PAPER

SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES

SWOT Analysis of King Abdullah II School for

Information Technology at University of Jordan
According to Quality Assurance Procedures
http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v6i1.2041

Lubna M. Nasir Eddeen, Ansar Magdalena H. Khoury,

Osama K. Harfoushi, Itaf Abu Shanab, Nabeel M. M. Alassaf
University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

the university to realize its weaknesses which should be

I. INTRODUCTION eliminated to make the growth successful.
Many books and research papers have defined and re- SWOT analysis was also used to improve MIS curricu-
ferred to the term SWOT Analysis. But according to [11], lum at Midwest University, according to Stapleton [6].
SWOT Analysis can be defines as "strategic planning The main impact of the SWOT analysis was to determine
method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, the course offerings and course content to provide the
Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a students with the skills required and competitive advan-
business venture". It's used to assess internal and external tage for employment. The SWOT analysis was performed
environmental factors which affect on the business. It first according to:
appeared in the 70's when some companies started to 1. Survey which was delivered to a group of alumni that
collapse in order to understand the reasons behind these had graduated within 5 or 10 years, and occupied a job in
failings. This method was created by a research project at 18 different companies. They were asked about different
Stanford University from 1960s -1970s. SWOT Analysis subjects and skills taught in the department and their
is illustrated in Figure-1 [2]. There are two attributes of usage in the performance of their daily tasks. The skill
the organization used to assess internal factors: Strengths ranking addressed several aspects regarding the impor-
that helpful in achieving the objective, while Weaknesses tance of each skill towards MIS curriculum.
are harmful to achieving the objective. On the other hand,
2. Interview process in which 4 employees were chosen
the other dimensions use to assess external factors: Op-
to participate. These employees represented a diverse set
portunities are external conditions that are helpful to
of industry sectors: Banking, Food processing, Electrical
achieving the objective, while Threats could do damage to
utilities, and Insurance. Each employee was asked a series
the business's performance [11].
of questions regarding the topics on: Technical skills,
II. SWOT ANALYSIS Personal skills and Current projects.
This paper focuses on the all departments of King Ab-
TABLE I. dullah II School for Information Technology (KASIT) in
ILLUSTRATIVE DIAGRAM OF SWOT ANALYSIS. University of Jordan. First, CS department was established
in 1985 within the Faculty of Science as a separate de-
Helpful Harmful partment to satisfy the need for specialized graduates in
in achieving the in achieving the Computer Science. In the implementation of the new
objective objective
trends of the government of Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan in order to make Jordanian citizens IT literate,
Internal University of Jordan established King Abdullah II School
Strengths Weaknesses
Origin for Information Technology (KASIT) in 2000/2001 in
four programs of interest: Computer Science (CS), Com-
puter Information Systems (CIS), Business Information
External Systems (BIS), and finally in 2007/2008 Graduate (M.
Opportunities Threats
Origin
Sc.) program in CIS has appeared. These departments
were established to meet the needs of industry locally and
internationally.
SWOT analysis can be used in many fields of study; One main trouble with applying SWOT analysis in a
industry, management, engineering, and also in education certain company is that while it works on the four ele-
(which is the study field of this paper). For example, ments associated with the organizational and environ-
University of Huston – Victoria [9] has used SWOT mental analysis, it does not deal with how the company
analysis to improve the growth of the university. The can identify the elements for this particular company [4].
university produced set of annual reports of SWOT Many managers may not be able to determine what these
Analysis for the performance of its system during the elements are, and SWOT does not give any assistance in
period 2004 till 2010. SWOT analysis helped the univer- this aspect. So, Quality Assurance (QA) Procedures were
sity to find its strength points and opportunities which will
contribute to the growth of the university; it also helped

