BZU and International Partners to establish technology-based education center

Working towards a knowledge-based economy, Birzeit University is leading the establishment of a “Teaching and Learning Center” with its local and international partners at the EU Erasmus+ projects. The national academic consortium aims to offer tools and methodologies that will lead to a modern higher-education based on the latest technology teaching methods.

Working with its partners from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Jordan, and Palestine, the center will seek to engage technology in the teaching process, and will be used to train professors and lecturers from the partner countries to achieve best modern practices in the educational process.

Birzeit University President Abdullatif Abuhijleh, Assistant President Abdel Aziz Shawabkeh, electrical and computer engineering professor and the local project Coordinator for Palestine Wasel Ghanem , and a number of science and engineering professors, met recently with the partners to discuss prospects of cooperation. 

The attendees pointed out that the project aims to modernize Palestine’s higher-education methods, through benefiting from the EU’s practices and experiences in academia.

“Having strong implementation partners is integral to the success of this project,” Abuhijleh said. “The EU demonstrated solutions-oriented global leadership with its modern education projects. This allowed us to build relationships with world-class partners, providing greater, more immediate impact to the Palestinian community.”

Abuhijleh underscored the distinction of this project: “What really makes this project unique is that the Center of Teaching and Learning will be made to inspire and enrich Birzeit’s collective practice and pursuit of teaching excellence.”

According to Ghanem, this center will be both collaborative and experiential; the university will be a hub for local and international professors and scholars, to learn and engage digital learning spaces, promote active learning and creativity in their pedagogical frameworks.  “We will be working to advance best practices in all aspects of curriculum, instruction and assessment.”

Ghanem said that this hub will be improving the quality of teaching and learning by developing the skills of the partners in evaluating, developing and designing e-curricula. He added that an electronic portal will also be established which allows professor to upload their courses online, and share their experiences and achievements.”