Opening education in the MENA region: In-depth interviews and Focus Group data with experts in open education in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine.

The two data sets presented here are part of a study which aimed at identifying cultural barriers in the adoption of open education in higher education in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine. This study was conducted in the context of OpenMed – “Opening up Education in South-Mediterranean countries” (https://openmedproject.eu/), an international cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme of the European Union during the period 15 October 2015 – 14 October 2018.

The first document presents the transcripts of in-depth interviews (N=7) conducted in February 2018 through Skype with open education experts, from seven universities: namely: Alexandria University (Egypt), Cairo University (Egypt), German Jordanian University (Jordan), Princess Sumaya University of Technology (Jordan), Notre Dame University (Lebanon), Birzeit University (Palestine) and An-Najah University (Palestine). The second document is a transcript of a focus group which took place in Agadir (Morocco) in May 2018, with open education experts from eight universities: Alexandria University (Egypt), Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco), Cairo University (Egypt), German Jordanian University (Jordan), Ibn Zohr University (Morocco), Princess Sumaya University of Technology (Jordan), and An-Najah University (Palestine). Both the interviews and the focus group were conducted in English, digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim.

For a rationale on the cultural factors impacting adoption of open educational practices see:

• Maya-Jariego, I. (2017). Localising Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses. In F. Nascimbeni, D. Burgos, A. Vetrò, E. Bassi, D. Villar-Onrubia, K. Winpenny, I. Maya Jariego, O. Mimi, R. Qasim, & C. Stefanelli (Eds.), Open Education: fundamentals and approaches. A learning journey opening up teaching in higher education. Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Project n.: 561651-EPP-1-2015-1-IT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP