training the staff better than complete long time
training programs
It is better to the universities to find a kind of
relationship with the big names of ICT
companies like Microsoft , Cisco , ….etc
5.3763
1.23662
2.6376
1.2065
5.4774
1.15208
All the technical staff are excellent in English
language
All the Iraqi universities academic staff have ICT
skills
It is better to the higher education sector to build
capacity of its need in the training centers of ICT
companies better than in independent training
centers
It is better to the universities to establish and
install its own networks by its technical staff than
referring to the outside universities companies
It very important to stop any kind of un legal
dealing with software for the using of the ICT
3.6481
1.28935
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce
the law that protect the authors from stealing
their offers especially in ICT
5.6063
1.20388
2.7108
1.23893
There are a big numbers of computers ,
computer labs and internet connections in all of
the Iraqi universities , and there is no leakage in
this field
11. Hardware Required For the Proposed Model
11.1. What UoMust needs
Success in an e-learning system involves a systematic process of planning, designing, evaluating,
and implementing online learning environments where learning is actively fostered and supported.
(Khan, 2009)
11.1.1. Infrastructure Hardware
The infrastructure of the UoMust ICT must have the ability to support the e-learning that university is
embarking on but the university does not have it. UoMust is in urgent need for establishment of a
robust network infrastructure with a special hardware components , and as a word of truth the
university does not have any network or its components which it means that the university must start
from the zero point by finding a good and suitable place for the computer centers first of all , then
supply it with all it required needs from the various application servers and it accessories and, a mix
of shared and switched network technologies, , storage devices , high-speed fiber optic lines, electric
supply , air conditioning systems and others. In addition establish and development of an InterUniversity Wide Area Network, increase Internet access speeds (bandwidth) available to each user. It
is very important taking into consideration that the hardware component are designed specifically for
multi-media processing which includes e-learning , with the video conferencing systems for Elearning and communications , other IT works like the Library System and the Management
Information System (MIS).
At the beginning it is better for UoMust to establish different networks for the e-learning purpose (local
or wide area network). UoMust can decide that the e-learning environment is only accessible within its
premises (local network) or ubiquitously (wide area network). Such policies have to be debated before
the initialization of the e-learning process.
(( According to some numbers that gained from inside the university , the university now in huge luck
for computers and its accessories and the total number of computers that the UoMust have it now
does not exceed the 2700 working personal computer and the UoMust main computer center have
about 50 computer and the working is only 30 )).
14.1.2. Infrastructure Software:
11.1.2. Infrastructure Software:
The types of the software that can be selected for use in the e-learning process in UoMust is depend
on the e-learning model that has been proposed for the university. The software that will be used
inside the university e-learning model and e-learning environment software (Moodle, LAMS, and
JUSUR) are free to use and others are for rentable and in our model it is all free software’s in general.
Some Selection of e-learning environment software for use will depend on university and ministry
policy and probably the funding available. Also we have to take into consideration the future steps of
the e-learning environment software which will include Blackboard, WebCT ….etc.
11.2. Maintenance or Help desk
This is the centre where stakeholders can seek advice related to e-learning process. This is very
essential because of the limited direct contacts between the students and the tutors. If the students
require anything related to their e-learning process, there is always some one to help. For example if
the network is off, lost password, labs being occupied; stakeholders would need clarification from
whoever is concerned. The help can undertake this task of linking the stakeholders with other
administrative units.
11.3. Management Information System (MIS)
All Iraqi universities work without real Information Management systems. The main objective of the
Management Information System (MIS) component is to develop and deploy tri-level Management
Information System (MIS) architecture, as follows:
11-3-1.UoMust Operational Level: To support, facilitate and improve the services and activities that
are performed at all functional levels of public UoMust, to include Students Information, Financial
Systems, Personnel and Payroll, and Asset Management.
11-3-2.UoMust Executive Level: To support the management and the decision making process within
each university college as well as to enable adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM). The level
will provide aggregate information to University management on all aspects of operational level
systems.
11-3-3.Higher Education Ministry Level: To support the activities of HEC and improve its decision
making process as well as to enable more effective management of higher education, by providing
aggregate information for all Iraqi public universities.
•
University Operational Level: To support, facilitate, and improve the services and activities
that are performed at all functional levels of the UoMust.
•
University Executive Level: To support University management and the decision making
process within each university, as well as to enable the adoption of best practices in management (i.e.
TQM).
•
Higher Education Ministry Level: To support the activities of the Higher Education Ministry
and to improve the Council’s decision making process at the National level, and to enable more
effective management of public higher education in Iraq.
The idea of this research is to investigate UoMust academic staff experiences, opinions regarding the
implementation of full scale e-learning system.
12. How to Do It
UoMust must design at the first current Computer Information Technology Network (CITN) and the
second objective is to create the network to support the e-learning courses within the pedagological
learning environment students that will have access to required resources regardless of their
geographic location if they are in university or not, time, allow the students to remotely access to
UoMust network whenever they need to without any time constraints, or any other personal
constraints.
The UoMust network design will have a multi-tiered, logically centralized, hierarchal topology, which
will provide high availability, reliability, manageability, scalability, and sustainability. These network
servers will likely be located in the special center in UoMust because the university does not have
such place now and they have to build it or reform a place for it.
The prototype of our network design modeled the Purdue network including the main campus to the
remote site along with the virtual leg of the project. The prototype network included the various
servers such as DHCP, web, DNS, two Domain Controllers, and the virtual servers. To recreate this
scale model of the entire network, equipment such as servers (installed with various programs), Cisco
switches, Cisco routers, micro-routers, and Ethernet cables were used to simulate the network.
This prototype is a model network created to test the environment of the virtual network before it’s
implemented into the Computer Information Technology (CIT) Department’s curriculum. It will provide
us with the results needed to fulfill our network design requirements
12.1. Project Scope
The purpose of the UoMust prototype network was to simulate the remote access network of the
Computer Information Technology (CIT) centers and the entire network of UoMust. The virtual
network was then tested at various levels of the PUC network to find the best possible performance.
The networking scheme set for Purdue University Lafayette was 10.10.x.x, Purdue University Calumet
was 172.16.x.x, the CIT Department was 192.168.x.x, and the virtual network was 172.17.x.x. The
prototype network consists of the core, distribution, and access layers within the West Lafayette and
Calumet campuses, the CIT Department, and the virtual network. We utilized routers and switches to
mimic the Purdue University network architecture. The virtual network prototype required that eight
servers connect to a switch, which connects to the Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) server.
The ISA server connects to a core layer switch of the Purdue University Calumet network prototype.
The ISA server was created to mimic the Citrix Access Gateway. The prototype network will also
utilize a Windows VPN client which will provide a secure tunnel into the virtual network; this was
implemented on a server for testing purposes.
12.2. Equipments used in the design
The design will be consist eight servers that comprise the current network infrastructure of the UoMust
ICT but only five will be actually in production. And they are;
(J)
Database + Web + Application + File + Video Management + Standby Server (8 Server(s)
Accessible LAN Only)
•
Quad Core Xeon Pro X5460,12MB Cache,3.16GHz,1333MHz FSB
•
8GB Memory
•
2 Hotplug HDD ~ 300GB 15K RPM SAS Hard Drive
•
Intel(R) Pro/1000 Gigabit NIC
1st Server
is the domain controller, DNS server, and a backup server, it will be the domain controller (DC) and
SharePoint Portal 2010 Server , the software is Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server Enterprise Edition
It will function as the primary domain controller in active directory; it will also provide Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to the network and act as a gateway to the virtual network. This server
will run Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, will be the SharePoint Portal 2010 Server, and provide
web services to the university colleges and departments.
This server will be the domain controller and SharePoint Portal Server. This server will run Windows
Server 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server. It will provide web services through SharePoint, and will
be the gateway to the virtual network. This server will function as the primary domain controller in
active directory and will provide DHCP services to the network as well as manage user accounts
through active directory.
2nd Server
Is utilized for file and print sharing services, the software is Red Hat Linux Enterprise (RHEL) Version
5, Apache Web Server, Nagios Network Monitoring Tools, controlling the e-learning activities by its
software’s Moodle, LAMS and JUSUR.
This server in the network is the UoMust web server, student web server, and the Moodle LAMS and
JUSUR server. This server will be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, Internet Information
Services Web Server, Cacti Network Monitor Tool, and Moodle. The function of this server is to
provide a location for faculty and students to create personal web pages. This server will also allow
for the hosting of Moodle, a highly configurable resource for distance learning. Cacti will serve as the
network management and monitoring tool, it will use its own generated scripts as well as SNMP to
monitor status of network devices that also support the SNMP protocol. This configuration requires
PHP and MySQL to be installed on the server system in order for these tools to function.
This server does have an alternate configuration. Server 2003 was chosen for the ease of
manageability, and the ease of security management (monitoring for new security vulnerabilities), as
well as an easier patch deployment and management. If there is no desire for a homogeneous
network, RedHat Enterprise Linux could be used. If this OS is used, Apache web server can be used
to run Moodle and Cacti, OpenNMS or Nagios can still be used to manage the network.
These resources will allow the students and faculty to create virtual web pages and Nagios will
provide monitoring of the network and Moodle, LAMS and JUSUR will be used as a highly
configurable resource for e-learning courses.
3rd Server
Is the web server and SSH server for the network, the software is Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Enterprise, Microsoft Hyper-V 2008, Fedora Core 12, Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and
Microsoft Office Suite 2010 Professional. This server will be part of Active Directory and will be
clustered with server 4 to provide an operating system interface to students remotely accessing the
virtual network.
This server in the network is the first of the Virtual PC servers and will run Windows Server 2003
Enterprise, and Virtual Server 2005. The virtual server will be able to run Fedora Core 4 as Virtual
OS, Windows XP Professional as Virtual OS, Windows Server 2003. Enterprise as Virtual OS, and
Microsoft Office Suite 2003 Professional on Virtual OS. The functions of this server are: to be a
member of Active Directory, clustered with server #4, and provide OS interface to students remotely
accessing the virtual network
4th Server
Is the Windows Self Update Server (WSUS), the software is Microsoft Window Server 2008 R2
Enterprise, Microsoft Hyper-V 2008, Fedora Core 12, Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and Microsoft
Office Suite 2010 Professional.
It will be part of the Active Directory and clustered with server 3 to provide an operating system
interface to students remotely accessing the virtual network and will be the second Virtual PC server.
This server will be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise along with Virtual Server 2005. Virtual
Server 2005 will be able to run Microsoft Office Suite 2003 Professional on Virtual OSs, Fedora Core
4 as Virtual OS, Windows XP Professional as Virtual Operating System, and Windows Server 2003.
Enterprise as Virtual OS. The functions of this server are to be a member server of the Active
Directory, be a Cluster Server with Server 4, and to provide OS interface to students remotely
accessing the virtual network.
5th Server
Is the Oracle 11g server , the software is Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise , Adobe
Suite, Visual Studio 2010, Rendering Software (Catia, 3Ds Max), Microsoft Visio Professional 2010,
Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, 2010 Professional.