4 http://www.i-jac.org
 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QA PROCEDURES

followed in this study to specify the main elements to be Policies of the organization. And all of this will be
examined. achieved by considering QME as a self developing
According to [10] and [11], Quality Assurance (QA) system.
can be defined as "the planned and systematic production
processes that provide confidence in a product's suitability III. KASIT CRITERIA
for its intended purpose". It is a set of activities intended After reviewing the overall aspects provided in the offi-
to ensure that system components satisfy the intended cial website of JU [8], these aspects are provided in terms
requirements in a systematic, reliable way. QA principles of the university, KASIT, and its three departments
can be applied in wide variety of fields such as; manufac- policies respectively. When referring to QA procedures
turing, civil engineering, mass products, software devel- whose characteristics are summarized in an electronic
opment, and finally company quality. It appears that QA portfolio of learning obtained from learning atmosphere
approach is therefore not limited to the manufacturing [1], KASIT criteria was built by the specialized QA
only but can be extended to any business or non-business committees at three levels: department, faculty, and
activity. For example: Design work, Administrative University. KASIT criteria can be summarized as follows:
services, Consulting, Banking, Insurance, Computer 1. CDCO: is concerned with the curriculum structure
software development, and Education. This paper focuses with the course description and the usefulness of the
on the last activity, which is Education. The Quality curriculum. This aspect focuses on: Curriculum map,
Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) was syllabuses, KASIT over plan, Curriculum for B.Sc. in
established in 1997 to provide an integrated quality all departments in KASIT which is developed every
assurance service for United Kingdom higher education five years. Also supervisory plan is given to each
[7]. first-year student in the department. Feedback from
Therefore, the purpose of Quality Assurance is to im- the local private and public sectors companies helps
prove and maintain the quality of education. According to to draw the main lines of the newly developed study
KASIT, a subject review method was used in which there plan. Graduation projects and master thesis have con-
are various aspects impact on the standard and quality of tributed to the solutions of many problems in the local
education that is related to operations and functions [7]. and global societies. Evaluation of both instructors
These aspects can be listed as: Curriculum Design, Con- and taught topics, meeting with students, and ETS
tent and Organization (CDCO), Teaching / Learning and and GET Exams all give a feedback about the devel-
Assessment (TLA), Students' Admission and Progression opment of the learning and teaching process in all de-
(SAP), Student Support and Guidance (SSG), Learning partments in KASIT.
Resources (LR), finally Quality Management and En- 2. TLA: is concerned with the process of assessing the
hancement (QME). These aspects were formulated after teaching of staff and learning of students. It consists
revising the Institutional audit that was operated in Eng- of the following criteria aspects: staff list, building
land and Northern Ireland in 2011 [3]. These aspects can map, computer labs, blackboard site, special needs
be summarized as follows: evidences, hardware, software & resources, work-
1. CDCO: The concern of this aspect is the curriculum shops, training, graduation project and ILO's forms
structure with the course description and the useful- listed in the main page of KASIT website in [8].
ness of the curriculum. 3. SAP: it focuses on acceptance and registration rules
2. TLA: is concerned with the process of assessing the for citizens & foreign students, special needs stu-
teaching of staff and learning of students. dents, graduation students, university e-mails, and
3. SAP: this aspect focuses on acceptance and registra- students' affairs.
tion rules for citizens & foreign students. 4. SSG: it is a systematic mechanism to offer support
4. SSG: it is a systematic mechanism to offer support and advice for students at each academic year,
and advice for students at each academic year. In ad- through the existence of registration advisor. This ad-
dition, to easy the communication between students visor, who is an academic staff, is specified for each
through making graduation projects to gain work ex- student when he first registers in his department. In
perience and enhance their employability. Also, to in- addition, to ease the communication between students
troduce facilitation of the movement for disabled stu- working in groups is required in the graduation pro-
dents, and finally, to employ qualified persons to help jects. In addition, an electronic Plasma Board is used
disabled students. to announce any important information for students,
like: exams' schedule, list of forbidden student, im-
5. LR: it includes libraries, Journals, E-Libraries,
portant dates for students, etc… Also, to introduce fa-
professional tools or activities, teaching rooms, labs,
cilitation of the movement for disabled students. Fi-
and some elements of students support. The objective
nally, to employ qualified persons to help disabled
here is to enhance and promote the high quality in
students.
teaching and learning process.
5. LR: In KASIT, the human resources are shared by
6. QME: it is the system built to supervise and improve
the three departments of the School. Each department
the quality of services delivered by the organization
in KASIT has his own faculty members, both PhD
leading to Quality Assurance (QA) notations. and MSc holders, teaching assistants, and a number
The objective here is to guarantee for the stakeholders of Part-time staff members. KASIT also provides the
of such organization that it will provide a-certain following Learning Resources: KASIT Computer
level of quality. It is meant here the quality of its ser- Labs, The Computer Centre, Software Packages and
vices, which must be high and consistent in according Manuals, Online Courses, Blackboard facility,
to a set of realistic references. It also aims to fulfill KASIT Library, The Main Library of JU, E-Library,
the Vision, Mission, Aims, Objectives and Quality

iJAC – Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2013 5

 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES

Textbooks and references, Assistance Points (like A. Strengths:

