On November 12th, 2019, members of the CREMIT research group Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Simona Ferrari, Alessandra Carenzio and Camilla Zabaglio traveled to Amman to consolidate the partnership with The University of Jordan. The collaboration commenced in 2015 when the idea to develop a joint research project on innovative education started to take form.

The initiative was named RAPID, or Research-Action-Practices-Innovation-Digital. This project seeks to investigate the use of digital media and technologies in educational environments and develop strategies to implement a more effective use of such technologies starting at university level. This research-action project, developed jointly by the Catholic University of Milan (UCSC) and the University of Amman (UJ), will involve 200 innovative Jordanian and Italian university professors. RAPID offers a three-phase approach:

• A first phase in which a questionnaire will be distributed to gain a detailed understanding of the practices of inclusion of digital media in classroom activities. An analysis of the collected data and contextualization will also be implemented at this stage.

• A second phase in which the UCSC and UJ will jointly create a MOOC “Blended solution in higher education: from models to practices” delivered in Arabic and Italian with English subtitles. The MOOC will be opened both to Italian and Jordanian teachers.

• A third phase that foresees the organization of a final event during which the result of the research will be presented.

The expedition was organized jointly with Dr. Nadia Abu Odeh, who introduced the CREMIT’s representatives to the head of the University of Jordan in Amman Professor Dr. Abdel-Karim Al-Qudah and to the referent for the e-Learning program Professor Nimrin Abusalim.

Furthermore, during their stay in Amman, CREMIT’s researchers also had the pleasure to encounter the Italian Ambassador of Amman Fabio Cassese who showed great enthusiasm towards the initiative and agreed to take part in the organization of the project’s closing event.

Thanks to the organization of Dr. Nadia Abu Odeh and Prof. Abusalim,, the delegates had the opportunity to meet with the members of the Association of Jordanian writers to promote RAPID as well as to consolidate the agreement between the University of Jordan and the Catholic University of Milan.

The expedition was made possible thanks to the generous financial contribution of the Italian company T.M.E that covered the traveling expenses for the CREMIT delegates.

The project, and the collaboration agreement between the two universities that created it, drew the attention of the Jordanian media that reported the news in Arabic on the following websites:

1. Street Pulse News Channel Facebook Page
2. News Channel Whaj24