Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
A Study on Barriers of E-learning from Viewpoint of University Staff and Students; Iranian Case Study, Islamic Azad University's Branches, Region I (Fars)
Sara Zolghadri and Khatoon Mallahi
Department of Management, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2013 10:1768-1773
Received: October 22, 2012 | Accepted: December 19, 2012 | Published: July 20, 2013
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.
Keywords:
E-learning, Information Technology (IT), Iran, Islamic Azad University,
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
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ISSN (Online): 2040-7467
ISSN (Print): 2040-7459 |
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