Obstacles to the Spread of E-Learning in the Arab Countries

Harith Abood, PhD

Muzhir Shaban Al-Ani, PhD

Abstract 

The explosive growth of information, communications and technologies (ICT) has greatly affected the educational sector and the academic environment in particular all over the world. However, and for many reasons, new educational trends, such as online, distance and e-learning in Arab countries are still below the international standard. This study aimed to investigate the obstacles hindering the spread of e-learning in the Arab countries. A questionnaire was designed to find and investigate the scope of the expertise in e-learning. The questionnaire items were designed to deal with four types of barriers; student barriers, teacher barriers, management barriers and high level management barriers. 400 of Arab universities teaching staff members were randomly selected to give their views on 48 statements of the questionnaire. The results showed that the main obstacles are: the need for face-to-face communication between teachers and students, lack of English and computer skills, lack of technological infrastructure and lack of legal framework that may let the adoption of this kind of education be possible.   

The research had been published previously under the reference:

Abood H, Al-Ani MSh. (2016). Journal of Education and Learning. Vol. 10 (4) pp. 347-354. 9223372036854775807  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Material should not be published in another periodical before at least one year has elapsed since publication in Whispering Dialogue. *أن لا يكون النص قد تم نشره في أي صحيفة أو موقع أليكتروني على الأقل (لمدة سنة) من تاريخ النشر. *All content © 2021 Whispering Dialogue or respective authors and publishers, and may not be used elsewhere without written permission. جميع الحقوق محفوظة للناشر الرسمي لدورية (هَمْس الحِوار) Whispering Dialogue ولا يجوز إعادة النشر في أيّة دورية أخرى دون أخذ الإذن من الناشر مع الشكر الجزيل