Fidalgo et al. [ 6 ] قل أن شبكة الويب العالمية ساعدت جزءًا كبيرًا من سكان العالم في الوصول إلى المعلومات ، مما دعم توزيع المحتوى التعليمي ، وبالتالي ساعد في نقل التعليم عن بعد إلى العصر الرقمي. أكد الباحثون الذين جاءوا لتعريف ووصف التعليم عن بعد أن هذه التجربة التعليمية تحدث في سياق يتم فيه الفصل بين المعلمين والمتعلمين في الزمان والمكان [ 7 ]. ليس هناك شرط أن تلتحق بمؤسسة أكاديمية للحصول على درجة علمية أو اعتماد [ 8 ].

يؤثر التعلم عن بعد وعبر الإنترنت والتعلم المدمج بشكل إيجابي على تعلم الطلاب ، بما في ذلك نتائج التعلم [ 9 ]) ، وتعلمهم العاطفي [ 10 ] ، وإمكانات التعلم ما وراء المعرفية [ 11 ] ، ودوافعهم [ 12 ] ، وتفاعلهم [ 13 ] وتفاعلهم [13]. الهوية [ 14 ]. ومع ذلك ، قد لا يكون هذا التأثير الإيجابي للتعليم عن بعد صحيحًا دائمًا. باركنسون وآخرون. [ 15 ] وجدوا أن التعليم عن بعد له فوائد للطلاب خارج الحرم الجامعي من خلال توفير وصول أسهل إلى الفرص التعليمية ، لكنهم وجدوا أيضًا أنه في بيئة الفصل الدراسي التقليدية ، يشعر الطلاب داخل الحرم الجامعي برضا أكبر عن خبراتهم التعليمية.

كان الباحثون مهتمين بالتعليم في حالات الطوارئ منذ تفشي COVID-19 (على سبيل المثال ، [ 16 ، 17 ، 18 ]). سفيانيديس وآخرون. [ 4 ] يجادل بأن وباء COVID-19 خلق فرصًا فريدة للتحول الرقمي للتعليم ، لكنه في الوقت نفسه ، سلط الضوء على أوجه القصور المختلفة في النظام التعليمي الحالي. كما يجادلون بأننا بحاجة إلى التغلب على تحديات التعليم الرقمي للاستفادة بشكل فعال من الإمكانات التعليمية للتقنيات الرقمية ، وخاصة التعلم عن بعد والتعلم عبر الإنترنت والمختلط.

وفقًا لبيانات من اللجنة الاقتصادية لأمريكا اللاتينية ومنطقة البحر الكاريبي - منظمة الأمم المتحدة للتربية والعلم والثقافة (ECLAC-UNESCO) ، بحلول منتصف مايو 2020 ، توقف أكثر من 1.2 مليار طالب في جميع مستويات التعليم في جميع أنحاء العالم عن مواجهة- دروس وجهاً [ 5 ]. أفادت اللجنة الاقتصادية لأمريكا اللاتينية ومنطقة البحر الكاريبي واليونسكو [ 5 ] أنه حتى قبل ظهور الوباء ، كان الوضع الاجتماعي في المنطقة يتدهور بسبب ارتفاع معدلات الفقر واستمرار عدم المساواة وتزايد السخط الاجتماعي. وكان لهذا الوضع الاقتصادي تأثير سلبي على مختلف القطاعات الاجتماعية ، وخاصة التعليم. الادعاء السابق ينطبق على فلسطين ، مع الفجوة الرقمية السائدة [ 19 ]. وفقا لشلايشر [ 20] ، تتفاقم هذه الفجوة الرقمية في التعليم في حالات الطوارئ ، نظرًا لأن الطلاب المتميزين قادرون على شق طريقهم عبر أبواب المدارس المغلقة للوصول إلى فرص تعلم بديلة ، بينما غالبًا ما يتم استبعاد الطلاب المحرومين.

درس الباحثون التجارب التربوية في فلسطين أثناء التعليم الطارئ. وجد شريم وكرومبتون [ 21 ] أن المعلمين وصناع القرار الفلسطينيين حددوا الأجهزة المحمولة ووسائل التواصل الاجتماعي والحوسبة السحابية كأدوات لتصميم وتقديم المواد التعليمية ، وكذلك للتواصل بشكل فعال أثناء وباء COVID-19. علاوة على ذلك ، حدد شريم وكرومبتون تحديات مختلفة ، بما في ذلك توسيع الفجوة الرقمية للتعليم والموقف السلبي تجاه التعلم عبر الإنترنت.

ECLAC-UNESCO [5] reported that actions taken by ministries of education of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean concerned different aspects of online learning, including the preparation of teachers for online learning. For example, Ecuador’s Ministry of Education launched a teachers’ course named “My Online Classroom” that was based on self-learning. Another aspect is the establishment of digital devices for teachers and students, as part of the digitalizing education. This establishment was sometimes achieved through loans to teachers. Moreover, ECLAC-UNESCO [5] says that countries established ways through various distance learning modes.

