Abstract
This study aims to examine the key barriers of e-learning in the branches of Islamic Azad University, Region I (Fars Province) from the viewpoint of university staff and students. In this descriptive survey, the barriers of e-learning were investigated with questionnaires and a sample comprising 1000 university staff and students. The results indicate that the lack of management support, impossibility of holding experimental meetings through e-learning, impossibility of university culture transfer and special problems of communicational infrastructures, the lack of easy access to computer systems and communicational lines and the lack of appropriate strategies of providing security are among the most important executional and infrastructural barriers of developing e-learning. In addition, the lack of expert staff in the fields of modern educational technologies, the lack of understanding of planners and the resistance of the beneficial against the implementation of electronic learning are the most important human barriers. Finally, the insufficiency of investment and required facilities, high cost of educational technologies’ equipment and costs relating to updating are among the most noticeable financial barriers in front of learning development. Accordingly, in order to break through such problems, we can utilize some strategies, tactics and measures like enhancing the level of awareness, motivation of the staff and students, institutionalizing the university culture during the process of electronic learning, considering a sufficient budget for investing in the implementation and development of e-learning, updating facilities and developing the communicational infrastructures. The results of this study can be utilized by managers and executers of electronic learning. In the generalization of the findings, however, caution must be exercised and any aspect should be considered just like any other study.
Highlights
The new millennium was named the Information Age; the era in which we notice the emergence of modern information and communication technologies
Barriers of e-learning development: Executional barriers: The existing executional barriers of developing e-learning from the standpoint of the academic staff and students are provided in Table 1, according to their priority
The executional issues and difficulties inhibit the development of e-learning more than an average degree; lack of support from senior management for the establishment and development of e-learning is the most important factor in this area
Summary
The new millennium was named the Information Age; the era in which we notice the emergence of modern information and communication technologies. In the era in which the plethora of services and information is accessible with computers and the internet, both speed and flexibility are vital for any organization to survive and grow. In such an environment, manufacturing and service organizations are constantly exposed to the changes in their performance, types of their offerings, organizational infrastructures and equipment. Education’s face is changed alongside these transformations (Ganasekaran et al, 2004)
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