Dean's Office, staff offices, secretary offices, a room 1. Awareness to the requirements of educational process
for M. Sc. students (Teaching Assistants) and rooms and students: All KASIT departments' programs pro-
for part-timers, Teaching rooms, Administrative and vide students with opportunities to develop and dem-
Teaching Resources (Xerox-machines, data shows, onstrate knowledge, understanding, cogni-
laptops, and smart boards), and The Centre of Con- tive/intellectual, and transferable skills. The outcomes
sultations and Technical Services and Study. were developed with reference to the Ministry of
6. QME: this aspect deals with university regulations Higher Education in Jordan, the Mission of the Uni-
stated to ensure rational quality. All departments in versity of Jordan, and QAA for Higher Education in
KASIT department also have a strong construction, England, and ACM specifications for Computing
where specialized committees undertake a thorough (2005) [5].
study for the various aspects controlled by Depart- - According to CDCO:
ment council. The Department, Faculty and Univer-
sity all work together in an organized way to guaran-
tee the level of quality. Courses that have many sec- a) The students of CS are providing with well or-
tions must have a course leader, who is responsible ganized curriculum design by providing them
for monitoring and keeping track of the educational with a detailed curriculum map, supervisory plan
process of other faculty members teaching other sec- at the first moment they entered to the depart-
tions under his responsibility. ment.
b) Starting from the study plan of the year 2002, the
IV. SWOT ANALYSIS PROCEDURES department has added the course entitled
SWOT analysis was performed by authors of this study "Graduation project" to be obligatory course
after performing set of interviews with faculty members in which enhances the abilities of students to cope
all departments in KASIT, and the authors themselves are with continuous changes of society needs. Also
faculty members who participated in activities regarding "training hours" in approved organizations is
both SWOT and QA issues in the faculty. And, also the considered obligatory and is a graduation re-
results of SWOT tables of KASIT faculty were referred to quirement.
in this study. c) On 2005, the total credit hours of the study plan
SWOT analysis manifests analytical view in order to were changed from 126 credit hours to 132 credit
meet the aims and objectives of KASIT, which is illus- hours.
trated in Table-2. - According to SSG:
A brief description and discussion of each element There are various preparations done at the beginning of
mentioned in TABLE-2 will take place in the following, each semester such as: students are distributed according
starting with strengths attribute, weaknesses, then oppor- to lists, to be supervised by the instructors in the Depart-
tunities, and finally threats attribute. ment during the withdrawal and addition week. Follow-up
of course equivalents for students transferred from other
TABLE II. universities to the University and admitted for bridging
ILLUSTRATIVE DIAGRAM OF SWOT ANALYSIS AT KASIT purposes, guide students in the registration process pro-
viding them with the needed academic consultations …
Helpful Harmful etc.
2. Choosing students whose have ability and good
Strengths Weaknesses mentality: all KASIT departments accepted student
whose have both ability and good mentality.
1. Awareness to the require- 1. Increased fees of credit hours
ments of educational proc- comparing with other facili- - According to SAP
ess and students. ties. Students with several backgrounds may be accepted
Internal

2. Choosing students whose 2. Small number of academic according to the regulations of the Ministry of Higher
have ability and good staff. Education in Jordan; No student with an average less than
mentality. 3. Competing priorities of time
3. Using new technologies. according to students.
70% in the General High School Exams will be allowed to
4. School diversity. 4. Rivalry demands on aca- apply in Public Universities. However, JU records showed
5. Specialized academic staff. demic staff' time. that the vast majority of the accepted students in KASIT
6. Availability of specialized 5. Delay of constructing departments were close to the average 90%. Special needs
library. specialized library. students are taken into consideration.
Opportunities Threats 3. Using new technologies: Learning resources that are
used for the benefit of the CS, CIS, and BIS depart-
1. Improving quality. 1. Population growth. ments are part of the overall KASIT resources. These
2. Changeable education 2. Rapid technological change. resources are available to all KASIT students. KASIT
External

