E-Learning Readiness among Faculty Members of Iranian Universities: A Survey of 23 Universities

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the level of e-learning readiness among the faculty members in Iranian universities. Methods: This is a survey research and the statistical population included all faculty members of 23 selected Iranian universities in March-September 2018. The population of the study included about 750 professors selected through simple random sampling. The instrument of study was a questionnaire titled “Evaluation of Instructors’ Readiness for E-learning in Iranian Universities”. Its content and face validity were verified by professionals, and its reliability was measured through Cronbach’s Coefficient alpha which was (0.72-0.86). To analyze the data, descriptive and mean, SD statistics (independent T-test) were used. Results: The average e-readiness score of professors from the 23 selected universities amounted to approximately 4.3 out of 10, which is indicative of a relatively “weak” e-readiness status. Also, the score of over 60% of the criteria was “less than average”. Conclusion: Given the decreasing numbers of e-learning students in Iran, the results of this study show that one of the important reasons for the failure in the development of universities’ e-learning systems can be the lack of e-learning readiness among instructors.