ICP is experimenting and pioneering with E-learning for the first time this year. ICP will be the first to offer three accredited diplomas for development of SMEs in Palestine. The three diplomas will be in "Small Scale Business Administration", "E-Business" and "Project Management".

E-learning has also been one of the subjects that twenty ICP consultants and Bethlehem University Faculty and Staff trained on during a one year program funded by NUFFIC. Participants attended workshops in e-learning and visited several open universities locally and in the Netherlands to benefit from the experience of others working in this field.

Benefits of E-Learning

• eLearning fosters interaction among students and instructors. Interaction stimulates understanding and the recall of information.
• accommodates different learning styles and fosters learning through a variety of activities that apply to different learning styles.
• Fosters self-paced learning whereby students can learn at the rate they prefer.
• Convenient for students to access any time, any place.
• Reduces travel time and travel costs for students.
• Encourages students to browse information through hyperlinks to sites on the worldwide Web and there by find information relevant to their personal situations.
• Allows students to select learning materials, or to be directed to content that meets their level of knowledge, interest and what they need to know to perform more effectively in their particular activity.
• Provides context sensitive help (Electronic performance support systems) to computer users and helps them complete tasks on-the-fly.
• Develops knowledge of the Internet that will help learners throughout their careers.
• Encouraging students to take responsibility for their learning and succeeding builds self-knowledge and self-confidence

• eLearning permits instructors to develop materials using the world-wide resources of the Web.
• Allows instructors to communicate information in a more engaging fashion than in text-based distance education programs. eLearning offers a wide-range of text, diagrams and images with video and sound, including virtual reality technology that in the future will improve the effectiveness of the approach even further.
• Convenient for instructors to access any time, any place.
• Allows instructors to package essential information for all students to access.
• Instructors can then concentrate on high level activities.
• Retains records of discussion and allows for later reference through the use of threaded discussion on bulletin boards.
• Generates more personal gratification for instructors through quality student participation.
• Reduces travel and accommodation costs associated with training programs.