Education in the Post-COVID-19 Era—Opportunities and Challenges

Saida Affouneh works as Deputy President of digitalization and e-learning, and has established e-learning center at An Najah National University (Palestine) since 2012. She has worked with her team hardly to empower faculty members in technology and pedagogy skills. She received a grant to get her leadership certificate in online learning from Sloan Consortium and Penn State University, the United States of America, and she was the only one from the Middle East who gained this qualification in 2012. She did her post-doctoral research in the Role of Distance Learning in Women Empowerment funded by Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). She is doing her second Ph.D. now in Salamanca University, Spain. She has published several articles in the field of enhancing technology into teaching and learning, and has led many initiatives in STEM-related projects, such as "STEM summer School", "Math is interesting believe it or not", "Rethink I am here", and "Safe Online Initiative".

Soheil Salha is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction with specialization in the field of Educational Technology and Math Education. His studies focus on online teaching and learning, educational leadership, teacher education, curriculum analysis, using software in learning and teaching Mathematics, school design and higher education issues.

Ahmed Tlili is an Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University, China, Adjunct Associate Professor at An-Najah University, Palestine and a Visiting Professor at UNIR, Spain. He is the Co-Director of the OER Lab at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU), China. He serves as the Editor of Springer Series ‘Future Education and Learning Spaces’, and the Associate Editor of the journals Smart Learning Environments, IEEE Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology, and the Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society. Professor Tlili is also an expert at the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO). He has edited several special issues in several journals. He has also published several books, as well as academic papers in international referred journals and conferences. He has been awarded the Martin Wolpers 2021 Prize by the Research Institute for Innovation and Technology in Education (UNIR iTED) in recognition of excellence in research, education and significant impact on society. He also has been awarded the IEEE TCLT Early Career Researcher Award in Learning Technologies for 2020.

Sameer Abu-Eisheh is Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at An-Najah National University, Palestine. He received his Ph.D. in civil engineering with distinction from Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A, in 1987, and M.Sc. from the same university in 1984. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Jordan in 1982. He served as the President’s Assistant for Planning and Development, the Dean of Engineering, and the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at An-Najah National University. He was a visiting Professor at a number of American, German, and French universities. His fields of interest and experience include urban transportation planning, travel demand modeling, transportation systems management, traffic safety, smart transportation, strategic planning, national/regional planning, and multimedia and engineering education. He authored more than 150 published papers or refereed conference papers. He served as the Chair or Scientific Committee Chair for a number of conferences, and delivered keynotes speeches in scientific conferences. He has got a number of international and local awards