It will be a member of Active Directory and will be a Cluster Server with server 6. This server will also
provide remote users in the Programming or Game Development Curriculum with a terminal server
style interface to remote applications. It is the first of the Citrix servers. This server will run Windows
Server 2003 Enterprise, Macromedia Suite, Visual Studio .NET 2005, Rendering Software (Catia, 3Ds
Max, other), Microsoft Visio Professional 2003, Microsoft Project 2003, and Microsoft Office 2003
Professional. The functions of this server are to be a member server of the Active Directory and to be
a Cluster Server with Server 6. This server will also provide remote users in Programming or Game
Development with terminal services style interface to remote applications
6th Server
Is cluster active directory server, the software Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Adobe
Suite, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 , Rendering Software (Catia, 3Ds Max) , Microsoft Visio
Professional 2010 , Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 Professional.
This server will be a member of Active Directory, will be a Cluster Server with server 5, will provide
remote IAS, and Networking students with terminal services style interface to remote applications.
The sixth server in the network is the second Citrix Server. This server will run Windows Server 2003
Enterprise, Microsoft Visio Professional 2003, Microsoft Project 2003, Microsoft Office 2003
Professional, and any additional programs required by IAS courses. The functions of this server is to
be a member server of the Active Directory, be a Cluster Server with Server #5, and to provides
remote IAS and Networking users with terminal services style interface to remote applications.
7th Server
Is the data base server , the software is Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise , Microsoft
Hyper-V 2008, Oracle 11g , SQL Server 2008 R2 and Oracle SQL Developer 2.1
It is the database server which will be responsible for running Server 2008 R2 Enterprise as a Virtual
OS (2 instances), Oracle 10g on the first instantiation, and SQL Server 2008 R2 on the second
instantiation.
8th Server
Is the academic server , the software is Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
It will be the MSDNAA ELMS Server and will be responsible for supporting the student’s retrieval of
personal copies of Microsoft products.
12.3. Layout Item(s) Description / Specification
(A)-Link Balancer
•Incoming and outgoing network traffic balancing
across multiple Internet links
•Automated failover in case of link failure
•Bandwidth management
•Quality of Service (QoS) for Internet applications
•Traditional firewall
•Provides site-to-site VPN with link failover
(C)-Core Switch
•Supports hardware acceleration for Layer-2
through - 4 network services
•Integrates simultaneous IPv4 and IPv6 support
•Supports up to10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
•Forwarding capacity ~ 320 Gbps
(E)-Fibre Channel Switch
•8 Gbps Fibre Channel
•8 Port Fibre Channel Range
•Aggregate Switch Bandwidth ~ 340 Gbps
•Hot-swappable 8Gb SFP+ optical interface
modules, Non-Disruptive Code Load and
Activation (NDCLA), Non-Disruptive Port
(F)-Storage Area Network
•Protocol support FC SAN, IP SAN, NAS, and
FCoE
•Full Hardware Redundancy
•Capacity ~ 10TB
•Disk Drive Type SAS, FC or SATA
•Memory ~ 2GB
•Fiber Channel Onboard ports ~ 4
•Gigabit Ethernet Onboard ports ~ 4
This network will also have a Network Attached
Storage Device. This device will provide space
for individual user drives of students, colleges ,
and administrators. This device will also provide a
location for the 'common' colleges drive.
(I)-Web + File + Email Server (2 Server(s)
Accessible LAN + WAN + WWW)
•Quad
Core
Xeon
Pro
X5460,12MB
Cache,3.16GHz,1333MHz FSB
•8GB Memory
•2 Hotplug HDD ~ 300GB 15K RPM SAS Hard
Drive
•Intel(R) Pro/1000 Gigabit NIC
(B)-Firewall
•Blocks access to Web sites based on domain,
URL pattern, or content category
•Blocks downloads based on file type
•Blocks applications that access the Internet,
including IM, music services, and software
update utilities
•Integrates with "safe search" filters built into
popular images search engines
•Provides integrated gateway and desktop
spyware protection
(D)-Gigabit Switch (Ethernet)
•48 ports of Gigabit Ethernet connectivity
•PoE+ with up to 30W per port to support the
latest PoE+ capable devices
•1 Gigabit Ethernet SFP + Uplinks
(G)-Wireless Access Point (AP) (Each
Computer Lab / Room 1 AP(s))
•enterprise-class
access
point
802.11a/g
networks for rich-media
(H)-IP Camera (Each Computer Lab / Room 1
Camera(s))
•1/3” Micron Progressive Scan CMOS
•Day and night function
•Integrated f3.3 ~ 12 mm / F1.6 Megapixel
varifocal lens Lux (IR LED ON)
•H.264 / MPEG-4 SP / MJPEG triple codec with
two simultaneous streams
•Up to SXGA resolution at 18 FPS
•Wide Dynamic Range function supported
•Shutter Speed, White Balance, Exposure, Gain
Controls supported
•Two-way audio supported
•Hardware motion detection, Digital Input / Output
(J)-Database + Web + Application + File +
Video Management + Standby Server
(8 Server(s) Accessible LAN Only)
•Quad
Core
Xeon
Pro
X5460,12MB
Cache,3.16GHz,1333MHz FSB
•8GB Memory
•2 Hotplug HDD ~ 300GB 15K RPM SAS Hard
Drive
•Intel(R) Pro/1000 Gigabit NIC
(K)-Domain Controller + Virtualization Server
(Each Computer Lab / Room 1 Server(s))
•Quad
Core
Xeon
Pro
X5460,12MB
Cache,3.16GHz,1333MHz FSB
•16GB Memory
•2 Hotplug HDD ~ 300GB 15K RPM SAS Hard
Drive
•Intel(R) Pro/1000 Gigabit NIC
(M)-Video Server
•MPEG-4 / MJPEG compression
•CIF up to Full D1 resolution at 30/25 FPS
•Multi-stream with variable frame rate in the same
compression
•Two way audio supported (per channel)
•Hardware motion detection, Digital Input / Output
(per channel)
•Serial ports for each channel
•Full D1 MPEG-4 video decoding at 30/25 FPS
•Digital time code retrieved
(L)-PC / Workstation
•Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-880 (3.06GHz,8MB)
•19 " Flat Panel LCD Monitor
•8GB (4x2GB) NECC DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
Memory
•300GB 10000RPM SATA Hard Drive
•16X Max DVD-ROM Drive with RAM function
•512MB ATI Radeon Display
(N)-Video Conference (Each Computer Lab /
Room 1 Unit(s))
• True high definition (HD) video up to 1080p30 or
720p60 resolution with the ability to connect
multiple HD video sources
• Optimal video at any bandwidth starting from 128
Kbps with H.264 High Profile
• Expanded audio and video I/O allows easy
integration for your application
• Share CAD drawings, movies, images, spread
sheets—and more—all in native resolution
• Join multiple participants in a single call easily
and quickly
Figure.12 : the proposed design layout with the required specifications
2
College and location
University Main campus
and UoMust e-learning
center
College of science
3
College of Arts
4
College of Education
5
College of Science
6
College of Admin &
Economic
College of Engineering
1
7
8
10
College of Political
Science
College of Educational
Sports
College of Dentistry
11
College of Medicine
12
College of Pharmacy
13
College of Basic Education
14
College of Law
9
Total
Layout type
Layout-1
M.Center-1
Layout-2
M.Center-1
Layout-2
M.Center-1
Layout-2
M.Center-1
Layout-2
M.Center-1
Layout-2
M.Center-1
Layout-1
M.Center-2
Layout-2
M.Center-2
Layout-2
M.Center-3
Layout-2
M.Center-2
Layout-1
M.Center-4
Layout-2
M.Center-4
Layout-1
M.Center-5
Layout-2
M.Center-5
Main Servers numbers
8
3
3
3
3
3
8
3
3
3
Servers specifications
Database + Web +
Application + File +
Video Management +
Standby Server
(8 Server(s) Accessible
LAN Only)
•Quad Core Xeon Pro
X5460,12MB
Cache,3.16GHz,1333M
Hz FSB
•8GB Memory
•2 Hotplug HDD ~
300GB 15K RPM SAS
Hard Drive
8
3
Personal Computers
150
100
100
100
100
100
100
60
50
60
250
•Intel(R) Pro/1000
Gigabit NIC
•19 " Flat Panel
LCD Monitor
•8GB(4x2GB)
NECC
DDR3
1333MHz SDRAM
Memory
•300GB 10000RPM
SATA Hard Drive
•16X Max DVDROM Drive with
RAM function
•512MB
ATI
Radeon Display
60
8
250
3
50
62
Workstation
specifications
•Intel(R) Core(TM)
i7-880
(3.06GHz,8MB)
1630
13. Conclusion :
There has been numerous and frameworks and research being conducted but a few of these
investigate how to achieve or implement the goals of the models and frameworks. In order to
operationalise the research, a complete designs and layouts for e-learning adopting is necessary; that
is exactly what is needed in the Iraqi higher education system and we can identify this work as a
turnkey project. The turnkey project for the UoMust could be useful for all the Iraqi higher education
institutions since they are all suffer the same problems. The mix between the educational experience
and the technological needs was the trade mark of this research since Iraqi education suffered from
the huge losses in the ICT fields and the brain drain from the country.
The ICT technology transfer is very important to the Iraqi higher education sector, especially in the
field of hardware and MIS.
In general the Iraqi communications infrastructure is weak and old, (ESCWA, 2009) and it needs a
huge budget to fix and repair it. As such, the use of the wireless technology to connect the UoMust six
campuses would make a cost-effective solution.
Supplying each campus with its video conferencing system and also a direct video activities system
and server is very important is learning environment like Iraqi today.
It was calculated that the required storage space for each student as 5 GB as min. - 10 GB as max.
The main centers for e-learning should be in the main campus as the main center and in college of
basic educational, engineering, and college of Medicine and the UoMust must enhance these
colleges ICT capabilities, especially the human resources, taking into consideration that the college of
basic education have only 52 computers.
It was envisaged that two Internet providers at least are required for each of the university e-learning
centers and it must be at least 100 Mbps for the maim campus center , 60 Mbps for the sub main
centers in college of medicine , engineering , and basic education , 30 Mbps in the other colleges
centers. The Iraqi higher education minister focused on establishing of the national e-learning center
and also declared that each university must have its e-learning center and after reviewing the turnkey
project details. The Minister insisted on trying to build a complete e-education system in Iraqi higher
education with a special building a special Iraqi MIS.
http://translate.google.jo/translate?hl=ar&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php??
The post evaluation was conducted on the project in Iraq where the end user has showed us very
clear the great motivations towards the complete solution as it covers the educational and
technological needs for the project .
References:
Bates, A. W.(1995) Technology, open learning and distance education - London : Routledge
Abualsaoud, M. S. (2009). The Development of Education and its Role Building Knowledge Society.
Paper presented at the First International Conference on e-Learning and Distance Learning
(eLi 2009), Riyadh , KSA.
