The reality of ICT in improving the quality of higher education in Palestinian universities and colleges

Abstract

      The study aimed to identify the degree to which ICT is used and its impact on improving the quality of higher education in the Palestinian universities and colleges, and to identify the effect of variables of gender, age and qualification. To achieve the objectives of the study, the analytical, descriptive approach was used. The sample of the study consisted of 100 faculty members of the Palestinian universities who were members of the Palestinian Authority for PhD holders in the public sector. They were chosen via the randomly stratified sampling method. The researcher, who reviewed several previous studies and tools, constructed a questionnaire that consisted of (50) items. This questionnaire consisted of two sections. Section I included the impact of using ICT on improving the quality of the educational process in the classroom. It comprised of the areas of the course, the teacher, the student, the teaching process, the college administration. Section II included the ICT constraints in the educational process. It comprised of the areas of human obstacles, physical and programming constraints, organizational and administrative constraints, and the course constraints. The validity and reliability of the research tool were verified. Based on the theoretical and statistical research, the study reached a set of important findings. The scores of two main themes of the study and its areas were moderate, except for the score of the area of course in the first theme, which was high. There are significant differences in the first theme and the overall score in terms of gender in favor of males, and in terms of age groups (30-40 years, 41-50 years, and 51 years and over) in favor of 51 years. As for the variable of qualifications, there were significant differences between an associate professor and assistant professor in favor of the associate, and between associate professor and professor in favor of the professor. In the second theme, there were significant differences between an assistant professor and a professor in favor of the professor and between an associate professor and professor in favor of the professor. In light of the study results, the researcher recommended the need to hold courses and workshops to train academic staff on using necessary modern electronic tools to improve the quality of education and convince them of their importance.