Safa'A Abujarour

An-Najah National University · Department of Management Information Systems

Spurred by the military conflicts, refugees’ crisis has swept Europe by surprise. With a challenge of integrating refugees into hosting societies comes the question about the role that ICTs could play in the ongoing integration efforts. Indeed, unprecedented reliance of refugees on technology, especially smartphones, is an important distinction of...

A key component of Open Education movement are Open Educational Resources (OER), which are defined as any digital objects that are commonly shared in online repositories and can be freely accessed, reused and adapted by a community of users for educational purposes using an open license scheme. This broad definition includes a lot of different arte...

Increasing the current low uptake of Open Education Resources (OER) is a key challenge for researchers and practitioners in the field. User studies have shown that collaboration is a main success factor for successful open educational activities. However, effective collaboration in open educational contexts requires well planned processes and platf...

The limited adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) has kicked off the launch of several projects to search for possible solutions. One of these projects is "Open Educational Ideas and Innovations" (OEI2). The goal of this project is to find alternatives for increasing the uptake of OER and facilitating the collaborative development of OER. To...

The extremely widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the landscape of information dissemination, presenting both challenges and opportunities in the battle against fake news. This paper explores the dual role of AI in the creation and detection of misinformation within social media platforms. We examine how AI-driven tools,...

Employees working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic turned to an array of information and communications technologies (ICT) to support at-home job performance. This study documents the role of ICT in enabling these workers and managers to abruptly transition to WFH and explores the barriers and challenges they faced in working remotely....

The high reliance of refugees on digital tools has been the motor of digitization, which includes not only mobile applications, but also digitization of human aspects, namely, social capital (networks). Refugees tend to rely on their social capital (networks) to make well-informed decisions, especially related to the migration journey. An ideal sup...

In this thesis, we tackle two social disruptions: recent refugee waves in Germany and the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a key means of alleviating these disruptions and promoting social inclusion. As social disruptions typically lead to frustration and fragmentation, it is essential to e...

Immigrant integration has risen to the top of the political agenda of leaders in Germany and the U.S. The information systems community has begun to research how information and communications technologies can assist immigrants and especially refugees, by seeking to better understand how to facilitate social inclusion processes. Migrants face the c...

The high reliance of refugees on digital tools has been the motor of digitization, which includes not only mobile applications, but also digitization of human aspects, namely, social capital (networks). Refugees tend to rely on their social capital (networks) to make well-informed decisions, especially related to the migration journey. An ideal sup...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most academics to work from home. This sudden change of venue can affect the productivity of academics, exacerbating the challenges confronting universities as they face an uncertain future. This paper aims to identify factors influencing academics' productivity while working from home during the mandate to self-iso...

The world faces an unprecedented catastrophe in the COVID-19 pandemic. Working From Home (WFH) during COVID-19 diminishes the boundaries between work and home life. WFH can create obstacles for those suddenly forced to accommodate working and living in the same place. The purpose of this study is to investigate home-office conditions by studying em...

To contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, most governments have temporarily closed schools and universities and introduced digital learning solutions. In this context, it is essential to ensure inclusive digital learning from the perspective of vulnerable groups, e.g., refugees. In particular, because previous research has identified educatio...

The German job market is highly developed and requires skilled talents. Therefore, decent education is often required to have a suitable place in the market. Many refugee newcomers have already acquired their education in their home-countries, and earned some level of professional experience. Yet, the statistics show that newcomers face many obstac...

Harvesting the uncountable benefits of ICT advances has been one of the key goals of the Information Systems field, in particular how research findings can inform professional practices and policymakers on how to improve and develop our societies. Teaming up with these efforts, we tackle in this study the aspects of education, e-learning, and langu...

Inspired by increasing IS research on refugees’ ICT use, this study contributes to a better understanding of which smartphone applications (apps) are common among refugees in Germany compared to immigrants and Germans. In relying on the heuristic that most frequently used apps are present on the home screen, we designed a descriptive study to gain...

Challenges of integration and social inclusion have been on top of the agenda for many political leaders in Europe and the USA. The Information Systems community has invested significant effort in researching immigrants and especially refugees, seeking to better understand how to facilitate social inclusion processes. This panel will look at multip...

The recent phenomenon that has come to be known as the European refugee crisis is in reality a global problem. Accordingly, issues regarding refugee integration have become a central topic of debate worldwide. In this paper, we try to understand how refugees use information and communication technology (ICT) in different regions of the world to und...

Towards developing a better understanding of smartphone app adoption patterns, we have performed a study to analyze the frequently used apps by two groups from the same background, but in different environments. One group is Syrians living in Syria, and the other group is Syrians living in Germany. Through online forms, we have collected 200 partic...

Since its emergence, the popularity of Social Network Sites (SNSs) has been increasing and investigating the use of SNSs in different contexts has been a fruitful research topic. Nevertheless, there is inadequate research about the impact of specific cultures on Facebook usage, such as the Arab culture. In this study, we investigate the effect of A...

In 2017, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes according to UNHCR (2017). Member countries of the EU-28 received a record number of submitted asylum applications, reaching 1.20 million based on Eurostat (2016) database. Being the country with the highest number of asylum seekers in Europe (BAMF, 2015; BBC, 2016), Germany is t...

Considering the novelty and unprecedented scale of the current refugee crisis in Europe, there are little research insights on how technology can be successfully used to alleviate human suffering, improve refugees’ chances for integration, and enhance the acceptance of refugees among the hosting population. At the same time, technology - especially...

Following recent call for papers, our paper contributes to the agenda of inclusive development as it showcases how technology can be used to foster the integration of those in need. In particular, due to the distinct role of ICT in the current refugee situation in Europe where it contributes to the social inclusion of refugees. Based on a thorough...

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are reshaping our lives not only under normal circumstances, but increasingly so in crisis situations. Indeed, the current refugee crisis in Europe is distinguished by the high usage of ICTs by asylum seekers. Particularly smartphones have emerged as an instrumental piece of technology for refugees...

With a number of refugees around the world reaching disastrous proportions, there is a growing pressure to understand which measures are effective in promoting social inclusion of refugees in their new homes. Considering an exemplary IT-savviness of the current refugee wave, there is a growing hope in the power of Social Media and other Information...

EN: In 2015, two conferences are brought together under the umbrella of „knowledge communities“ with complementary thematic priorities. While the GeNeMe deals with organisational and technical perspectives in the context of Virtual Enterprises, Communities & Social Networks, the ProWM provides a broad and inclusive overview of the organisational, c...

The Internet has been changing our life since its emergence. However, its recent changes might be considered the most crucial. For instance, the increasing popularity of Social Network Sites (SNS), e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Investigating the use of SNSs has been a fruitful research topic. Nevertheless, there is inadequate research about the...