Al-Busaidi, K. A., & Al-Shihi, H. (2010). Instructors' Acceptance of Learning Management Systems: A
Theoretical Framework. Communications of the IBIMA, 2010 (2010).
AlMusawi, A. S. (2010). E-Learning in Oman , E-Learning from an Omani Perspective. In U. Demiray
(Ed.), E-Learning Practices
Cases On Challenges Facing E-Learning and National
Development: Institutional Studies and Practices (Vol. 2- Chapter-25, pp. 603-626). EskisehirTurkey: Anadolu University-2010.
Aloraini, S. (2009). Proposed Model for Distance Education in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Based on the
British, Malaysian and Arab Open University Models. Paper presented at the First
International Conference on e-Learning and Distance Learning (eLi 2009).
Aoki, K. (2005). Cross-border higher education through e-learning: issues and opportunities. Paper
presented at the ICDE International Conference 2005 , 19-23 November , New Delhi-India.
from http://www.ignou.ac.in/icde2005/PDFs/theme1pdf/theme1_2.pdf
Chendeb, H., & Nasr, N. (2010, 6-8/4/2010). Electronic EFL e-programs: Evaluation and proposals.
Paper presented at the The Role of E-Learning in Supporting Knowledge Communities
(ECONF3), Bahrain.
ESCWA. (2009). Regional Profile of The Information Society in Western Asia. Retrieved 25
September 2009, from http://www.escwa.un.org/information/publications/edit/upload/ictd-0912.pdf
Husain, M. A. (2004). IRAQ , Education in Transition [Electronic Version], from
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001386/138665e.pdf
Khan, B. H. (2005). Learning Features in an Open, Flexible, and Distributed Environment. AACE
Journal, 13(2), 137-153.
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in an Information Society Information Science Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2009). E-Learning - The Global e-Learning Framework. In S. Mishra (Ed.), STRIDE
Handbook 8 (Vol. 1, pp. 42-52). New Delhi–110 068 , Maidan Garhi: The Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU).
Kurti, E. (2008). Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of Prishtina,
Kosova. University of Prishtina,, Prishtina.
Mohammad, j. A. (2008). Analysis of the Faculty Members Attitude Towards Using IT Applications in
the University Education and Its Relation with some Variables. Journal of Educational &
Psychological Sciences, 9(3), 25-53.
O’Malley, B. (2010). Education Under Attack , global study on targeted political and military violence
against education staff, students, teachers, union and government officials, aid workers and
institutions. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizationo.
Document Number)
Suhail, N. A., & Mugisa, E. K. (2007). Implementation of E-learnin in Higher Education Institutions in
Low Bandwidth Environment: A Blended Learning Approach [Electronic Version], from
http://cit.mak.ac.ug/iccir/downloads/SREC_07/Nazir%20Ahmad%20Suhail,%20Ezra%20K%2
0Mugisa_07.pdf
penang – malaysia
December- 2010
Malaysian Journal of Educational
Technology ( MYJET )
ADOPTION E-LEARNING
FRAMEWORK FOR THE
UNIVERSITY OF MUSTANSIRIYAH
(UOMUST), BAGHDAD, IRAQ
Adoption E-learning Framework for
the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust), Baghdad, Iraq
Amer S. Elameer
University of Mustansiriyah
& PhD student in e-learning Networks
Universiti Sains Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com
Rozhan M. Idrus
Professor Dr. at School of Distance Education
Universiti Sains Malaysia
rozhanmidrus@gmail.com
Abstract: UoMust one of the biggest public universities in Iraq with a great desire to implement e-learning to
its academic activities to support the face to face traditional learning method which is the only learning method
used. This university suffers from a lot of problems like any other Iraqi governmental bodies which it reach it
maximum limit in 2003 when it burned and looted completely. University leaders believe that using educational,
information and communication technologies have now become the base of the rebuilding of the Iraqi higher
education sector. Before 2003 it was calculated that the university have around 3000 personal computer but there
were no computer networks of any kind in it and also the using of these computers in educational learning
activities was very limited. An e-Learning strategic approach has been proposed to leapfrog and address the
educational needs and challenges in the present time after using the ADDIE methodology and a pre-survey
showed us a very clear view that there exist no experienced human resource in ICT skills or infrastructures for
adopting e-learning. A modified Khan’s e-learning framework was proposed as an e-learning framework to
address the much needed e-education framework for the Iraqi institutions of higher learning and it become also
the combination with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which have a
complete e-learning system with an effective state of the art video conferencing delivery system and an electronic
portal (Video Conferencing Learning Environment (VCLE)) . The data for this study are gathered through a two
questionnaires pre and post using Six-point Likert scale. The questionnaires were distributed in Baghdad and
responses were collected from the university academic working staff. The findings revealed that the adopted
model was accepted by the Iraqi professors and lecturers and could be suitable for the HQ of the Iraqi higher
education sector in the University of Mustansiriyah. The framework were deemed capable of dealing with the
instructional, academic, management, ethical, and others educational related issues in higher education. The
findings on e-learning also revealed the need for the system as a tool to address sector issues such as students’
physical presence on campus, brain drain and the lack of educational resources.
Keywords: University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), BudrulHuda khan
e-learning model.
1.Introduction
Mar-April 2004 war destroyed completly a country called Iraq and the looting and fires that followed
the war complete what remain from the structure of this country. All universities before the war was
suffered the infrastructure weakness because of the wars and sanctions. After the wars and as a
summary it was a university without up to date laboratories, libraries, furniture, equipment and books
in effected buildings.
Iraq was one of most progressed countries in using educational technologies and Iraqi universities
start to use a closed circuits TV in 1982 and start to use CAL in 1986 but everything stopped in 1990
and from that date Iraqi universities stopped from any up to date technologies and work along these
long years by what they have before in a world start its ICT revolution in everything in the life.
Rebuilding Iraq in general and universities must start from ICT and universities in Iraq till now is
without stronger institutionalization structures and most of them work without any kind of management
information systems (MIS).(Paanakker, 2009)
From this point of stand, and since revolution of technology is driven the world, the e-learning and ICT
are the key to the rebuilding and the future of the higher education sector. Iraqi higher education must
believe that ICT is the key of the solution of most of the Iraqi higher education problems but the
evaluation for the past seven years show us very clear that they do not have such believe.
E-learning is the overarching umbrella that encompasses education, information, communication,
training, knowledge management, performance management…..etc. It is the web-enabled system that
makes information and knowledge accessible to those who need it, when they need it-anytime,
anywhere. However, these challenges are not without its obstacles, especially the infrastructure
necessary to provide tha backbone of the networks. “ New methodologies in teaching, particularly
methods that promote creativity and practical experience are urgently needed” (Husain, 2004) (Harb,
2008).
1.1.The University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust)
From the AlMustansiriyah Madresa (School) to the University of Mustansiriyah , it is a long journey
inside the Islamic history. UoMust is one of the public universities in Iraq , which is located at the heart
of Baghdad and providing higher education studies by all it degrees (BA, B.Sc, M.Sc, MA, & PhD) .
The Government of Iraq decided to re open this university in 1963 holding the name of the Complete
University and in 1968 they change it into Al Mustansiriyah University referring to the (AlMustansiriyah
Madresa) which built by Al Mustansir Billah in Baghdad and it was the first university in middle ages in
the Islamic world and it was opened 5th of may - Rijiab in 1234- 631.
UoMust was completely destroyed in 2003 war in Iraq after it was looted and burned in very sad views
(figure.5) and around 2500 computers despaired with all labs. UNESCO stated: “Mustansiriyah
University may be considered as an example of these damages. Mustansiriyah is the second largest
university in Iraq and has an architectural design similar to the University of Baghdad. After the war, 5
of its buildings were extensively damaged, i.e., the university administrative building, presidency,
College of Education building, Political Institute and the Student’s Club” (Husain, 2004).
In general only 10 % of Iraq higher education sector remain in acceptable condition to start again ,
but in UoMust it was less than this percentage but the brave new leadership of the university which
nominated after free election in 17-5-2003 by its academic staff have succeeded to return the life to
reunion UoMust and start again 23-5-2003 to finish the academic year that stopped in Iraq because of
the war and it was the first university that start again even there was no government or ministries and
also without salaries. This UoMust academic staff capability was noticed and remarked by the
international world organizations (UN. USAID,…etc) and other world countries and the elected HQ
decided to rebuild this university according to the world international standards and made the correct
decision to adopt the e-learning to enhanced and enriched face to face traditional learning method .
http://www.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/english_index.html.
UoMust according to the numbers of its academic staff and students consider as one of the biggest
governmental universities in Iraq. The total number of the students in UoMust is 42315 students and
this biggest number of the students is in Bachelor level (B.Sc or B.A ) and UoMust have two types of
studies in this level , one is the ordinary and known as the Public free studies ( Morning studies )(
students nominated from the ministry according to their achievements in secondary schools which is
enter to the central Iraqi acceptance system that run by higher education ministry ), and the other is
Private studies ( Evening studies )( it is and it is not free and open for all the ages) this number is
distributed between 12 colleges , as shown in figure. 3. UoMust also have five centers of excellence
(1-Arabic and International Studies center, 2-National Center for Hematology, 3-Iraqi Center for
Cancer Researches, 4-National Diabetics Center, and 5- Computer & Internet Center).
The total number of the working academic staff UoMust is 3141 distributed between (132 Professors,
528 Ass.Pofessor, 897 Lecturers , and 1584 Ass.Lecturers ).as shown in the figure.4
Figure . 1 : Students distribution in UoMust colleges
Figure . 2 : Academic Staff distribution in UoMust colleges
Figure.3: The UoMust employees distribution
Figure.4: The UoMust computers distribution
Figure.5 : Pictures from inside the university after fires stop (taken by the researcher)
2.The Research Problem
Since rebuilding is focus of the research, the whole endeavour is viewed in a holistic manner to
include the science information about the e-learning strategies, theories , models , systems , software
engineering of e-learning systems , computer networking , website development , CBT development ,
e-learning & education networking ,building capacity ,….etc , and the way of coordinate the education
activities in Iraq.
3.The Objective of the Research
This research is a trail to solve the university of Mustansiriyah problems through proposing an elearning framework which is produeced from the combination of modified Badrul Huda Khan eight
dimensions framework (Khan, 2009) , with the school of distance education in the Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) e-learning system after studying the UoMust case that obtained from a prequestionaire and evaluated the prposed framework from a posr-quuestionaire results.
4. (ADDIE) Methodology
The ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) was utilized in
the study figure.6. A specially formulated pre-questionnaire was designed and distributed between a
group of Iraqi university staff to investigate the direction towards the e-learning, management &
institutional problems which are the basic elements of the proposed framework and that could face the
implementing e-learning projects , the benefits that will be gained to the higher education sector, and
the technology problems. The research framework is given in Figure 7. Attention was accorded to the
Malaysian national e-learning strategy which proved to be a successful strategy among other countries
from middle-east or Islamic developing countries. The final evaluation was done by a postquestionnaire as part of the complete e-education evaluarion.