To study the efficiency of the policy followed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Nepal, Shrestha and Gnawali [22] analyzed the educational policy documents issued by the Ministry. The analysis revealed several strengths of the policy, such as planning to create data in terms of learners’ access to resources, encouraging learners to value self-learning and parent education, and suggesting several alternative ways to resume school. Shrestha and Gnawali [22] recommended that in any future policy, teachers should have the autonomy to decide the course content in addition to creating the course content. The previous autonomy would enable teachers to comfortably and realistically meet the learning objectives of the curriculum and acknowledge their worthiness as teachers [22].

ICT-based education in Palestine was initiated and maintained by the involvement of the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, by the Palestinian local support, and by European-funded projects. Below, we elaborate on each of the local-support and European-funded initiatives and projects.

Wahbeh [23] studied ICT implementation in Palestinian schools. The author describes the relationship, related to ICT in schools, between the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), the local community or the parents’ associations (PTAs), and the school administration. The description shows that the technical infrastructure for the internet was provided by MoEHE and the PTA, with the help of the local community. It also reveals that, as a result of the Ministry of Education’s bureaucratic measures, the schools were slowed in connecting to the internet.

Having explored how teachers use computer technology in schools and how the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education views computer integration into schools, Barham [24] concluded that the impact that computer technology can have depends on the design of the teaching and learning environment supporting student-centered learning. She recommended that the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education should work to develop classroom environments that integrate technology into the learning process. She stressed that the availability of internal resources will determine whether the Ministry can achieve this goal. Furthermore, she argued that the Ministry may need outside donations to accomplish its mission due to the lack of resources in the country. Thus, Barham [24] emphasizes two issues. Firstly, there were challenges with the integration of ICT in the Palestinian classroom, and secondly, in order to overcome these challenges, it was necessary to develop internal resources.

European-funded projects were carried out in Palestine with the help of the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education to improve digital literacy and encourage the use of ICT in schools. We describe two of these projects here. The first project was funded by an Italian Cooperation, managed by the United Nations Development Program, and involved the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Pacetti [25] described the project as encouraging ICT use in Palestinian schools and universities. From the report of Pacetti, we see that universities took a main role in preparing appropriate materials, models of use of technology, and strategies for this use. Specifically, the University of Bologna had a main role in the project, implementing the ICT knowledge and critical practice in the schools and providing pedagogical models of the use of ICT, tools, and methodologies, which helped monitoring the pedagogical experimentation of the use of ICT in the classroom.

The second project was funded by the Belgian Development Agency (ENABLE) and involved the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education. ENABLE [26] described the previous project as follows: “288 pilot schools participated and were rewarded with ICT material based on their own ICT-needs analysis. By the end of the project, a total of 1600 learning objects were developed by teachers in a successful bottom-up approach and uploaded to the teacher web portal developed by the Ministry of Education”. Referring to the previous project, Traxler [27] says that in 2016, a set of Policy Papers were developed in the context of an E-learning project, jointly undertaken by the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and the Belgian Development Cooperation. The project aimed to introduce the use of ICT in the school curriculum to encourage the role of the student in the classroom, as well as acquiring 21st Century Skills in Palestine. Three policy papers focused on school processes and the fourth focused on digital literacy. Traxler [27] argues that “The status of the Papers is unclear—they are certainly not policy—but these paragraphs represent a significant milestone” (p. 7).

Kivistö and Pekkola [28] utilized Harvey and Green’s [29] framework for quality and the conceptualization of administration to develop a framework for quality education. This framework is composed of five dimensions. The first dimension is called “Administrative quality as exceptionality/excellence”. In the first dimension, we have “tangible” factors such as attractiveness and adequacy of facilities, but we also need a budget appropriate for the level of resources and well-qualified motivated staff. Here, benchmarking against an acceptable minimum set of standards is one of the ways to determine quality, at least to some degree. The second dimension is called “Administrative quality as perfection/consistency”. This dimension is concerned that aspects of administrative work must be reliable, accessible, and accurate. Aside from the level of service provided externally and internally, perfection also includes a level of responsiveness or staff willingness to assist. The third dimension is “Administrative quality as fitness for purpose”. This dimension refers to meeting the expectations of internal and external users for any administrative service. This dimension also refers to an academic institution’s ability and capacity to perform its mission and goals by fulfilling the purpose of its administration (or some part of it). The fourth dimension is “Administrative quality as value for money”. Here, quality is considered as being able to maximize the benefit from administrative services given limited resources, including monetary and human resources. The fifth dimension is “Administrative quality as transformation”. The fifth dimension considers whether the administration provided support for academic activities at universities, but they also proactively create conditions for academic excellence, financial success, and student needs—both at the same time.