Meeting student needs in the MENA region through digital transformation

Most of the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region has suffered from political and economic instability, paralleled by diminishing borders across the globe due to digitalisation and connectivity. These trends, accelerated by Covid-19, are motivating students in MENA universities to seek collaboration with institutions in more economically stable countries, particularly in the West, in order to access international experiences involving innovation and economic growth.

Students demand degrees that are easily transferable to other regions of the world and which make it easier to cross borders, a major reason why accreditation and international experience are highly coveted. The new global job market is also highly digital, especially with the fast shift to online delivery and virtual work environments since the pandemic. It is therefore essential for MENA universities to embrace digital transformation in order to remain competitive. Such digitalisation may take place in content, in delivery or in student services.

Digital transformation in content: cutting-edge curricula

Offering courses and content in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution attracts students and helps to meet their modern need for cutting-edge curricula that open doors to a global job market. We have been redesigning the core of our general curriculum to ensure all graduates are familiar with artificial intelligence, digital humanities and ethics, and global sustainability initiatives.

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Digital humanities, for instance, help provide students with a valuable transdisciplinary perspective. Furthermore, the redesigned general curriculum requires all students to undertake a “high-impact experience” that may involve an international exchange, internship or a civic or entrepreneurial project, among other transformative experiences.

In order to meet the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, most programmes are being reviewed to embrace area-specific advancement in digitalisation or connectivity. In addition, we have created new data analytics and artificial intelligence courses to open these fields up to non-computing students.

Digital transformation in delivery: pedagogical innovation

One of the most effective ways to introduce a student to virtual work environments is to facilitate online interactions with faculty and peers while they learn. Online classrooms have become the norm due to Covid-19 and will undoubtedly remain part of the student experience post-pandemic.

The initial shift to online delivery in 2020 was rushed and perceived by many as simply transferring activities from the physical classroom to the virtual one. Therefore, over the past year, we have encouraged faculty to rethink their virtual classroom and pedagogies and deliver the curricula in more engaging ways using educational technologies. Examples include virtual clinical simulations and virtual clerkships; online architecture studios culminating in virtual juries with international guests; use of virtual-reality (VR) and augmented-reality (AR) equipment in medical programmes, humanities, sciences, engineering and architecture; and gamification of courses in numerous programmes.

While travel restrictions have dramatically slowed the traditional international exchange programmes, this has given rise to virtual exchanges, internships and class projects. Students in engineering and business fields have connected virtually with peers, international innovators and industry experts who would not have been able to join in the physical classroom, thus benefiting students in ways that would not have been possible without the shift to a virtual environment.

Digital transformation in student services: practicality and efficiency

Students must be given the opportunity to continue engaging with the university virtually when it comes to essential student services and activities, even post-Covid. There is no doubt that in-person interaction has many merits, but it would be unwise to ignore the vast practical benefits of a virtual environment for conducting essential services and holding student-related events.

Ideally, universities should aim for the best of both worlds, complementing on-campus student activities with virtual ones where possible for more accessibility, efficiency and practicality.

Student academic advising could remain online alongside student services and events such as financial-aid webinars, civic engagement and leadership simulations, virtual recruitment open days, online counselling, and online tutoring and synchronous writing-centre sessions, to name a few. Shifting administrative and student-related activities to an online platform must remain a practical option in order to address students’ needs in a fast-changing world.

George Nasr is provost, Barbar Akle is assistant provost for strategic planning, and Rula Diab is assistant provost for academic affairs, all at the Lebanese American University.

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