Abstract
Abstract— The purpose of this study was to investigate the acceptance of degrees earned wholly online and to define the factors that affect the perceived value of these degrees in two Arab countries; Egypt and Oman. To achieve this purpose, a societal acceptance of online distance education degrees questionnaire was developed and administered online to a sample of 479 participants from different business sectors in Egypt and Oman. The responses to the rating scales and open-ended questions were organized, analyzed, and coded to address pattern of responses. Quantitative data and open-ended responses showed that the overall perception expressed by respondents was that online distance education was viewed as inferior to traditional education, and degrees earned online are not similar to ones earned in traditional settings in terms of credibility and quality. The ANOVA tests were used to analyze the differences among groups of participants and their acceptance of online degrees. Overall, responses indicated that no significant differences existed among participants. Many aspects of online degrees, such as interaction between students and the instructor, credibility with employers, admission regulations, and quality of learning outcomes have been criticized from many perspectives.
Highlights
And culturally, the Arab countries have many features in common, in particular from the linguistic and tradition standpoints; it is in many respects highly inconsistent in terms of population, national income, prosperity, stability, infrastructure, literacy rate, and information resources
There is no doubt that online distance education programs offer are convenient to thousands of Omani and Egyptian students and job seekers who are unable to attend conventional classrooms to continue their studies, the findings suggest strongly that, overall degrees earned via online distance education programs are by no means as acceptable as traditional degrees, and that a degree earned online is in many ways not similar to those earned in traditional education settings (79.39%)
While online distance education providers believe that the quality of online learning is equal to or even superior to face-to-face instruction (Allen & Seaman, 2010), the findings of this study indicate that the overall perception expressed by respondents was that online distance education was viewed as inferior to traditional education and a degree earned online is not similar to one earned in traditional settings in terms of credibility and quality
Summary
And culturally, the Arab countries have many features in common, in particular from the linguistic and tradition standpoints; it is in many respects highly inconsistent in terms of population, national income, prosperity, stability, infrastructure, literacy rate, and information resources. Distance education has a short history in the Arab world, for many, within the last ten years, the interest in distance education in the Arab world was enhanced dramatically as a result of the changes in society, culture, economy, employment, and information technology (AlHarthi, 2005). This interest resulted in a remarkable increase in the distance education programs and degrees offered by many traditional and distance education universities in many Arab countries (Mohamed, 2005)
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