environments. 3. Complex processes for intended to use new technologies, and administrative
3. Using scholarship for approvals on new programs. staff who are capable to use these technologies, in or-
assisting recruitments. 4. Uncertainty conditions.
4. Competitive advantage. 5. Regulation and legislations
der to improve the quality of learning outcome.
5. Going up the collection of of country.
- According to LR:
programs to face market- all KASIT departments are using various resources
place.
such as: KASIT Computer Labs, Computer Labs in other
faculties, Special Internet Labs, The Computer Centre,

6 http://www.i-jac.org
 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QA PROCEDURES

Software Packages and Manuals, Online Courses, Black- B. Weaknesses:

board facility, Moodle facility, E-Library and other 1. Increased fees of credit hours comparing with
resources… etc. other faculties: The fees in all other scientific facul-
4. School diversity: KASIT departments are varied in ties in University of Jordan are lower than the IT fac-
the gender, ethnic, religion and in nationality back- ulty, which encourages the students to register in
ground. On the other hand the departments also serve other faculties for lower fees, if they achieve the rules
student with special-needs. of registration.
- According to TLA - According to SAP
KASIT departments provide special class rooms for A lot of students are forbidden from studying IT be-
student with special-needs, it also provides teaching cause of high fees, even though their General High School
assistance for blind students. JPA satisfies the conditions to register in KASIT.
5. Specialized academic staff: The academic staff 2. Small number of academic staff
members in the KASIT departments are engaged in - According to TLA
teaching, research and consultation. All the The permanent academic staff in CS department count
deprtments employs qualified teaching staff mem- are 4 females and 15 males, which is below the minimum
bers, with different ranks and specializations. Some QA standard the CS department tends to employ an
of them have more than 20 years of teaching and re- average of 15-20 part-time staff from related industry to
search experience. Due to the diverse backgrounds in help in teaching the University requirement courses in
their specialization, common research projects were Computer Science and other specialized courses.
successfully conducted between the academic staff in 3. Delay of constructing specialized library:
the departments.
As mentioned in Strengths attribute: 6, The progress in
- According to TLA research is essential to improve the quality of teaching. In
KASIT departments depend on many techniques for the contrary, the absence of specialized library in CS
assessing teaching and learning for its students. First, the department and limited facilities to conduct research,
main methods used for teaching include: lectures, exams, besides the lack of systematic means of encouraging
and assignments, presentation methods including data students' candid discussions with staff, will constrain the
show, laptop, and electronic material such as material on learning process.
Blackboard, white boards, conference rooms, and smart - According to LR
boards. Teaching instructors include professors, lecturers,
teaching assistants, lab supervisors. Second, the main The KASIT library which was constructed on 2008.
methods used for learning include: laboratory incubator But, KASIT was constructed on 2000, which left the
called the I-Lab, external lectures, training workshops, faculty without the specialized library for whole 8 aca-
training in approved organizations, and graduation project. demic years. Even though, students were able to use the
facilities in the main library which served all the faculties
6. Availability of specialized library: The progress in of JU. In addition, many students referred to Faculty of
research is the key requirement for improving the Science Library and Faculty of Engineering Library. Both
quality of teaching. This needs for a specialized li- libraries provided the students with many articles and
brary in CS department. research topics located in journals and books related to
- According to LR both engineering and IT fields. But lack of specialized
The KASIT library which was constructed at 2008. library was considered a weakness factor during that
According to JU Website [8], the last data update was on period of time.
22/04/2010, there are more than 101 journals and 1,222 4. Competing priorities of time according to stu-
academic books in IT related areas are located in the dents: Some of students' signs up for with a view to
KASIT library within its building. Also, the main library enhancing his career and professional life and to
provides a wide variety of reading material, including: learning about new techniques adopted worldwide,
503,602 books, 71,410 master and PHD dissertations, they aim to enhance self-development or self-
30,418 digital groups, and 57,221 references. In addition, actualization. On the other side, they have social life,
at the end of each semester, all departments' chairmen in so they must make balance between their time and
KASIT send requests for their academic staff to send a other things. Since the lectures time table is in be-
feedback of recommended readings to be added to the tween 8-5, and the labs are open for the same period.
shelves of the library by placing orders for those readings. - According to LR
In addition, JU students and staff can access freely a lot of
E-Journals and E-Databases by using the E-library Web- Students face some weakness in the educational proc-
site which has a link in the official JU Web site [8]. ess, and they don’t have a time to visit labs in order to
develop their skills and capabilities at programming.
o Strength (in general):
5. Rivalry demands on academic staff' time:
- According to QME - According to QME
All of the above strengths must keep up with the Qual- There are various constraints face the academic staff
ity of Service needed to keep up in the minimum require- which decreases the sustain development, such as: lec-
ments of QA. In order to satisfy this, all of the above 5 tures, management works, supervision on graduate stu-
strengths are measured and evaluated through the special- dents, committee work. These constraints limit the self-
ized committees, the needed budget, the field and finan- development including research, conferencing, training
cial studies are performed. workshops…etc.

