Developing electronic educational content for faculty members in Alexandria University and for the university projects.
Delivering training for faculty members in the areas of distance learning and educational innovations (online and offline), and sometimes in cooperation with entities such as the Faculty Development Center.
Supporting Faculty members in the development of electronic courses.
Supporting Faculty members in the development of electronic books.
Incubation of educational innovations based on technology and in the university community and supporting their university wide use and implementation.
Incubation of ideas for startups establishment through the PILOT incubator of the center.
Supporting the effective application of e-learning to ensure its quality in accordance with international standards
Organizing the Alexandria Pedagogical Innovation and Technology Enhanced Learning Conference (APITEL) every year around an educational innovation theme.
Supporting faculties in the development of educational innovation projects.
Providing international training activities with the support of our partner Agence Universitaire de la Francophone
Organizing educational; innovation and entrepreneurship competitions
Organizing special events to promote Unesco recommendations on Open Science and Open Educational resources every January and March
Providing strategic support and administrative services to incubated companies in PILOT.
Facilitating access to investors for incubated companies in PILOT.
Startup procedure assistance.
Networking opportunities for startups.
Adopting innovative technologies for the startup management.
Recommending a network and team of experts to startups.
Supporting startups positioning themselves as Edtech start-ups.
Providing consultancy in areas of precisely defining the education problems for which solutions are needed.
Providing fablab services through PILOT incubator for prototyping
Validating new idea and potential prototypes.
Helping form a founding team for the startup.
Delivers intensive mentorship programs.
Offering incubation programs based on predefined cycles and calls.
Offering seed capital, strategic connections and lifelong support to the start-ups.
Accelerate and facilitate partnerships and support for reform projects in the education sector.
To be a beacon of knowledge and expertise regarding educational innovations and the use of technology in teaching and learning in Egyptian and international universities.
Center Mission:
Developing excellence in teaching and learning practices, by establishing a system that supports faculty members, students, and the university community as a whole, and that relies on qualified human resources and appropriate technology; for the purpose of consolidating educational innovation at Alexandria University with the objective of contributing to the internationalization of the university.
Center values:
Development - Innovation - Internationalization.
Center Objectives:
The center has set several goals that it aspires to achieve in order to reach leadership in this field, while concluding partnerships with a number of competent bodies. These goals are:
Developing electronic educational content for faculty members.
Offering courses for faculty members in the fields of distance learning and educational innovations, in cooperation with the Faculty Development Center, and courses can be offered remotely.
Incubation of educational innovations based on technology and in the university community.
Contributing to change the traditional educational culture.
Supporting the use of innovative educational and pedagogical methods in the university education process.
Supporting the effective application of e-learning to ensure its quality in accordance with international standards
Strengthening cooperation with the industry for providing graduates ready for employment
Promoting innovations in and out of the educational process
Supporting entrepreneurship and startup creation.
List Specialized Equipment
Different sizes for 3D printers for prototyping
Raspberry Pi kits for use by new projects implementing innovations
VR goggles for education
Headsets capturing brain signals for analyzing learning performance
Servers and workstations for the incubator work
Mooc recording Equipment
Photography and videography equipment
Computers for the Learning Lab (The first of a kind laboratory in the Middle East for educational practices incubation)
unique expertise/technologies
The center is a one in of a kind in the Egyptian universities. It specializes in Training and faculty support in areas of digital education and instructional innovation, as well as managing and developing electronic content for learning platforms. This includes multimedia content and e-book development for the university. The third area of expertise is supporting innovations and entrepreneurship in general and in the educational process and around EdTech in particular. Startups are supported through the PILOT incubator of the center and new educational practices are promoted every year through some initiatives that are presented in APITEL conference held for six editions today.
To be able to serve the university, the center has units in all faculties. They have the objective of serving their faculties communities.
Through its activities the center has trained around 5000 faculty members in Alexandria University and in from other universities. PILOT has also trained over 1500 students and faculty members in its different boot camps on entrepreneurship. The incubator has also supported the establishment of 10 startups. The incubator managed regional entrepreneurship completions with the collaboration of the Innovation Support Fund.
The center participates actively in the international institute of online education (IIOE-UNESCO) activities. With the Pedagogical Innovation and Distance Learning Center support, Alexandria University was the recipient of the pedagogical innovation prize of AUF in 2023.
University researchers;Entrepreneurs;Startups;Faculty members and assitants;
beneficaiaries access the services
Many of our activities are free for the university community. They benefit from a project fund in some cases. Registration fee to our conference is required.
List any past collaborations with industry or any other institution
Geneva University
Sousse University
Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie
Penerium
Skill dynamics
Ministry of Communication and Information Technology
Entrepreneurship Committee, Alexandria Business Men Collaboration
Key Outcomes
Establishing a Learning Lab
Developing new educational case studies in the ICT sector
Developing Serious games for assessment
Developing faculty training Moocs
Providing international trainings to the community (faculty and students)
Collaboration in areas of competency development/training, supporting startups and developing new educational and EdTech projects
What are the funding sources to operate the "Unit"?
Funding from some projects, registration fees of the conference, some fees are paid to personnel from projects against content development. We need to offer more services, however, board decisions need to be taken for this.
Is the "Unit" charging fees against its services?
Sometimes;
What are the major operational challenges?
Funding gaps;Equipment maintenance;The center was born as a pioneering center in 2018 and since then it was very low on human and financial resources. Moreover, in spite of the adoption of financial and administrative bylaws, not one board meeting was held and no committees were formed and no responsibilities were assigned to colleagues to have them accountable. With all the activity growth so far, structure and responsibilities need to be formalized and clearer. The level of activity needs an important number of faculty members and technical staff. Work has been ongoing, thanks to the passionate collogues in our beloved university. The center also suffers the lack of space and the appropriate visibility. ;
activities that Unit can contribute to, in the Technology Park
Research and Development;Incubation and Acceleration;Training and Education;Consulting Services;
List planned upgrades/expansions of the "Unit"
We are in a need for space expansion, better setup of the studios, fablab and the working spaces to provide all this as paid services according to our original plan. We are currently losing opportunities. The photos in the last section of this form do not best represent the quality of our activity. We are in deep need for appropriate facilities.
Hopefully, our educational activities and entrepreneurship development activities will continue over the years with more maturity. The financial model of the incubator also needs some simplicity because relying on a government fund makes the management difficult. Other sources are being envisaged.
What additional services can the "Unit" offer?
The services currently offered are a lot. We need to work on quality in the coming years through the formal appointment of more colleagues and personnel.
If needed, what is the support expected from the Technology Park?
Providing space, fund, networking opportunities to better serve Alexandria University.