EXPLORING THE CRITICAL CHALLENGES AND FACTORS

INFLUENCING THE E-LEARNING SYSTEM IN JORDAN DURING A

COVID-19 PANDEMIC
A. Al-Qteishat, M.H. Hawamdeh, N.N. Yagodka, H.H. Alhaded, A. Shavtikova
RUDN University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

Abstract
This paper is devoted to exploring the critical challenges facing the current e-learning system in
Jordan and investigates the main factors that support the use of the e-learning system during the
Covid-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is causing the greatest disruption to education systems
nowadays, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries, including Jordan .The
closings of universities and other learning places have impacted 94% of the world’s student
population.
This crisis is worsening pre-existing educational differences by reducing the opportunities for many of
the most vulnerable children, youths, those living in poor or rural regions, girls, refugees, disabled
people and forcibly displaced persons, in continuing their learning. So the availability and usage of
online and e-learning system is becoming the main challenge for many universities during COVID-19
pandemic. E-learning systems have several fantastic features that would be valued for use during this
pandemic. Therefore, the successful usages of e-learning system depend on the good understanding
of the major challenges that face the contemporary e-learning systems in Jordan. Till now, there is a
lack of agreement about the challenges and the factors that shape the successful usage of e-learning
system during COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, a clear gap in knowledge related to the challenges and
critical factors for using e-learning during this pandemic was identified.
Keywords: Jordan, COVID-19, e-learning system, Pandemic, Challenges.

1 INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the biggest disruption to traditional education systems in
history; about 6.1 billion students in more than 190 countries have been affected. The closures of
schools and higher education institutions affected nearly 94% of students in various countries, which is
an unprecedentedly high percentage. The crisis has exacerbated the educational disparities that
already existed in many countries, which suffer from weak infrastructure, weak economic capabilities,
and political instability. [1]
The crisis is exacerbating pre-existing education disparities by reducing the opportunities for many of
the most vulnerable children and youth – those living in poor or rural areas, refugees – to continue
their learning.
According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization "UNESCO" (2020) it
confirms that schools and universities closures have several adverse consequences on students such
as interrupted learning which results in students and youth being deprived of opportunities for growth
and development. Therefore, online digital learning systems can address this problem with easy
access to these systems and offer fast internet connections. [2]
On the other hand, this crisis has stimulated innovation within the education. We have seen innovative
approaches in support of education and training continuity: from the media to take-home packages.
Distance learning solutions were developed thanks to quick responses by governments all over the
world supporting education continuity, including the Global Education Coalition convened by the UN.
We have also been reminded of the essential role of teachers and that governments have an ongoing
duty of caring for education personnel.[3]

2 METHODOLOGY
This paper is organized as follows: in the first section, we discuss the Jordanian experience in
distance education; in the second section, we discuss related studies of e-learning system adoption,

Proceedings of INTED2021 Conference ISBN: 978-84-09-27666-0

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8th-9th March 2021
e-learning system challenges. Then discussion of the findings, conclusion. The researchers used the
descriptive analysis method.