Figure 6 : ADDIE model for the UoMust
Figure 7 : The theoretical frame work
5. The e-learning Framework
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world start the adoption of e- learning at the
beginning as assisted aid to the students and parallel with the face to face traditional learning
approach , and it is very important to the UoMust which suffers a lot of problems to adopt the elearning as a blended learning which is a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning and
the instruction occurs both in the classroom and online, and where the online component becomes a
natural extension of traditional classroom learning.(Fook, Kong, Lan, Atan, & Idrus, 2005).
Based on the previous studies, literature reviewed and meeting with experts, one of the most best and
complete comprehensive theoretical e-learning models is Badrul Huda Khan octagonal eight
dimensions frame work (1997-2009). E-Learning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan viewed , an
innovative approach for delivering well designed, learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning
environment to anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilizing the attributes and resources of various digital
technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for open and distributed learning
environment. (Khan, 2004, 2006, 2009) .
5.1. Khan Frame work
Khan frame work can be divided into three major domains: first is The Educational and contain (1.
Pedagogical, 2. Ethical, 3. Evaluation) second is the Technological and contains (1. Technology, 2.
Interface design) and the third is the Managerial and contain (1. Institutional, 2. Resource support, 3.
Management).(Kurti, 2008),
The emergence of a Khan frame work made the greatest impact in the revolution of e-learning that
take place in the all of the learning sector since this frame work describe all the education and
learning process from A to Z and he offered the logical base for all the e-learning instructional
designers on how to design and implement effective learning environment in the e-learning process
using the high interaction that computers and internet providing with taking into consideration and
stating all the factors that could affect the proposed designs.
From our point of view Khan Frame work is a complete system and we even define it as e-education
or frame work for electronic using in education with high institutionalization capabilities and this
definition mean that Khan Frame work could be used for any other educational technologies in
education.
A lot of reason stands up after this frame work success along this 13 years , but the main reason for
that is the continuity development that made by Prof .Dr. Khan for his frame work even if we made a
comparison between what he write about it in the first announce in 1997 and what he write in last we
documented for him in 2009 (Khan, 2009) we cannot find any big difference on the main or sub
dimensions and in general a design for electronic process from 13 years ago and still successful and
widely used even with ICT revolution , for sure it is mean that Khan frame work is a great design .
5.2. Khan frame work modification
Our stated differences with this frame work is a trial to reinforced it only and for that we called it the
modified frame work and not new frame work because we take and use all the original dimensions
inside Khan frame work and these difference comes from our deeply investigation inside the elearning process, environment, learning type, the new revolution of wireless technologies. Prof. Dr.
Khan on his last book and all his writing agrees that. Khan framework consist eight dimensions and
our changes into khan frame work are:
1-We rearrange the dimensions locations inside his selected shape and let the down dimensions is
related to the technological domain because it is the base of all the design and nothing can be
achieved without technological domain.
2-We added the wireless technologies as sub-components to the technological dimension because it
is related to the new way of communication and delivery which will change a lot in the field of
technological and education .We think it need to be another dimension to the frame work in similar to
the technological dimension beside it could be an important factor in the total cost of the e-learning.
3-In the resources support dimension and its sub dimension we find that he state these two sub
dimensions (1-Online Support , 2-Resources) , and here we made a big influence change to his
frame and change this dimension to be technological human resources capacity building which we
find it is missing from the frame work since he have define the resources as widely open definition
under the word of resources , and we made the change because we think that human resources
capacity building in IT is big different from what he stated under resources and need to be identified
as separated factor and now days with the develop of the software which shorten the gaps between
the users and programmers in using software , it become an urgent big need to re train the instructors
and teachers on the new development on these software and Khan does not stated at all in all of his
frame work writing or descriptions.
4-In the field of organizational which contain two dimensions the management and institutional , we
added the resources that he stated to the management which it contain all the other resources except
the human resources, and for example providing the learning materials is the responsibility of the
management to provide the internet service or the download or upload…etc.
5-Khan does not take in to the consideration the time as a dimension or sub-dimension but if we want
to use his frame work in blended learning we have to take this important factor in to consideration.
5.3. Why this modification
There is no doubts at all that Khan frame work is a great educational technological system but our
investigation and discovering related researches gives us a clear view that it is suitable and
appropriate for the stable conditions and could achieved the goals from using it if the surrounding
condition is ideal conditions, but trying to use this frame work in unstable conditions will be a highly
risk mission because one of the important this frame work characteristics is the stability.
In a country like Iraq which there is no stability in all of the life conditions which start from its political
system , new democracy concepts ,……., missing electricity , and for sure its educational system will
be not stable because of the missing stability in all of the country, and in UoMust as a special case
where the pressures on this university is very high and doubled and upper its bearing capacity from
the ministry of higher education , the religious parties ,…etc , it is very difficult to implement this frame
work by its ordinary shape and after studying the UoMust case as individual complete case we find
this university is without any up to date technologies and it is very difficult to ask its academic staff to
adopt e-leaning into its academic activities and more than 70% does not even hear about a Moodle ,
LAMS , JUSUR , …etc.
Here we have to solve this problem which push as to made the modification in the frame work, and in
general and for the Iraqi case the same problem will present in front of any one try to use Khan frame
work or any other frame work or model, and this problem identified and monitored accurately by all the
UN agencies that work in Iraq and its reasons is political reasons where some regimes keep their
countries away from the technologies under the name of national security.
Also in the Iraq we find that the government does not pay the complete attention to the ICT
infrastructures and there is a new wireless technologies could play a big role in solving this problem
and for sure we have to made the modification and enter this up to date technologies into
consideration during designing our frame work to the Iraqi higher education.
5.4. The Framework for the e-learning model of UoMust
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world start the adoption of e-learning at the
beginning as assisted aid to the students and parallel with the face to face traditional learning
approach , and it is very important to the UoMust which suffers a lot of problems to adopt the elearning as a blended learning which is a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning and
the instruction occurs both in the classroom and online, and where the online component becomes a
natural extension of traditional classroom learning.(Fook, Kong, Lan, Atan, & Idrus, 2005).
Our modified Khan 2009 frame work was the base of our frame work and with discovering the using
of e-learning in one of the pioneers of distance education universities in Asia; the Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) which have a long journey with educational technologies and start its distance
education from 1971, with high researches capabilities , we found that a model proposed by Oliver
& McLouglin 1997 ( five dimension : Social , Procedural , Expository , Explanatory and Cognitive )
used their as the e-learning model in school of distance education which have a complete e-learning
system in with a state of the art video conferencing delivery system and an electronic portal (Video
Conferencing Learning Environment (VCLE)) . The effective and interactive e-learning portal with the
Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) by (Foong & Mohamad, 2005), is utilized as a good
framework for the high interaction that will use it will produce it. The content analysis of this model
shows us it consists of five critical dimensions that provide multilevel understanding of the learning
process.
Then we combined between this model with its VCLE with our modified Khan model we have a
complete new frame work and we can said it is complete by what the UoMust needed and fulfill all the
university educational needs from the e-learning system after modified the new frame work to be
centralized around the learner and give him the active learning opportunities and let them gain greater
control over their own learning with content and time control. Then combined frame work give us a
complete e-learning system and the truth it give us a complete e-education system not only e-learning
and that could be even for all the Iraqi universities or higher education sector there. The proposed
model covers all the factors that must be taken into consideration during e-learning designs and it is
also considered to be a very suitable model for the subject of this research. Since the University of
Mustansiriyah and all of Iraq currently in huge lacks an official e-learning system. It is important to
identify all the factors that would determine all the factors the success fullness of e-learning.
Figure 8 : The modified UoMust e-learning frame work with software
Figure .9: The UoMust e-learning system with proposed framework
6. The Instrument
The Statistical procedure and the data analysis is one of the most important parts of the research
work, and according to ( Marczyk et al. (2005)) “in most types of research studies, the process of data
analysis involves the following three steps: (1) preparing the data for analysis, (2) analyzing the data,
and (3) interpreting the data”.
A survey technique was used to investigate the attitude to the e-learning in the University of
Mustansiriyah , the directions of the acacdemic staff towards the e-learning , the modified model of
the combination of Badrul Huda Khan eight dimensions model with the school of distance education in
the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) e-learning system that we proposed for the University of
Mustansiriyah, the variables that effect the quick movement toward the using of IT in the educational
process in Iraqi higher education sector or delay it…..etc.
Preparing the data for analysis was by designing a pre-questionnaire after examine a group of
previous studies and surveyed related literature to the research subject to collect the required data.
The questionnaire divided into two parts, the first was the general information and personal questions
(Academic Degree , Experience years , ICT skills , Age , Qualifications ..etc) and the second is
included the targeted and investagation quesions and it were divided in to 9 categories (
Management, Institutional, Technology, Evaluation, Ethical, Interface Designs, Human Resources,
Pedagogical & General ) . The questionaure was distributed and given to 350 academist from the
university acacdemic staff, but the complete answers come from only 287 person and they were 131
male and 156 female, 189 PhD degree holders and 98 Master degree holder , 35 of them are
professor , 95 assistant professor , 111 lectruer and 46 assistant lecturer, only 25 of them are without
enough skills in using computers.the other group general information shown in the tables 1,2 and 3
below.
After complete all e-education system design which covers the framework , software , hardware ,
strategies and human resources capcity building plans a post-questionaire was designed in similiar
way to the pre-one to evaluate the our proposed framework and was distrinuted between 300
members of the UoMust acade,ic staff but tje correct answers comes only from the 231.
7.Statistical Procedure
All the Statement answers and the data that had been taken from the questionnaire were analyzed
and computerized using the Statically Package for Social Science (SPSS) to be statistically
calculated to find the Mean (M), Standard deviation (St.D), Percentages (%), and it was big data .All
the results from the SPSS is used to examine the directions and the attitude to the e-learning
establishment in the University of Mustansiriyah and Higher Education Sector in Iraq in general and
the propesed e-learning model. A lakert scale of six points was used (Michaela N. Gelin 2003) , and
they are : Strongly Agree(SA) 6 , Agree(A) 5 ,Neutral(N) 4 ,Disagree(DA) 3 ,Strongly Disagree(SDA) 2
,Don’t Know(DK) 1 .(Mohammad, 2008)( Dezaye, 2009)(Michaela N. Gelin , T. Mark Beasley , &
Zumbo, 2003)
8.The Pre-QuestionaireResults
The result in general comes to support and strength the need to the educational technologies in the
university. It shows very clear that academic staff believes in e-learning as the solution to most of the
university problems (student absence, brain drainage, lack of educational materials, etc, (the mean
was above the 5 in all statements)). In addition and in the other side, it shows huge fear form the
technology facts now in university and the budgets specified for the universities. Also in the
technological, the result shows very clear there is no infra structure or networks and no real using of
the ICT in the university administrative, academic and students works and also the same is for
networks between Iraqi universities (Mean is less 4 and between 2-3 in most of the answers which it
is in the negative side, and the gab here because of the (do not know) answers and (neutral) from
some of the academic university staff). The result (as shown in figure 6 ) indicated and shows there
was a good, great motivation towards the system (model and its sub component) ( figure 10 ) , (all
the Mean that have been calculated and related to the model is in the positive direction for all eight
dimension and the added general questions and above 4.5) .They believe that the ethical
consideration is very important now days in Iraq for the rapid changing in the Iraqi society (Mean
comes very strong and in the positive direction which support and strength the model and was the
highly scored of 5).The evaluation results comes with 3.71 which shows there is a weakness point
here . The Resources support also come in less degree in the positive direction and score only 4.1 for
the Pedagogical, Institutional, Management, it comes above 4.5 in positive direction.
