Information Technology Education: A Multi-Fold Learning Approach
Moh’d A. Radaideh · 2022
This paper elaborates on the author's multi-fold learning approach for delivering an introductory course on Information Technology at the Faculty of Computer and Information Technology (FCIT) of Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). By the first semester of 2021–22, the course was created in eight modules covering the various FCIT's specializations, and it was offered at that time as a fully-online course. By the second semester of 2021–22, the course was revised and offered as a blended-online course. By the summer semester 2021–22, the course was revised once again and offered as a blended in-class course. As for the current first semester of 2022–23, the course is being offered as a hybrid course that consists of five folds: (i) compulsory synchronous in-class lectures; (ii) compulsory asynchronous off-class self-reading activities; (iii) compulsory synchronous and/or asynchronous online/off-line quizzes, and exams; (iv) optional asynchronous off-class self-watching activities; and (v) optional synchronous online discussion meetings. The said course was delivered differently on every semester of the past three ones since September 2021. The causes for altering the course's delivery mechanism during the current and the past semesters include, the following: (i) the ongoing changes in the requirements by the ministry of higher education and scientific research in respect to the online education, particularly the allowed percentage of online courses in each undergraduate degree program; (ii) the FCIT's requirement of adding new modules to serve its new specializations; (iii) the necessity of maintaining the course's compliance with the ABET and IET accreditation criteria; and (iv) the ongoing feedback and complaints received from the students and faculty members during the past semesters. Although the participating students' satisfaction figures continued to rise during the past three semesters, and the numbers of participating students have been tremendously increasing, there will always be rooms for improvement.