3 THE JORDANIAN EXPERIENCE IN DISTANCE EDUCATION:

In Jordan, more than a million and a half school students, and more than a quarter of a million
university students, have stopped traditional education as a precaution to prevent the spread of
“Covid-19" disease among students; Which brought about a change in the traditional educational
methods, which led to a radical shift towards distance learning platforms to ensure the continuation of
the education process. To find ourselves facing a new experience of its kind that requires a new
approach in the mechanisms of teaching, communication, evaluation, student interaction,
computerization of curricula, tests and other educational processes at both levels of Schools and
Universities.[4]
E-learning is not a modern phenomenon. Legislation issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific Research stipulated that the education process should include the so-called blended
education with a percentage of not less than 25% of the teaching plan, but this matter was not
properly activated in the various stages of education. Until the Corona pandemic came, remote
education was activated in schools and universities in Jordan. [5]
In mid-March 2020, Jordan was one of the first countries in the region to respond to the crisis by
imposing curfews and closing all educational institutions across the kingdom. In order to sustain
learning during the pandemic, the Ministry of Education and universities have resorted to distance
learning tools, as officials rushed to take advantage of the materials available in the private sector to
develop an educational portal called "Your Lesson" as well as using the media to deliver lectures on
the Internet. These resources cover the main topics included in the curriculums, which are Arabic,
English, Mathematics and Science for the first grades of primary school to third secondary.[6]
In addition, the Jordanian TV channel has been reconfigured to broadcast educational programs
specially designed for students preparing for the high school exams. The Ministry of Education has
also supported teachers in implementing new interventions to facilitate the transition to distance
learning. A newly launched teacher training platform that offers training courses on distance learning
tools, blended learning, and educational technology. The Jordanian government has urged citizens to
participate in the government's efforts to ensure success in distance learning. These timely measures
help contain and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on learning in Jordan.
Many children have access, but universal access has yet to be achieved. More than 16% of students
in Jordan do not have access to the internet, while a third of them do not have a computer that can be
used for homework. A closer look in detail reveals that this digital divide often exists in low-income
households. Less than 30% of students in the lowest economic status groups have a computer to do
homework, and only about 50% have access to the internet.
The Jordanian Ministry of Education has expressed that distance education is not a substitute for
regular school education, but the ministry may use it in the future as an enhancer of education, that is,
what is called (blended) education is a must”
The Ministry of Education announced that the Defense Order on Education issued on April 15, 2020
includes expanding the concept of education, to include distance education as a regular education that
serves all the purposes stipulated in the Education Law, introduces new forms of school exams, and
considers electronic exams as form acceptable forms of student evaluation.
The Ministry of Education has launched a platform called "Darsak", which is a free platform for
distance learning that provides school students from the first to the second grade of secondary school
with educational lessons through video clips organized and scheduled according to the Jordanian
education curriculum, provided by a group of Jordanian teachers to make it easier for students to
continue their learning and follow up on their study materials.[7]
Challenges of refugee education: Jordan hosts a large numbers of refugees from neighboring
countries such as Syria, which has put pressure on infrastructure, including public schools. COVID-19
has had a profound impact on the well-being of children living in refugee camps in Jordan. The first
official confirmed case was reported in Jordan in March of this year, and as a precaution, the
Jordanian government announced the suspension of schools and kindergartens and the switch to
remote education. [8]

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Children no longer go to school in Azraq refugee camp and Zaatari refugee camp, this gives rise to a
great challenge to the Jordanian government and the supporting international institutions that fall
under the umbrella of the United Nations, in providing an infrastructure for students, as there is a
difficulty in providing Internet services and modern electronic devices. [9]

3.1 Challenges and obstacles to distance education in Jordan:

First: Distance Education Infrastructure: By infrastructure, we mean the availability of appropriate
devices, a strong communication network, educational programs, electronic platforms, and the
process of computerizing the curriculum, in addition to the readiness and efficiency of the educational
process parties, including educational administrators, faculty members in universities, teachers in
schools, and students. “Fig. 1” [10]

Figure 1. Challenge of Distance Education.

It must be noted the great role that the Jordanian Ministry of Education has played in the efforts to
create electronic platforms, computerize the curricula, provide computerized training courses, benefit
from the media, try to reach the largest possible segment of teachers and students, and cover the
largest possible amount of study material within the available capabilities. As well as what many
private schools have done in terms of exercising a positive role and harnessing all capabilities to
facilitate the education process and bring it to an advanced stage in light of the distinctive technologies
and material and human resources they possess. However, there is a weakness in infrastructure, and
a large disparity between several regions. Not all regions of the Kingdom are covered by a strong
internet network, and not all students and teachers have computers to carry out the distance
education process as required. This means inequality in the educational process.
In the same context, the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Radio and Television
Corporation, launched "Darsak" (1) and (2) channels. To provide classes for students from the first
grade basic to the eleventh grade, however, these channels provided lessons for some subjects such

