Much like the project it describes, this publication is also the result of the design process, albeit a much simpler one. The layers of complexity folded into the IEIW experience have been condensed by editorial decision into a format that does not presuppose expert advance knowledge in either medieval religious history, contemporary Middle East politics, or online didactics and blended learning. An at least cursory understanding of the German higher education system and development policies might prove helpful, however, to contextualize the narrative.

As befits a publication on technology-supported learning, the handbook is published in a hybrid format as a digital e-book along with a small edition print run in conventional paper format. The eight sections of the handbook that comprise its analytical narrative are closely linked as a sequence of stand-alone chapters to provide maximum usefulness in both formats. At the same time, it is purposely structured in a modular fashion, so as to allow for a more flexible reading experience, adjustable to differing audiences and contexts. A reader can thus use the publication as a reference and pick the individual chapter that she considers most relevant to her interests.

Figure 5. Numbered chapters of this handbook (Sections 1-8) correspond to different analytical perspectives.

Section 1 emphasizes the overlap in strategic goals that brought graduate studies of medieval history together with emergent educational technologies to a Middle East development project.

Section 2 examines the strategic project phases of conceiving, implementing and consolidating the learning design from 2012 to 2019, with an emphasis on the varied set of goals the project was expected to achieve.

Section 3 describes the instructional formats of the academic program, which were developed to support the students’ acquisition of both disciplinary and general cognitive skills within a technology-enhanced learning environment, with a focus on tools and strategies for intercultural communication.

Section 4 traces the hypotheses driving the development of the pilot iteration, when uncertainty was highest, and later adjustments for the program’s steady state as driven by empirical learning experiences.

Section 5 contrasts the project’s institutional backbone of external funders and the expectations of Middle Eastern partners with the unfamiliar organizational framework confronting participating faculty and students in the context of a German university.

Section 6 maps the student learning journey through the degree program with landmarks for acquiring and practicing various kinds of cognitive skills strategically specified as learning outcomes for the project.

Section 7 highlights various administrative work-streams for the successful completion of each academic cycle, along with their respective degrees of freedom regarding innovation and compliance.

Section 8 surveys governance and quality assurance on the operational level, highlighting key strategies of translation and buffering among different governance mechanisms and incentive structures.

We invite the reader to peruse the publication as a unified narrative to be read in sequence. This approach will take her on a journey along the horizontal axes of the diagram, first examining tradeoffs between educational and development goals (Sections 1-2-3-4), then moving on to opportunities and constraints imposed by real-world organization frameworks (Sections 5-6-7-8).

As illustrated in Figure 5 above, the modular structure facilitates a number of approaches to reading other than the conventional sequence, especially in the digital format. One can depart on an alternative route to the ordinal sequence by following a clockwise rotation through the diagram from Section 1 to Section 8, covering both learning and project design, but now framing operational aspects within strategic brackets (1-2-3-4, 8-7-6-5). Alternatively, the reader may wish to dive into the contrast between learning design and project design from the perspective of goals (Sections 1-4-2-3), institutional frameworks (5-8-6-7), over-all project strategy (1-5-2-6) and iterations of the academic program (4-8-3-7) respectively.

To read about the learning design, follow the circle segments clockwise (2-3-7-6), then read about project design following an analogous clockwise route through the section of the rectangle (1-4-8-5). Finally, one may choose to follow the structure along its vertical axes to read first about different aspects of strategic intervention (1-2-5-6), followed by the operational perspective of the program iterations over six academic cycles (3-4-7-8).

A second benefit of digital publishing is the ease with which we are able to adjust and enhance this publication for optimal use. If you have feedback or suggestions for improvement, clarification or corrections, please do not hesitate to reach out as we would love to hear from you.

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