iJAC – Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2013 7

 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES

C. Opportunities: trends of graduation projects were aimed toward E-

1. Improving quality: The CS Department tends to use Application in all departments of KASIT.
various methods and systematic evaluation strategy to - QME
assess the quality of outcome of the learning process, Technology can play a positive role in academic
the quality of academic programs. So improving qual- achievement, so developing information technology and
ity in CS Department is achieved according to: systems of communications are changing the nature of
- LR educational process, and increasing the effectiveness of
In KASIT, the human resources are shared by the three teaching. In other words, growing IT can reflective on the
departments of the School. There are a variety of faculty learning outcomes; this way can build kind of comparative
members, both PhD and M. Sc. holders, and teaching advantage between nations.
assistants. The department agrees with a number of Part- 3. Using scholarship for assisting recruitments:
time staff members. Part-time staff members from the - According to TLA
industry sector provide added value proficiency to develop The CS Department is willing to have room for these
the students' ability to expand the professional skills that increases, since 4 Ph.D. candidates on scholarship are at
are required in industry. Staffing remains a problem for many universities in USA, UK, and Canada. Also, 4 of the
the School although a good improvement made by JU by current Ph.D. academic staff have gained their degrees in
applying various changes to the employment procedures the same way. However, most of the new Ph.D. graduates
in order to attract new faculty members. The ratio of in Computer Science prefer to work in private universities
faculty members to students remains high and is a com- due to their attractive salaries compared to those offered
mon problem in Jordanian universities. Despite all the by the University of Jordan.
efforts made by the University, the ratio remains high, but
is manageable. The ratio will get better in the coming - QME
years since the university has granted many students Ph-D JU has embarked on a plan whereby additional scholar-
scholarships in UK, Korea, Italy, USA, and other coun- ships are to be allocated to distinguished graduates from
tries' universities. The School also has adapted a policy to the CS Department to guarantee that they will work at the
fix the number of newly admitted students to the School to University of Jordan upon their graduation As teaching
reach the ratio of 1 faculty member to 20 students, rec- assistants for maximum 6 months in order to gain a Ph.D.
ommended by QAA [3]. degree acceptance, then JU grants them their full scholar-
- QME ship to finish their degrees.
The CS Department has the following main internal 4. Competitive advantage:
institutional entities; the department council, the chairman - According to QME
of the department, committees and course leaders in order Competitive advantages give a company an edge over
to participate in managing and enhancing the quality to its rivals and an ability to generate greater value for the
achieve their provision. The CS Department aims to meet firm and its shareholders. The more sustainable the
new employment demands, and put evaluation strategy for competitive advantage, the more difficult it is for competi-
the quality of teaching, the quality of academic programs tors to neutralize the advantage. The CS Department
and the competence and motivations of the faculty mem- struggles to gain the competitive advantage in this field at
bers in performing their academic duties. the educational level, through differentiation advantage.
- QME That affects on the number of accepted students compar-
The rules and regulations of the University are rigorous ing with other universities which doesn’t have the same
and ensure realistic quality [8]. CS department also has a program and specialization.
strong construction, where specialized committees under- 5. Going up the collection of programs to face mar-
take a thorough study for the various aspects and then ketplace:
submit a report to the Department council through the - According to QME
Department Chairman. The Department, Faculty and The CS Department provides specialized counsel for
University all work together in an organized way to governmental and private institutions interested in the
guarantee the level of quality. areas of software development and office automation.
- QME This maintains a very good relationship between CS and
The administration of JU has built a specialized unit the current market through consultancy, innovative ideas
Called "Quality Assurance Unit" administrator by Vice- and training in computer-based developments and solu-
President for "QA Affairs". This unit has branches in all tions in a global economic.
faculties in the university represented as a committee D. Threats:
entitled with the same name.
2. Changeable education environments: 1. Population growth:
- According to LR - According to QME
The appearance of E-conferences, E-learning facilities, There are many aspects which impacts from the rapid
and Blended Learning yield to include these modern population growth, such as: food, water, health, education,
techniques in the plan of each teaching organization, employment and environment. So, in this paper, the
including JU and CS department. So, Blackboard, growth of population increases the demand of education in
Moodle, Academic Staff websites, and Automated Exams the country. On the other hand, the country suffering from
are day after day more activated and depended on in the the decreases of recourses and spending fewer budgets per
teaching-Learning process in CS department. Also, the child according to increasing numbers at primary schools.
So, the quality of education at the secondary schools may

