Birzeit University Visit Website: http://www.birzeit.edu

Birzeit University is the first institution of higher education to be established in Palestine. With over 5000 students, this young University strives to promote excellence by providing quality academic teaching, training, research and relevant community programs within the context of sustainable development, emphasizing social awareness and democratic civic values in a free Palestinian society.

Since March 2001, and given the unstable and critical political situation in the region, the University has been severely disrupted by Israeli military checkpoints and very often students are denied access to the university. In 2001, the university’s computer center decided to build an e-learning platform so students could have access to class materials online. The University required a system that was low cost, and extendable, so the system could eventually support courses and an interface in Arabic. Since the obstacles for face to face collaboration were an issue for staff as well as students, a staff portal were teaching and professional staff could collaborate was another important component for the system.

Using arsDigita’s ACS system, in March 2002 Birzeit University deployed “Ritaj” (the “great portal” in Arabic). During that year, over 2000 faculty and students utilized Ritaj to review course outlines, presentations, communicate with classmates and the general University community, place and retrieve course information and discuss classes. This was fundamental to enabling the University to complete the academic semester on August 2002 despite closures, curfews and other disruptions

Aligning with their university mission, Mr. Marwan Tarazi, Director of the Birzeit Information Technology Unit, decided to seek for solutions to the problem an implement an e-learning platform so students that had limited access to the classrooms can still participate and learn using the net.

Recently the project was mentioned in the New York Times:

"When closings and curfews in Ramallah made it impossible for Bir Zeit University to hold classes in mid-2002, the university created a portal called Ritaj, Arabic for "great gateway,'' which let professors post lecture notes and communicate with students via bulletin boards.

"It became a priority for students to start using computers," said Marwan Tarazi, information technology director at the university. "Those who didn't have access at home would get together at a friend's house or go to an Internet cafe.''

Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/business/worldbusiness/18cafe.html (registration required)