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as mathematics, Arabic, English and science, while the rest of the subjects were not covered and the
student was left alone to study them. [11]
Second: Student and teacher interaction:
Distance education did not provide an interactive environment between the student, the teacher, and
the curriculum in most cases. E-learning does not mean that the student plays the role of the passive
recipient to whom the materials are sent in files through the means of communication without any
regard to the content of the material or the importance of interaction with the subject or teacher, and
without any Exploiting the tremendous potential offered by these technologies to create interactive
virtual classrooms that reach the traditional classroom stage. [12]
Suffering was most concentrated in higher education; Where it was represented in many cases in
sending materials through communication sites (WhatsApp, Facebook), and being satisfied with this
under the name of "e-learning", and their weak ability to use some electronic platforms or programs
such as "Zoom" or "Moodle" or "Microsoft", and being satisfied with it as a way to just pass the item;
As a result of a lack of readiness and training .
Third: Inability of students in vocational and technical education to learn in virtual classes / classes in
some specializations that require applied work, training and techniques directly in workshops, they
need to use the necessary tools, materials and equipment (such as health care). [13]
Fourthly: Legislation and Regulation Laws:
In this context, there was an absence of policies or decisions related to distance education, such as
the fate of the high school exam, whose date was not announced until late, as well as the materials
required in the exam, the possibility of computerizing the exam or not, and clarity in the new
educational policies, procedural plans and mechanisms Unified and followed to deal with the situation;
Such as not resolving some matters early. Such as the proposal to cancel the second semester, or
extend it at the expense of the summer semester, or a pass / fail option in universities, all of which
indicate that confidence has not been achieved - for different reasons - with this type of education. [14]
Fifth: That there are economic considerations when making decisions related to the extent of
expansion in distance education, most of which are economic considerations, such as the presence of
investments in the hundreds of millions of dinars by the private sector, whether in schools, universities,
colleges or institutes that provided thousands of job opportunities, as well as it must be taken into
account that students acquire personal and social skills through direct interaction with their colleagues
at school or university; E-learning from home is not able to bridge this social gap, so students and
parents need to make enough effort to ensure the preservation of human relationships, and to
encourage communication with others. [15]
However, distance education has several advantages:
• Protecting students' right to education and ensuring the continuity of the educational process
despite the current circumstances that have led to the disruption of school attendance.
• E-learning is useful for acquiring new skills, online learning tools are useful for both teachers
and students to acquire new skills such as creativity, critical thinking. E-learning helps students
be more have better time management. It also helped a good number of them gain more
confidence in expressing themselves and being more interactive, a property which they lacked
in face-to-face meetings.
• The most important characteristic of this strategy is the flexibility in delivering educational
content. The primary value of using distance education as a point of contact between teachers
and students is that learning opportunities can be available to the student in these
circumstances when he needs it, and wherever he needs it. [16]
• Save everyone's time. The teacher does not need to give the same educational content
repeatedly to different groups of students, he only needs to prepare the content once and then
share it with different groups.
• Enhancing the effectiveness of knowledge through easy access to an enormous amount of
information. We use the Internet now to read news, watch our favorite TV shows, book
appointments, shop and much more, given the convenience that technology has added to our
daily lives, why education should remain traditional instead of taking advantage of advances
provided by technology?.[17]

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4 CONCLUSIONS
As an initial preventive response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, Jordan applied distance
education instead of traditional face to face education in schools and universities, to limit the spread
of the epidemic, and to ensure the continuity of education in educational institutions during this period,
distance education and e-learning have become on the list of priorities of the government and
Jordanian educational institutions, despite these efforts, distance education faces major challenges,
as many developing countries, including Jordan, still suffer from infrastructure problems and the lack
of modern technology for a lot of school students and higher education institutions.
In the absence of the most prominent learning tools that are represented in direct interaction between
students and their teachers and colleagues through educational situations, from mental and emotional
aspects, it will make the resulting learning only at the lower limits of the knowledge acquired, as well
as with regard to higher thinking processes that will be an opportunity to form and develop it among
students, and what is required by these higher processes: High Order Thinking, and the
accompanying mental processes (beyond thinking), Meta-Thinking from the methods of direct
formative evaluation, which must be located by the teacher in the learning environment while the
student is trying to learn, and the use of this process or more than the processes of reading, writing,
speaking, and comprehension at its various levels, in a constructive and purposeful process, in which
the student contributes to building his own learning, in addition to supporting the teacher and
interacting with his peers in small groups within the framework of cooperative learning, which is called
Cooperative learning.
Accordingly, in light of this imposed reality, most students will not be able in the two stages .General
education and university education from achieving educational outcomes at the level of mastery
learning. To ensure the successful use and accreditation of e-learning systems during the Corona
pandemic, students’ evaluation and assessment tools must be re-considered to suit the new learning
model by the Ministry of Education in Jordan. For instructors, students' commitment and awareness of
the virtual learning environment setup posed a challenge. As for the suggestions package, since the
distance learning, will remain a top priority for all educational institutions in Jordan, the ministry should
improve the technological infrastructure schools and universities and provide them with high-quality
online applications.
The success of the distance learning is based on three main components: Modern technology and
teachers and student. Technology should be available to ensure the success of distance learning like
availability of devices, the Internet. Also, depending on applicable plans, university should provide the
necessary technical to their students and bestow their teachers with training and programs that help
them to deliver and design the online content perfectly. Students should be aware of the importance of
the distance education through special consulting programs by their schools. They should be provided
by free Internet bundles. A well-motivated student is a key partner in the success of the distance
education.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This publication was prepared with the support of the "RUDN University program 5-100".

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