8 http://www.i-jac.org
 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QA PROCEDURES

be failed to achieve the goals of education and learning for The above threat will affect on number of accepted
all. registered students not only in the CS department but in
- LR all departments in all universities in Jordan.
The above threat will affect on the budgets of the gov- V. SUMMARY
ernment to support the universities needs for research,
enhancing the available learning resources, and follow the This paper has applied SWOT analysis technique on the
financial plans for developing the learning-teaching CS Department at KASIT in University of Jordan. SWOT
process. analysis was performed according to the criteria for
Quality Assurance Procedures in higher education and
2. Rapid technological change:
training. As the study shows in the above discussion,
- According to QME many SWOT attributes interact with QA procedures
Advancing technology threats the stability and competi- regarding CS department.
tiveness of organization. These threats may be unpredict- More precisely, Strengths SWOT attribute can be
able and unavoidable. So the countries must put plans to evaluated according to CDCO, LR, TLA, SSG, SAP, and
deal with it. For example: Jordan has made radical QME procedures of QA. While, Weaknesses attribute is
changed in there infrastructure. evaluated according to TLA, LR, SAP, and QME proce-
LR: The University of Jordan takes in to account the dures. And, Opportunities attribute can be evaluated
power of IT to support learning and attracts an increasing according to TLA, LR, and QME procedures. Finally,
number of students with its mixture of high quality teach- Threats attribute can be evaluated according to LR, SAP,
ing besides learning resources. In addition, University of and QME procedures.
Jordan aimed to and worked on employing academic staff As observed above, the most common interacted
with different specializations. QA procedure was LR in all SWOT attributes. This shows
6. Complex processes for approvals on new pro- that Learning Resources (LR) attribute has a great role in
grams: enhancing and evaluating any education system in univer-
- According to QME sities. If reader reviews the Threats attribute, he/she will
The improving and developing new programs is hard find that the most repeated procedure was QME. This
to undertake, because this program must shape the means that the greatest dangerous threats come from
criteria's of higher education besides the priorities of keeping up the level of Quality to satisfy the needed
academic departments. To achieve this step, we need to conditions. Also, it can be noted that the Strengths attrib-
collaboration and organization many items, such as: staff, ute has the largest number of QA procedures; it interacts
committees, procedures and systems contained by Uni- with them all. This means that the CS Department system
versity. On the other hand, innovative program need to has satisfied all the required QA procedures for the
endorsement from the commission of the ministry of Strengths attribute.
Higher Education, this process need to year or two years REFERENCES
to be achieved.
[1] Barker, K.(2002), ePortfolio: A Tool for Quality Assurance,
- QME FuturEd Consulting Education Futurists Inc. Vancouver, Canada.
Information on resource implications of the proposed Retrieved from http://www.futured.com/library.htm
program, including: long-term costs of the of the pro- [2] Fine, L., (2009). The SWOT analysis: Using your strength to
posed program must be assessed, including those related overcome weaknesses, using opportunities to overcome threats.
to infrastructure changes necessitated by the program; ISBN-10: 1449546757.
and an assessment of urgent costs and how they will be [3] Institutional review of higher education institutions in England
and Northern Ireland: A handbook for higher education provid-
addressed. In addition the confirmation of existence of a ers(2nd ed).(2011).QAA publications, UK. ISBN:978 1 84979 255
provincial and/or regional need for that program 4.
7. Uncertainty conditions [4] Lucas, M., (2000).Understanding business: Environments. (1st
- According to QME ed). Routledge. ISBN-10: 0415238609.
[5] Shackelford, R., McGettrick, A., Sloan, R., Topi, H., Davies, G.,
There are various reasons affect the learning process at Kamali, R, Lunt, B. (2005). Computing Curricula 2005, the Over-
Jordan, in the last decay. For example: migraine and view Report. ACM and IEEE Computer Society, USA,456-457.
wars. These unstable conditions affect on the decisions of ISBN: 1-59593-359-X.
students' acceptance, which affect on the quality of final [6] Stapleton, L., E., & Stemler, L., (2005). S.W.O.T. Your curricu-
outcome of learning. lum: MIS curriculum assessment at a small Midwest University.
38th MICS (Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium),
8. Regulation and legislations of country: University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI, USA.
- According to QME: [7] The quality assurance agency for higher education (QAA) website.
The government's regulations and legislations are re- (2001). Retrieved from http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Pages/default.aspx
flecting on the decisions of higher education. So the [8] University of Jordan official web site. (2011). Retrieved from
government attempt to capitalize on the growth of the IT http://www.ju.edu.jo
and education sectors, via encouraging transfer these [9] University of Houston Victoria SWOT analysis: strength,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats, annual report. (n.d.). Re-
knowledge to other countries. That affects the availability trieved from http://www.uhv.edu/
of well trained and qualified holders of all different IT [10] Webster, M., Online dictionary, quality assurance. (2011).
degrees. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/webster.
- SAP: htm
[11] Wikipedia Website. (2011).Retrieved from http://en.wiki
pedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis

iJAC – Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2013 9

 PAPER
SWOT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCEDURES

AUTHORS from University of Bradford, United Kingdom, in 2008.

Lubna M. Nasir Eddeen is a teacher in Computer Sci- He has published or in the process of publishing several
ence department in king's Abdullah II School for Informa- research papers. He may be contacted at e-mail:
tion Technology at University of Jordan. She earned her o.Harfoushi@ju.edu.jo .
Master degree in Computer Science from the University Itaf Abu Shanab is an administrative assistant in king's
of Jordan, Amman, Jordan in 2004. She has published or Abdullah II School for Information Technology at Univer-
in the process of publishing several research papers on sity of Jordan. . She earned her B.Sc. degree in Business
image processing, security, and E-learning. She has also Administration / system track from Arab Open University,
published a book on applications of Information Technol- in 2008. She has many interests in publishing on E-
ogy on education. She may be contacted at e-mail: learning, Business Administration, Sustainability, and HR
Lubna@ju.edu.jo. Management. She may be contacted at e-mail:
Ansar Magdalena H. Khoury is a teacher in Com- i.abushanab@ju.edu.jo.
puter Science department in king's Abdullah II School for Nabeel M. M. Alassaf is a teacher a teacher in Com-
Information Technology at University of Jordan. She puter Science department in king's Abdullah II School for
earned her Master degree in Computer Science from the Information Technology at University of Jordan. He is
University of Jordan in 1998. She has published or in the also University of Jordan Hospital director assistant for
process of publishing several research papers on image computer affairs He earned master degree from university
processing, and E-learning. She may be contacted at e- of Jordan in 2005. His research interests (Algorithms,
mail: ansar@ju.edu.jo. Discrete Math, programming language, networks espe-
Osama K. Harfoushi is an assistant professor in Busi- cially in mobile agent communication). He may be con-
ness Information Systems department in king's Abdullah tacted at Email: n.alassaf@ju.edu.jo.
II School for Information Technology at University of Received 12 March 2012. Published as resubmitted by the authors 11
Jordan. . He earned his Ph. Degree in Computer Science January 2013.

10 http://www.i-jac.org
Copyright of International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning is the property of International Association
of Online Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.