Figure .10: The pre-questionnaire eight dimension results and the general dimension
Table 4: Sample from the pre-questionnaire with results
Statement
Establishing e-learning networks in the Iraqi universities
SA
213
A
59
N
10
D
2
SD
0
DK
3
Mean
5.65
%
94
can develop these universities
Using e-learning can develop the higher education sector
in Iraq
e-learning can solve the problem of brain drain
The Iraqi higher education regulations is good now to
establish e-learning networks
The universities budgets are enough to develop
All the universities are atomized by ICT
Encouraging the Iraqi government to announce the law
that protect the authors from stealing their offers
especially in ICT
There are a big numbers of computers , computer labs
and internet connections in all of the Iraqi universities ,
and there is no leakage in this field
All the Iraqi universities are connected in one higher
education network
All the Iraqi universities have its own wireless network and
it is with a good bandwidth
There is a good electronic library and virtual library inside
each school and department instead of main big library
supplied with all ICT needs
All the student affairs and academic achievements works
are atomized f using ICT
All the academic universities staff science works are likely
to be done with ICT.
All the universities have design its instructional
environments according to the international standards.
All the Iraqi higher education institutes are well structured
foundations according to the international universities
standards
It is best to use one system for student’s registration in the
Iraqi universities.
It is important to design universities websites similar to
international universities and especially in using of elearning and e-gates.
The first step for any using of educational technology in
the Iraqi universities is to supply all the class rooms with
updated technologies
It is very important to push the universities academic staff
to use the educational technologies in the learning
process.
I believe that E-Learning is the future of the learning
process
Universities have to encourage their professors to do
researches in and about e-learning in Iraq
It is better to establish an e-learning centers in all of the
Iraqi universities
It is better to ask the UN/World Bank to help the Iraqi
Higher Education project for establishing e-learning
network
The Malaysia e-learning experiments are one of the best
in all of the world in this field
230
43
8
2
0
4
5.70
95
11٠
30
143
42
14
70
0
99
0
42
20
4
5.05
3.66
84
61
43
7
251
66
13
7
17
129
13
53
19
0
20
116
0
88
3
16
3.28
3.18
5.60
54
53
93
13
26
28
24
190
6
2.71
45
0
0
45
136
102
4
2.77
46
0
0
47
152
85
3
2.84
47
0
20
78
21
166
2
2.81
46
0
0
17
126
136
8
2.52
42
35
175
12
13
30
22
4.36
72
25
7
113
53
86
3
3.38
56
24
23
39
19
143
39
2.77
46
191
9
17
26
40
4
4.95
82
179
37
9
33
24
5
5.04
84
215
40
19
8
2
3
5.56
92
217
23
26
6
15
0
5.46
91
197
4
19
22
39
6
4.97
82
45
93
16
50
78
5
3.86
64
194
18
53
6
7
9
5.25
87
213
11
15
3
32
13
5.15
85
21
6
٢٥
٤٦
11
178
2.06
34
9.The Post-QuestionaireResults
After the complete design the new modified framework for UoMust and as a part from a complete
evaluation to the project a post-questionaire was designed using the same staistical procedure and
tests to evaluate the new framework and distributed between 231 UoMust staff and after investigate
the results , we find a great motavition towards the new framework and the minimum mean result was
3.9 in the postive side of supporting the new framework and the mean for our framework was 5.2
(87%). Also the results shows us very clear the required for a complete e-education system and
nanagement information system (MIS).
The results also stated that new framework covers a wide area from learning area in UoMust and the
mean was 4.35 with (72%). The devloped that achieved in the technological domain in the dimensions
of the modified framework in the technological human resources capacity building was welcomed and
the mean was 5.04 (89%). Some of the post-questionaire results shown below in table.5.
Table 5: Sample from the post-questionnaire with results
Statement
UoMust need for a complete e- higher education system as
the proposed
E-learning in UoMust need for a good MIS (Management
information system)
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a good framework
like the modified proposed.
Modified framework covers all the learning dimensions in
UoMust.
Developed the technological domain in the framework is
important
Developed the managerial domain in the framework is
important
Developed the pedagogical domain in the framework is
important
The wireless technologies and its progressed push it to play
a big role in the learning process.
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a good human
resources capacity building plan
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a two-three years as
min. period to start completely on its min. requirements.
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a clear and good
step by step strategy.
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a good framework
with a blended learning approach
Adopting e-learning in UoMust need for a good video
conference learning environment (VCLE).
modified framework could be used in Iraq higher education
universities
Wireless technologies is the solution for the Iraqi
infrastructure problems.
Wireless technologies are the solution for the Iraqi funding
problems and the lowest in costs.
SA
117
A
72
N
21
DA
10
SDA
6
N
5
MEAN
5.146
%
86
89
95
5
13
4
25
4.766
79.43
147
49
12
6
1
16
5.242
87.37
89
35
45
24
7
31
4.354
72.58
167
47
10
0
0
7
5.558
92.64
67
40
29
44
9
42
3.939
65.65
65
62
17
27
22
38
4.03
67.17
123
66
27
10
3
2
5.255
87.5
143
37
16
5
11
19
5.034
83..91
77
41
67
12
19
15
4.439
73.88
144
23
27
3
7
27
4.922
82.03
19
29
89
9
29
56
3.272
54.54
122
39
43
12
7
8
5.00
83.47
71
48
26
29
33
24
4.099
68.32
34
15
72
76
26
8
3.701
61.68
18
17
167
6
9
14
3.943
65.72
10.Conclusions
E-learning is more than of using the technology in learning, it is the effective social dynamics of
networking and can be the solution for the problems of the missing institutionalization in the UoMust
and it will push the UoMut HQ to use the up to date technologies and build new university standards
and start to build MIS which will push it for sure forward to the successful e-education .
As a ward of truth UoMust start the way and they open a small center for e-learning and they gain a
video conference system as a gift from the Korea government but they are still very far from beginning
the first step.
UoMust suffers huge technological problems and for example they are in luck for computers and their
computer center does not have only 30 working computer. The best solution for the university is to
use wireless technologies to establish its local UoMust network at the beginning for its flexibility and
low costs implementation.
USM have four internet providers and in UoMust the services is not stable and we are waiting for
them to have a consistent internet service to start connect with them as part from USM generosity to
help UoMust since the e-learning system in USM are complete e-learning system with high level
standards of using it in its educational activities. It is very important to take USM experience in such
designs of e-learning systems and educational activities espacially that the malaysian socity is
completly similar to the Iraqi society in so many things.
The findings shows that most of the academic staff have a strong believe that e-learning are the
solution for many of the problems that face university (lack of education materials and labs , students
absences , Iraqi professors brain drainage ,…etc.) , it is also suggests that the using of e-learning
systems could be seen as a motivation to integrate information and communication and other
educational technologies in teaching and learning process in UoMust.
It was fantastic that most of the academic staff have a good skills in compter and they using it in their
normal academic life and researches ( The previous university president give all the academic staff
the chance to join computer skills programs inside university in its computer center from 2007 ).
The propesed framework simulate the truth of the academic life in the university now days and in the
near future, it is welcomed as a e-education by many of the professors and lecturers in the university
and it is the key to the university to establish its own e-learning system.
It was found a great attention was paid to all these eight dimensions and its sub component of elearning model and the VCLE because it cover all the academic life channels in the university . Then
this model can be a useful model for all universities not only Mustansiriyah. The big challenges that
will face the university to establish a real and effective e-learning propesed system and it is
technoligical , management , culture , building capacity ..is the budget and continous small violence
now days in Iraq.
A large number of the academic staff welcomed the outside help and want it strongly, but there is no
real help in that and the only secure area in all of Iraq for the help visitors is the green zone in
Baghdad and Kurdistan, and the truth is completely different, for example the places that the world
bank team in Iraq work in ((Bank, 2009) page 35): Currently, Bank Group staff are limited to working
in secured areas in Baghdad or in KRG
It is very important to pay more attentions by the Iraqi officials and government to the benefits of the
educational technologies to the education and learning process in Iraq and a special strategy is to be
planned and fixed with its budgets for e-learning not for the higher education only but in all education
levels in Iraq.
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Bangkok – Thailand
1616-17 December 2010
The Seventh International
Conference on ee-Learning for
KnowledgeKnowledge-Based Society
MODIFIED KHAN
E-LEARNING FRAMEWORK
FOR
THE IRAQI HIGHER EDUCATION
Modified Khan eLearning Framework
for the Iraqi Higher Education
Amer Saleem Elameer and Rozhan M. Idrus
School of Distance Education,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
amerelameer@yahoo.com, rozhan@usm.my
Abstract - Due to the Mar-April 2003 war period, Iraq lost much of its’ infrastructure and would need time to return to
normalcy via renewed plans and policies. The higher education sector was one that suffered the most damage although it
was the first that return to work again after the silence of the war in 17 May 2003; to date no future solutions was
forthcoming. Due to the limited budgets, the uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) are still hard to
come by. The e-learning approach is seen as the new future of the teaching and learning solution for all the Iraqi higher
education problems though no plans for implementation have been forwarded. A pre-survey showed us a very clear view
that there exist no experienced human resource in ICT skills or infrastructures for adopting e-learning. A modified Khan’s elearning framework was proposed as an e-learning framework to address the much needed e-education framework for the
Iraqi institutions of higher learning.
1. INTRODUCTION
Iraqi’s current higher education system in the Federal Government comprises of 19 universities where 3
new universities were founded after 2003; two were commissioned for Medical Specialization and Computer
and Information. The Foundation of Technical Education consisted of 27 Technical institutes and 13 Technical
colleges under the management of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) which
are located in Baghdad and as shown in the Figure 1.
These universities and structures included more than 200 colleges, 800 departments and 28 research centers.
The Iraqi Commission for Computers and Informatics offers specialized course for postgraduates in ICT. There
are in addition 15 private colleges offering programs in computer sciences, business administration, economics
and management (Harb, 2008).
Of the 19112 academic university teaching staff, 56% are male and 44% female; 43% of the teaching force
is concentrated in Baghdad. The average staff student teaching ratio is 1: 13 being much more favorable than
neighboring countries such as Jordan (1:30) and Saudi Arabia (1:20).
