E-Learning: From an Option to an Obligation

Abstract

Post COVID-19 outbreak, higher education practices changed considerably around the world. In Bahrain, institutions of higher learning as well as the country’s education quality authority have been challenged in different ways because of the pandemic and have been compelled to resort to e-learning and virtual approaches to quality reviews, respectively. This paper presents an analysis of e-learning in higher education in Bahrain and related quality assurance processes pre-and-post COVID-19. This is in addition to arriving at conclusions about what the next relevant steps forward are. The research method followed in this paper is qualitative, taking the form of a small-scale inquiry cast from a quality assurance perspective, that is social context-dependent and focusing on a specific case (e-learning in Bahrain pre-and-post COVID). It, thus, provides an interpretivist perspective in terms of knowledge. The data analysis points to a need for the establishment of a comprehensive set of guidelines for higher education institutions in Bahrain, to develop their own ‘Quality Assurance in E-Learning’ models. These models are simultaneously ones that can facilitate more accurate and in-depth quality evaluations by the Kingdom’s quality authority.