THE ROLE OF ICT CENTERS IN THE PALESTINIAN UNIVERSITIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Recently published work has revealed that the dire consequences of Covid-19 have affected different life sectors worldwide, especially education. Supporting the ICT centers will enforce the infrastructure; this will lead to strong remote learning during crises. This study encouraged the ICT center to practice the professors and support both teachers and students in using digital tools such as mobile in their learning. For this study, it was interesting to identify the technical support types provided by the ICT centers in selected Palestinian Universities for lecturers. Therefore, we analyzed the possibility of improving ICT centers' quality and investigated whether we can enrich the outcomes of ICT centers from the lecturers' perspective. For data collection, online interviews were conducted with 8 participants from different Palestinian Universities. We seek an overarching framework according to the grounded theory. Slightly superior results are achieved with our framework. We found that the types of technical services from the ICT center at Palestinian universities were graded in time according to the motives of the need. The paper concludes by arguing that universities should hone lecturers' ICT app skills. These findings provide a potential mechanism for lecturers to enhance their ability to employ online tools appropriately in teaching to ensure the smooth continuation of the learning process in Palestine.