Fig. 1: IRAQI higher education map
There are however extreme variations among Iraqi universities from 1:43 to 1:4 and in Technical Education
are with 2837 teaching staff. In Iraq the minimum educational qualification for a theoretical teaching and
lecturing in higher education is a PhD degree and in special cases they can accept a Master degree. However
one third of the teaching staff lacks a master’s degree; 28% of the staff has doctorates, 39% masters and 33%
bachelor’s degrees.
In Technical Education in Iraq - Technical Institutes (58540 students) and Technical Colleges (7368
students), there are a total of 65,908 students, 22% of whom are female .Thus there is wide range in the size of
universities as well as a lack of geographic equity in their distribution across the country. There is at least one
Institute in each of the 18 governorates.
As a summary of the Iraqi higher education;
• Three great wars and heavily sanctions against Iraq in years from 1980-2003 that severely damaged higher
education system, especially in the information and communication technologies.
• No real or good achievements attained from 2003-2009 to rebuild Iraq higher education system, because of
the huge internal violence that happen there and huge shortage in the university budgets.
• Iraqi Universities still working with old and traditional education standards and regulations, and no real
national strategies were adopted and Iraq is still far from changing into an institutional Iraq.
• Implementing a university network infrastructure with broadband Internet is a prerequisite and the target for
successful implementation of an e-learning system seems very difficult with a lot of challenges.
• Most of the Iraqi University staff from presidents, academic, technical, administrative need to be trained
outside Iraq with capacity building plan for human resources in ICT in the Iraqi higher education (IHE).
•
2. E-LEARNING BENEFITS FOR IRAQ HE
Iraq has been placed in the level that is characterized by poor use of ICT applications in Government, weakness
or absence of e-commerce and related legislation, limited usage of ICT in education , inferior usage of ICT in
health care, and barely perceptible use in the employment sector (ESCWA, 2009) .
Also UNESCO report ( Education under Attack ) (O’Malley, 2010) stated that between March 2003
and October 2008, 31,598 violent attacks against educational institutions were reported in Iraq, at least 30 per
cent of professors, doctors, pharmacists and engineers had fled the country since 2003 .
Thus, the Iraqi higher education is in need for the e-learning for solving the problems of:
• Brain drain of the Lectures and Professors and the shortage of well-trained lecturers
• The huge shortage of educational materials like laboratory equipments, libraries, text books etc.
• Outdated traditional face to face methods of teaching and expand towards learner centred (ELDahshan,
2009)
• Closing the knowledge gap that has existed since the 1980s between Iraqi universities and the rest of the
world
• Use of new educational technologies in order to increase the efficiency of the learning process.
• Rebuild the university ICT infrastructures
• Addressing student related problems, like student absence, differences in cultures etc.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The main objective of our research is to propose an e-learning framework for Iraqi higher education
system according to the universities desire to mobilise the subject matter expert in an attempt to leverage
technology and knowledge to build quality e-learning system in a short period of time.
4. METHODOLOGY
The idea of this research is to investigate IHE academic staff experiences, opinions regarding the
implementation of full scale e-learning system. The methodology that has been used by the researchers is the
Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation (ADDIE) model for all the research parts. A special
ADDIE instructional cascade format for the e-learning project has been designed and it is summarised with all
its activities in the figure.2 below.
The Analysis: The study was based on two data sources: the previous studies about the Iraqi higher
education sector (Bank, 2009; Harb, 2008; Husain, 2004; Kubba, 2009), interviews and all related documents. A
clear set of contrasts has become apparent from these two data sources set out the framework of the research. A
pre-survey was done to collect the data required and show us very clear that the weakness in Iraqi higher
education is cover all this field area , but the most important to us was the technological and the human
resources, as given in Table 1(Elameer & Idrus, 2010a, 2010b).
The Design and Development: After analysing the data, the Khan framework was considered with its
octagonal eight dimensions of the e-learning process (Khan, 2005c, 2006). The eight dimensions in this
framework have then been grouped in three major domains: educational, technological and organizational
(Grewal et al,, 2005; Kurti, 2008).
5. THE E-LEARNING MODEL
In Iraq now it is very difficult to change the traditional delivery styles directly. We need to organise and prepare
the ground for the changes first (Masami, 2006), this preparation will take place by adopt the e-learning as
support activity to the face to face traditional learning method. The supporting approach will require that the
teacher is present in the self-study (Abualsaoud, 2009; Al-Busaidi & Al-Shihi, 2010; Chendeb & Nasr, 2010).
5.1 Badrul H. Khan e-learning frame work
The Khan framework is one of the most best and complete comprehensive theoretical e-learning models. ELearning can be defined now as Badrul H. Khan stated: An innovative approach for delivering well designed,
learner-centered, interactive, and facilitated learning environment to anyone, anyplace, anytime, by utilising the
attributes and resources of various digital technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for
open and distributed learning environment (Khan, 2005a, 2005b, 2006, 2009).
Figure.2: ADDIE methodology model used
Figure.3: IRAQI higher education framework
This framework can be divided into three major domains: first is the Educational Sector containing
the elements of Pedagogical, Ethical and Evaluation. The second is the Technological Sector containing the
elements of Technology and Interface Design) and the third domain is the Managerial Sector containing the
elements of Institutional, Resource support and Management (Kurti, 2008).
The emergence of this frame work made the greatest impact in the revolution of e-learning that take
place in the all of the learning sector since this framework, for the last 13 years, described all the education and
learning process. Further, the framework also offered the logical base for all the e-learning instructional
designers on how to design and implement effective learning environment in the e-learning process using the
interactions afforded via computers and internet, taking into consideration and stating all the factors that could
affect the proposed designs. The Khan framework is still widely utilised until today (a few references here)
Nonetheless, from our point of view Khan framework is a complete education system that can even be
defined as an e-education or framework for technology enhanced education. Re-defining the framework as eeducation denotes that the Khan framework could be used for any other educational technologies in education.
6. KHAN FRAMEWORK MODIFICATION
Our stated differences with this framework is a trial to reinforced it only and for that we called it the modified
framework and not new framework because we retained all the original dimensions
inside Khan frame work and these difference comes from our deeply investigation inside the e-learning process
, environment , learning type , the new revolution of wireless technologies. (Prof. Dr. Khan on his last book and
all his writing agrees that)(Khan, 2009).
in Khan framework that consisted of eight dimensions. Our deliberations have resulted in the following
considerations;
• We rearranged the dimensions locations inside the octagonal such that the technology domain is located at
the base, denoting the pivotal nature of technology.
• A wireless technologies element was added as sub-components to the technological dimension as it relates to
current communication modes and is an important factor in the total cost of the e-learning.
• In the Khan’s resources support dimension, we added the technological human resources capacity building
which was missing from the frame work; human resources capacity building in ICT plays a critical role in
supporting hardwares, softwares and the instructors on new and emerging technologies.
• Content was given its own domain in light of the focus on learning objects and educational resources
• Learner was given a central dimension moving towards learner-centred teaching and learning environment.
• Khan does not take in to the consideration the time as a dimension or sub-dimension but if we want to use
his frame work in blended learning we have to take this important factor in to consideration.
7. WHY THE MODIFICATION
There is no doubt that Khan frame work is an encompassing educational framework but our
investigation and discovery of related researches portrayed a clear view that it is suitable and appropriate at the
time that it was formulated and constructed. However, many factors and emerging trends have taken prominence
that could gave way for an extended approach taking into account current focus and issues.
In a country like Iraq which there is no stability in all of the life conditions which start from its political
system , new democracy concepts, infrastructure, learners, material resources; it would be difficult to wholly
adopt the Khan framework as it stands. As a case in point in the Iraqi higher education, we found that Iraqi
universities are still without any up to date technologies and it is very difficult to ask its academic staff to adopt
e-leaning into its academic activities and more than 70% have not even heard about a Moodle , LAMS , …etc.
Here we have to solve this problem which provided us the impetus to consider relevant the
modification in the framework. Also in the Iraq we found that the government do not give due attention to the
ICT infrastructures and currently wireless technologies could play a big role in the learning scenario. Naturally,
pivotal issues will have to be included and the Khan framework in its original state will have to undergo
modification to address impending local issues especially in designing the framework of the Iraqi higher
education.
8. NEW FRAMEWORK FOR THE E-LEARNING
Most of the universities and e-learning institutions in the world’s adoption of e-learning commenced in
a hybrid of traditional face-to-face and online learning and the instruction occurs both in the classroom and
online, and where the online component becomes a natural extension of traditional classroom learning (Fook et
al, 2005).
Our modified Khan 2009 framework was the base of our framework along with an exemplary elearning system of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) via the School of Distance Education; utilizing a blend
of self-instructional text, state of the art video conferencing learning environment (VCLE) delivery system and
an electronic portal including the Learning Activity Management System.
Then we combined between the USM model with its VCLE with our modified Khan model we have a
new framework that is customised for the need and purpose of the University of Mustansiriyah (UoMust) as it
fulfilled all the university educational needs.
The combined framework has resulted in an e-learning system centralising on the learner with content
and time control. As a matter of fact, the combined framework can be deemed as an e-education system due to
its comprehensiveness to cater for any impending changes in the environment. Since the University of
Mustansiriyah and all of Iraq are lacking in an official e-learning policy or system, the new framework will
serve as a functional framework in the technology enhanced learning landscape.
Figure.4: Iraqi higher education e-learning map
9. CONCLUSIONS
Many institutions have adopted the Khan framework in toto, renaming certain dimensions while utilizing the
eight dimensions in the octagon.
In essence, the design idea was employed under different names. In this paper we focus on the Iraqi case and all
the mitigating factors in an educational environment such as the changing emerging technologies including
wireless and the need for critical human resources across the board. The learner and content are given
prominence as we move towards learner centredness and the numerous learning resources available in the
current digital era. Education and learning environments will continue to evolve as would models and
frameworks to cater for the constant changes in the learning environment. Our new e-education framework is
testament to the considerations of functionality, scalability, modularity in e-learning framework as we strive for
a stable electronic based educational setting..
REFERENCES
Al-Busaidi, K. A., & Al-Shihi, H. (2010). Instructors' Acceptance of Learning Management Systems: A Theoretical Framework.
Communications of the IBIMA, 2010 (2010).
Abualsaoud, M. S. (2009). The Development of Education and its Role Building Knowledge Society. Paper presented at the First
International Conference on e-Learning and Distance Learning (eLi 2009), Riyadh , KSA.
Al-Busaidi, K. A., & Al-Shihi, H. (2010). Instructors' Acceptance of Learning Management Systems: A Theoretical Framework.
Communications of the IBIMA, 2010 (2010).
Bank, W. (2009). Interim Strategy Note for The Republic of IRAQ for The Period Mid FY09-FY11 (No. Report No. 47304-IQ)o. Document
Number)
Chendeb, H., & Nasr, N. (2010, 6-8/4/2010). Electronic EFL e-programs: Evaluation and proposals. Paper presented at the The Role of ELearning in Supporting Knowledge Communities (ECONF3), Bahrain.
