E-learning adoption in higher education in Jordan: vision, reality and change

This paper discusses the implementation of an e-learning program at a Jordanian University (Al-Ahliyya Amman University). The program originally aimed to establish a virtual university which offers totally online courses but due to a number of reasons there had to be some changes in the implementation process. The paper discusses such changes and challenges faced by AAU in implementing its e-learning program from an IS project management point of view. Findings suggest that implementing such projects needs careful consideration of a variety of issues to ensure that the objectives are achieved. The case provides rich insights to other educational institutions wishing to implement such projects

Evaluating digital inclusion projects: A livelihood approach

The paper addresses how digital inclusion projects can be conceived, implemented and their development impact evaluated and identifies the structure and processes that affect their outcome and impact. This paper draws from the ensemble views of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and the livelihood framework and uses data collected from Jordan. The result demonstrates the utility of the livelihood approach in evaluating the development impact of digital inclusion projects. Through the analysis, processes and structures that are argued to be of relevance for the development impact of digital inclusion projects have been identified. These include alignment with the development paradigm; blending the digital with the social; embedding projects with existing community structure and resources; institutionalised commitment and governance and the continuous upgrading of functioning to generate revenue. Some theoretical and practical implications are discussed

An optical potential for the statically deformed actinide nuclei derived from a global spherical potential

In this work we test the hypothesis that a properly deformed spherical optical potential, used within a channel-coupling scheme, provides a good description for the scattering data corresponding to neutron induced reactions on the heavy, statically deformed actinides and other lighter deformed nuclei. To accomplish our goal, we have deformed the Koning-Delaroche spherical global potential and then used it in a channel-coupling scheme. The ground-state is coupled to a sufficient number of inelastic rotational channels belonging to the ground-state band to ensure convergence. The predicted total cross sections, elastic and inelastic angular distributions are in good agreement with the experimental data. As a further test, we compare our results to those obtained by a global channel-coupled optical model whose parameters were obtained by fitting elastic and inelastic angular distributions in addition to total cross sections. Our results compare quite well with those obtained by the fitted, channel-coupled optical model. Below neutron incident energies of about 1MeV, our results show that scattering into the rotational excited states of the ground-state band plays a significant role in the scattering process and must be explicitly accounted for using a channel-coupling scheme