**1. Introduction**

Simply put, an educational system is a set of schools and universities in a given country. Educational systems are crucial because, in the end, they are what empower societies to empower the individual to develop culture, civilization, personality, socio-economic status, informal and formal educational experiences, and a creative mindset [1].

Educational systems are complex entities, and reforming them poses difficult, multifaceted challenges. They may require changes in government policy, adjustments in labor negotiation, and modifications of academic routine [2].

Active learning is an instructional method that strives to engage students in the learning process by encouraging them to perform meaningful learning activities, while always questioning the relevance of what is being achieved. Active learning also creates opportunities for students to collaborate with one another and with teachers, working in small groups toward a common goal [3, 4]. Quoting from the report Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom [5]:

*"Students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing." (pp.5)*

This stronger emphasis on the individual work of the student, as opposed to merely attending classes [6–8], is one key aspect of the Bologna process,<sup>1</sup> a remarkable reform that took place in the last decade, in the countries of the European Union. Although the main goal of the Bologna process was to ensure comparability among higher education qualifications, in terms of standards and quality measures, it also included a reform of the teaching and learning process.

In Latin America, some countries (namely Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador) have also reformed their higher educational systems. In 2012, the first bi-regional University Association Conference in Brazil discussed the innovative strategies for higher educational systems among Latin American and European universities. Among those are collaborative research, research partnerships, and two-way exchanges among universities [6].

An obvious means to enhance educational productivity is using resources more effectively. Another is relying more on technology. A third is to increase the number of courses where the student demand is high, although this one must be considered carefully in those areas where jobs are scarce [9].

<sup>1&</sup>quot;In 1999, Europe started the Bologna Process, named after the university where it was proposed. The aim of this process was, and still is, to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) based on international cooperation and academic exchange that is attractive to students and staff from all over the world. It facilitates mobility of students, graduates and higher education staff." (http://www.mastersportal.eu/articles/451/the-european-higher-education-system-the-bolognaprocess.html)

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region face a number of common challenges in their higher educational systems. In fact, many of those countries have attempted to improve higher education and mobilized part of their wealth for that. Still, those efforts were not enough to overcome all the challenges that need to be addressed [10, 11].

As a result, higher educational systems in the MENA region are in the low-level scale, when compared to other world regions. We quote from [12]:

*"Higher education systems in the MENA region have not developed more, so far, because they have failed to focus on 21st century skills. In other terms, the education systems need to change the way they operate, moving from their traditional approach to a more modern one." (pp. 241).*

This is also the opinion expressed in a World Bank report [10]:

**1. Introduction**

82 Global Voices in Higher Education

Classroom [5]:

ing process.

jobs are scarce [9].

process.html)

Simply put, an educational system is a set of schools and universities in a given country. Educational systems are crucial because, in the end, they are what empower societies to empower the individual to develop culture, civilization, personality, socio-economic status,

Educational systems are complex entities, and reforming them poses difficult, multifaceted challenges. They may require changes in government policy, adjustments in labor negotia-

Active learning is an instructional method that strives to engage students in the learning process by encouraging them to perform meaningful learning activities, while always questioning the relevance of what is being achieved. Active learning also creates opportunities for students to collaborate with one another and with teachers, working in small groups toward a common goal [3, 4]. Quoting from the report Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the

*"Students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking* 

This stronger emphasis on the individual work of the student, as opposed to merely attend-

place in the last decade, in the countries of the European Union. Although the main goal of the Bologna process was to ensure comparability among higher education qualifications, in terms of standards and quality measures, it also included a reform of the teaching and learn-

In Latin America, some countries (namely Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador) have also reformed their higher educational systems. In 2012, the first bi-regional University Association Conference in Brazil discussed the innovative strategies for higher educational systems among Latin American and European universities. Among those are collaborative research, research part-

An obvious means to enhance educational productivity is using resources more effectively. Another is relying more on technology. A third is to increase the number of courses where the student demand is high, although this one must be considered carefully in those areas where

1"In 1999, Europe started the Bologna Process, named after the university where it was proposed. The aim of this process was, and still is, to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) based on international cooperation and academic exchange that is attractive to students and staff from all over the world. It facilitates mobility of students, graduates and higher education staff." (http://www.mastersportal.eu/articles/451/the-european-higher-education-system-the-bologna-

a remarkable reform that took

informal and formal educational experiences, and a creative mindset [1].

tion, and modifications of academic routine [2].

*about what they are doing." (pp.5)*

ing classes [6–8], is one key aspect of the Bologna process,<sup>1</sup>

nerships, and two-way exchanges among universities [6].

*"Since education is the main source of knowledge creation, the task is clear: the education systems must be changed to deliver the new skills and expertise necessary to excel in a more competitive environment." (pp.84)*

One of the roads for development of higher education is increasing collaboration among researchers, nationally and internationally. In a recent study, which focuses on the area of online labs, we have shown that there are very few connections among MENA researchers in this area [13].

Online labs are an instructional technology which have great potential to enhance higher educational systems in MENA, especially in engineering and science disciplines. One way to foster their adoption is to create a community of practice, gathering researchers and practitioners that share an interest in online labs in a wider area [13–15].

In this context, our research questions are the following:


The argument is that the lack of funding for the MENA researchers is not the only factor impairing more developments but rather it is the lack of cooperation among the researchers. Overall, collaborative and cooperative work is widely recognized as a good way to share resources in the several developed countries. This may be considered a possible direction for the MENA countries to face a lack of resources. Therefore, this chapter addresses the development of a community of practice around online labs in the MENA region and their value. It also discusses the possibility of building a regional and national community network in this region [16]. In addition, it highlights the results of successful collaboration among three universities from Iraq that led to developing specific online experiments for them.

The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the concept of a community of practice. Section 3 presents the methodology and techniques used to collect data that can help to build a community of practice around online labs in the MENA region. Section 4 analyzes data that is collected from the techniques. Section 5 details the results. Section 6 presents some additional remarks. Finally, Section 7 reflects on the conclusions and discusses future work on this subject.