Elameer, A., & Idrus, R. (2010a). E-learning model for the University of Mustansiriyah in Baghdad, Iraq. Paper presented at the 3rd
International Future-Learning Conference On Innovations in Learning for the Future 2010:e-Learning , May 10-14, 2010.
Elameer, A., & Idrus, R. (2010b). E-Learning Strategy for the Iraqi Higher Education Sector. Paper presented at the The 5th International
Conference on e-Learning Penang , Malaysia , 12-13 July , 2010 . pp. 101-109.
ELDahshan, K. (2009). Towards a hybrid University to achieve Globalization. ICGST-CNIR Journal, 8(2).
ESCWA. (2009). Regional Profile of The Information Society in Western Asia. Retrieved 25 September 2009, from
http://www.escwa.un.org/information/publications/edit/upload/ictd-09-12.pdf
Grewal, A., Rai, S., Phillips, R., & Fung, C. C. (2005). The E-Learning Lifecycle and its Services: The Web Services Approach. Paper
presented at the Second International Conference on eLearning for Knowledge-Based Society, August 4-7, 2005,, Bangkok,
Thailand
Harb, I. (2008). Higher Education and the Future of Iraq (Education and Conflict). Washington, D.C. (T. U. S. I. o. Peace o. Document
Number)
Husain,
M.
A.
(2004).
IRAQ
,
Education
in
Transition
[Electronic
Version],
from
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001386/138665e.pdf
Khan, B. H. (2005a). E-learning Quick Checklist: Information Science Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2005b). Learning Features in an Open, Flexible, and Distributed Environment. AACE Journal, 13(2), 137-153.
Khan, B. H. (2005c). MANAGING E-LEARNING STRATEGIES , Design ,Delivery ,Implementation , and Evaluation: Information Science
Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2006). Flexible Learning in an Information Society Information Science Publishing
Khan, B. H. (2009). E-Learning - The Global e-Learning Framework. In S. Mishra (Ed.), STRIDE Handbook 8 (Vol. 1, pp. 42-52). New
Delhi–110 068 , Maidan Garhi: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
Kubba, J. (2009). Expedited Revival for Iraqi Higher Education Institutions. Paper presented at the 1st International Conference for Iraqi
Experts in the Diaspora. from www.parliament.iq/iete/1-5.pdf
Kurti, E. (2008). Students´experiences on eMesimi; an e-learning system in University of Prishtina, Kosova. University of Prishtina,,
Prishtina.
Masami, Y. (2006). Feasibility of a University e-Learning Project. Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology, 6(Special Issue - ASEAN
Seminar on e-Learning 2005), 13-22.
O’Malley, B. (2010). Education Under Attack , A global study on targeted political and military violence against education staff, students,
teachers,
union
and
government
officials,
aid
workers
and
institutions.
from
www.unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001868/186809e.pdf
Table 1: Some of preliminary survey results for the e-learning and ICT skills related to 5.5
Statement
Mean
Percentage
%
I think the best way is to use the CAL with the
face to face traditional learning methods at the
beginning
5.34
89%
v.good
I have a lot of information about e-learning
networks
2.65
44% Poor
I know how to use all the MS Office
3.38
56.3%
Poor
I know how to use MS Word
5.58
93% excel.
I know how to use MS PowerPoint
4.83
80.6%
v.good
I know how to use MS Excel and MS Access
3.16
52.7%
Poor
I know how to use Moodle software
3.06
50.9%
Poor
I know how to use LAMS software
3.06
50.9%
Poor
I know how to use JUSUR software
3.06
51% Poor
I have a connected in computer my office in
university
3.25
54.1%
Poor
I will use the educational technologies if it is
offered in the class rooms
5.53
92.1%
excel.
A lot of training ICT courses are offered for the
academic staff
3.49
58.2%
Poor
I use ICT to organize and manage my work
4.88
81.4%
v.good
I use ICT to prepare lessons
4.8
80%
v.good
I use ICT to find digital learning resources
5.82
97% excel.
I use ICT to design and produce my own
digital learning resources
4.35
72.5%
Med.
I use ICT to communicate with colleagues
5.35
89.1%
v.good
I use ICT to communicate with your pupils
5.35
89.1%
v.good
I use ICT to communicate with school
management and educ. administrations
3.14
52.3%
Poor
I feel confident with ICT and would like to use
it more effectively
6
100%
excel.
I read all the up to date researches in e-learning
3.55
59.2%
Poor
I follow all the up to date technologies in elearning like e-learning2 and M-learning…etc.
3.81
63.6%
Med.
Re Engineering Iraqi Higher Education with the E-Education
Solutions
ATYAF ALHADITHI , ROZHAN M. IDRUS & AMER S. ELAMEER
School of Distance Education
Universiti Sain Malaysia ( USM )
MALAYSIA , PENANG
Abstract: - Any educational institution hopes to move toward e-education either reactively or
proactively is relied on how stake holders, particularly faculty, embrace such changes. The real
obstacle is how to react to such changes in the education environment with strategic modernization by
examining new concepts and models. Iraqi higher education in specific and all the country in general
is ranked by the UN agencies in the zone of weak using of ICT. A real lack for all types of ICT
information can be discovered easily. IHE is in an urgent need for e-education system to solve all the
sectors problems. This paper present an e-education technological road map for how to design an eeducation systems in any Iraqi university. The designs build upon a long and wide deeply
investigation for the IHE case using Q square research approaches. The final ICT designs was
welcomed in IHE because it is a complete solutions for the educational and managerial problems of
the IHE universities.
Key-Words: IHE (Iraqi Higher Education), E-Education, BL (Blended Learning), Q Square
(Qualitative and Quantities), MIS (Management Information System.
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
1
1 Introduction
The theory of e-education rotates around the use of ICT to speed the achievement of national
education objectives. E-Education is about combining learners to other learners, teachers to
professional support services and management affairs, effective combinations of pedagogy with
technology, and providing platforms of information to better learning and good education institutions.
Interesting in e-education proceeds to increase, and a lot of higher educational institutions have
been increasing possibilities for testing with a variety of synchronous and asynchronous
communication lines, as well as increasing possibilities for testing with blending face-to-face and
electronic communication. The possibilities for increased access to expertise as well as the
possibilities for developing new types of collaboration are frequently adopted to be two ways that eeducation can transform the nature, the structures, and the methods of teaching and learning at many
levels.
E-education means e-teaching and e-learning together with the different managerial and strategic
measures required to support teaching and learning in an Internet environment. It will include a local,
regional, national and international view of education. The current Iraqi education framework is a
souvenir of the country uprising in mid of the seventieth of the last century is progressively out of
touch, especially after the war's damages and the needs of society and the learners it serves.
The old traditional model of education, where a teacher tells knowledge to learners through a
lecture, and learners recite remembered facts and solve basic math and science problems to sketch
understanding of the information, is no longer suitable given the context of today’s successively
dynamic society, and it is wasting time, money and human efforts.[1].
The Internet and effective global communications have mainly changed how individuals approach
information. Today’s generation of learners is growing up in the digital environment with computers,
laptops, broadband speed, wireless connectivity, mobiles phones, iPods, and other tools and
successively, more and more it becomes parts of their lives, and it does not stop here but their life
topics become also digitized and are made available through this daily up to date digital devices, and
information is available anywhere and anytime on any topic imaginable. Today’s learning approaches
used by schools in the extreme opposite with how they learn and interact outside of the classroom.
Professor Tim Birtwhistle said: "Today's learners are completely different from learners
previously. They know how the multi-task and their learning skills are different from those of their
predecessors," and professor François Fourcade added “They can type faster than I can speak.[2]
2.Iraqi Higher Education after 2003
After the devastation of most of the Iraq facilities and infrastructures following the United
Nations Security Council economic sanctions (from 1991 to 2004) and the last war (Mar-Apr 2003),
the whole of the country infrastructures was affected and damaged ( On March-April 2003 started the
war on Iraq and delivered nearly (1750) tons equivalent to 400000 a nuclear bomb similar to the
bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japanese and the equivalent of 5.5 times as much as the quantity, which
was thrown in 1991 in the first Gulf war on Iraq ) , the higher education sector, directly or indirectly,
disrupted the primary, secondary and higher education activities.
After April 2003, the demand for all types of higher education (Bachelors, Masters, and PhD) in
Iraq has increased as a result of the social development process and due to the increase in family’s
incomes and the re-growth of the Iraqi economy. However, there were many sectors that suffered
technical, secure, violence, political and financial problems, which delayed the construction,
rebuilding, rehabilitation, capacity building and provision of the necessary requirements and supplies
and higher education and education for sure is one of them [3].
The traditional approaches of managing the higher education sector in Iraq have been rendered
useless in the need to rebuild the educational environment with high academic standards. E-education
with e-learning is identified as a student centered approach to teaching and learning and requires a
conducive and good ICT infrastructure, communication technologies to build a rich learning
environment.
3.Current ICT Initiatives in Iraq
University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
2
In Iraq, we cannot say that the government does not pay attention to ICT , but the efforts paid in
the budget that is funded for is not what ICT needed or the benefits that will come from it .[4]. A lot
of good efforts have been contributed by the Ministry of Science and Technology [5], and ICT
initiatives are currently in well progress in Iraq. ICT starts to work even in e-government in Iraq, but
in very difficult conditions (Baghdad ranked (214) the world’s least safe city) [6].
Iraq is located in the level that is characterized by poor use of ICT applications in Government,
weakness or absence of e-commerce and related legislation, limited usage of ICT in education ,
inferior usage of ICT in health care, and barely perceptible use in the employment sector.[4]. It is
roughly estimated that Iraqi universities needed at least more than 250,000 computers to start
rebuilding its ICT infrastructure again. Iraqi has to transfer the technology from the advanced
countries in this field, and use the relationship among the Iraqi universities and other world advanced
universities to design its infrastructure and implement the ICT networks.
3.E-Education Capacity
The challenge is to excel the mere exchange of information and to convert e-Education into a
range of learning activities that converge with educational goals. E-Education is more than improving
computer learning and the abilities required to operate different types of information and
communication technology. It is the capacity to:
1-Address ICT skills to approach, analyze, evaluate, integrate, present and transfer information.
2-Produce knowledge and new information by changing, applying, designing, designing and
authoring information.
3-Improve teaching and learning through communication and collaboration by using ICT, and
function in a knowledge society by using suitable technology and learning communication and
cooperation skills.
4-E-Education views ICT as a resource for reorganizing education and as a tool for development, and
it includes ICT as a tool for control and management, a tool for resource for the curriculum
combination, a tool for communication, the cooperative tools for teachers and learners and learning
environment that advances innovation, communication, cooperation and engagement.
ICT when successfully merged into teaching and learning can secure the meaningful interaction
of learners with information. ICT can progress towards cognitive skills such as understanding,
analysis, problem-solving and creative view.
Success in the extract of ICT into teaching and learning will guarantee that all learners will be
equipped for full participation in the knowledge society before they leave a further education
institution. E-education designers need to find new ways of improving e-learning technologies and
systems to encounter global standards, and made them interoperable with other systems, and
encourages the pedagogical affluence which considers a full range of philosophical and
epistemological views.
4.Blended Learning in IHE
Any first step in e-education project in IHE must start from the blended learning procedures and
it is difficult to adopt a completely free online learning directly, whatever the learning institution’s
strength are and equipped with whatever technologies. Besides, IHE is a traditional university facing
heavy problems. The harmonizing of the learning activities and environments in e-education system
is the key to the success in blended learning, because it is a very complex mix between two different
virtual and physical environments. In order to reach the target of blended learning which would incur
less cost and more effective learning in IHE, we suggests that the appropriate procedures would be:
1-Build a real IT environment in all of the academic affairs in IHE and start using MIS for
harmonizing the learning activities for both students and academic staff. (Start training Senior
academic staff , provide all required equipments to start , establish the IHE e-education center
,choose the subjects to start with, supply all the classrooms with the equipments required (computer +
data show) as minimum , increase internet bandwidth as soon as possible and cancel any sharing in
that) .
University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
3
2-Adopting e-education and online learning activities officially in IHE learning activities. (Ask
academisc to: (publish at least one paper about the effectiveness of using the e-education programs,
and joining international conferences outside Iraq)).
The blended approach for IHE is focused on a mix between the traditional face to face courses
and online courses (Fig.1), because Iraq are still required for certain face to face courses in IHE (
fig.2).
It is very difficult to change all the learning system in IHE directly. It is found and observed that
blending in higher education are common occurring at the degree (BA or B.Sc) program level.[7].
Fig.1: the e-education approach in IHE with
the activities details.
Fig.2: The e-education with the students
activities details.
5.The IHE IT Designs
For the stated reasons, we found it is better to achieve the research goal which is proposed an up
to date ICT design for the e-education centre for the Iraqi universities similar to the same centers
designes in the developed universities. Since IHE is an empty and completely clear area, the start
will be from the beginning without any trial to upgrade the university infrastructure ( in general there
is no real infrastructures to be upgraded) . We starts from the software since there is no real IT or
MIS used in IHE, and to achieve that a set of e-learning software have been chosen after long survey
of its capabilities and simple ways of usage. They are Moodle, LAMS and JUSUR.
The harmonization between the software and hardware was the big challenge that faced the
researcher in the design and development of technological methodology part of the research
6 . Software Structure Required
6.1. Infrastructure Software:
The types of software that can be selected for use in the e-education process in IHE depends on
the e-education framework that has been proposed for the university, taking into consideration that the
first important step must be easy and suitable for the staff and students there. The software that will be
used inside the university e-education framework and e-learning environment software (Moodle,
LAMS, and JUSUR) are free for use and others are for rental. In our framework, it is all free software
in general and easy to use without any kind of complexity, well structured software that does not need
special equipment to run, like expansion of computers memories or others. They provide multiple
options and capabilities to control the learner activities, and easy to connect between different eeducation software. Some forward selection of e-learning environment software for use will depend
on university policies and standards and ministry policy and probably the funding available. Also, we
University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
4
have to take into consideration the future steps of the e-education environment software which will
include Blackboard, and other programs.[8], [9-11].
Fig.3 presents the software’s that will be used in IHE e-education system.
Fig .3: the software structure proposed for the IHE
e-education centers
6.2. Help Desk System And Maintenance
At the beginning of any project and in ICT field specifically, it is very important to provide a kind
of assistance and help to the end users. Nowadays, there are several methods to provide this help
service. They even use the mobile phones to provide this important service and deliver quick answers
and solutions for all end users problems. In our focus, the high percentage of end users will be the
learners. The main responsibility from the top university management is the fast response from the
technician to resolve the learners’ problems which are very important to e-education performance. A
special center will be established and created for this system where the top e-education management
can seek advice related to e-education process. This system in e-education is very necessary because
of the limited direct communications between the learners and the teachers and if the learners require
anything related to their e-learning process, there is always someone to help. For example, if the
network is off, lost password, labs being occupied, top e-education management would need
explanation from whoever is concerned. The help center can attempt the task of linking the top eeducation management with other administrative units.
6.3. Management Information System (MIS)
The general definition of MIS is a system that provides information needed to manage
organizations effectively .It is a very important feature in a dynamic university education
environment. Today, Information Communication Technology (ICT) is very useful in academic
activities and administration. It is very difficult to believe that most of Iraqi universities work without
real Information Management systems. The main objective of the Management Information System
(MIS) components is to develop and deploy tri-level Management Information System (MIS)
architecture, as follows:
6.3.1. IHE Operational Level:
To support, facilitate and improve the services and activities that are performed at all functional
levels of public IHE, to include Students Information, Financial Systems, Library systems, Personnel
and Payroll, and Asset Management.
6.3.2. IHE Executive Level:
To support the management and the decision making process within each university college as
well as to enable adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM). The level will provide aggregate
information to University management on all aspects of operational level systems.
6.3.3. Higher Education Ministry Level:
To support the activities of higher education and improve its decision making process as well as
to enable more effective management of higher education, by providing aggregate information for all
Iraqi public universities.
7. IHE Hardware Requirement for the Infrastructures
University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
5
Success in an e-education system involves a systematic process of planning, designing,
evaluating, and implementing online learning environments where learning is actively fostered and
supported. [12].
The infrastructure of the IHE ICT must have the ability to support the e-education activities that
universities are embarking on, but the universities do not have it. IHE is in urgent need for
establishment of a robust network infrastructure with special hardware components. As a word of
truth, the universities does not have any network or its components, which means that they must start
from the zero point by finding a good and suitable place for the computer centers first of all. Then,
supply it with all its required needs from the various application servers and its accessories and, a mix
of shared and switched network technologies, storage devices, high-speed fiber optic lines, electric
supply, air conditioning systems and others. In addition, establish and develop an Inter-University
Wide Area Network, increase Internet access speeds (bandwidth) available to each user. It is very
important to take into consideration that the hardware components are designed specifically for multimedia processing which includes e-education, with video conferencing systems for E-education and
communications, other IT works like the Library System and the Management Information System
(MIS).
At the start, it is better for IHE to establish different networks for the e-education purpose (local
area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN)). IHE can decide that the e-education
environment is only accessible within its premises (local network) or ubiquitously (wide area
network). Such policies have to be discussed before the initialization of the e-education process. The
researcher suggests that IHE must start at the beginning only with local area networks, till it tests and
examines all its networks implemented designs and then start widely.
The networking scheme set for prototype network for IHE is to simulate the remote access
network of the e-education centres and Computer Information Technology (CIT) centres in
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and the entire network of IHE. The virtual network was then
tested at various levels to find the best possible performance. After that, according to IHE needs for
the e-education, a set of e-education software have been chosen with USM experience standards and
experience in using them effectively.
8. HOW TO DO IT
IHE must design and implement its e-Education Information Technology Network (EDITN)
because they do not have any kind of real networking inside the university. The EDITN objective is to
create the e-education network to support all the academic activities and the e-education activities
within the pedagogical learning environment. Students will have access to required resources
regardless of their geographic location, if they are in university or not. This will allow the students to
remotely access to IHE network, whenever they need to without any time constraints, or any other
personal constraints. The researcher thinks that IHE network design must be a multi-tiered, logically
centralized hierarchical topology, which will provide high availability, reliability, manageability,
scalability, and sustainability. The researcher suggests that these network servers will likely be located
in the special center in IHE, because the university does not have such place now and they have to
build it or reform a place for it. The core of the thoughts of the researcher’s designs have been build
around this concept which is not a new concept at all in the field of ICT networks designs. [13]
We suggests the university recreates the scale model of the entire framework of proposed IHE eeducation network design network, equipment such as servers (installed with various programs),
Cisco switches, Cisco routers, micro-routers, and Ethernet cables used to simulate the network and
test the environment of the virtual network before it is implemented. It will provide the researcher
and the university management staff with the results needed to fulfill the proposed network design
requirements.
The equipments used in the design will consist of eight servers that comprise the required network
infrastructure of the ICT needed to establish a CIT for e-education in any Iraqi university (all Iraqi
universities have the same managerial structures and they follow the Iraqi higher education ministry
structure and the data collected shows us very clearly there is no differences between the universities).
Only five of the eight servers will be actually in production and they are : Database + Web +
Application + File + Video Management + Standby Server (8 Server(s) Accessible LAN Only) , with
University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
6
the specifications of Quad Core Xeon Pro X5460, 12MB Cache, 3.16GHz, 1333MHz FSB ,8GB
Memory ,2 Hotplug HDD ~ 300GB 15K RPM SAS Hard Drive , Intel(R) Pro/1000 Gigabit NIC.
The numbers of the computers in the CIT e-education centers in the design is 150 computers
while the numbers of the computers connected to the center is depends on the universities sizes and
the numbers of the students studying in it ( in general it was designed to serve a university sized of
around 10000 student and ten colleges as minimum). Fig.4 present the proposed design of the CIT eeducation center.
Fig.4: the proposed CIE for e-education centers
with the specifications
9. Conclusion
The ICT technology transfer is very important to the Iraqi higher education sector, especially in
the field of hardware and MIS to reduce the time and money required rebuilding this Middle East
country
The blend between the educational experience and the technological needs was the trade mark of
this research. Iraqi education in general suffered from huge losses in the ICT fields and the brain
drain from the country.
In general, the Iraqi communications infrastructure is weak and old, [4]nd it needs a huge budget
to fix and repair it. As such, the use of the wireless technology to connect the universities campuses
would make a cost-effective solution.
In order to gain the most benefits of the internet, it requires massive investment in fiber optics
infrastructure and this is absent in manyuniversities. Supplying education through technology and
with up-to-date technologies needs the development of a public education policy.
Supplying each university campus or college with its video conferencing system and also a direct
video activities system and server is very important in learning environment like Iraq today. It was
calculated that the required storage space for each student as 5 GB as min. - 10 GB as maximum.
It is envisaged that two Internet providers at least are required for each of university e-education
centers and it must be at least 100 Mbps for the maim campus center ,60 Mbps for the sub-main
centers in colleges and of 30 Mbps in the other centers. The post evaluation was conducted on the
project in Iraq, where the end user has showed us very clearly the great motivations towards the
complete solution as it covers the educational and technological needs for the e-education.
References :
[1]
I. Harb, "Higher Education and the Future of Iraq," in Special Report No. 195, The United
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[3]
H. L. Paanakker, "Higher Education in Iraq under Attack," in School of Social Sciences. vol.
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University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
Eng. Dr. AMER SALEEM ELAMEER , Executive ICT Director ,
E-Learning & E-Training Portals & Network Designer, Technical Adviser
[4]
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University of Information Technology & Communications, Iraq
www.amer-alameer.com - amerelameer@yahoo.com, - dr.amerelameer@gmail.com
Baghdad- Iraq –Yarmouk City- Sec.616-St.2-H. no.4 - Mobile Numbers : +9647901399256 , +9647702536005
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