E-learning challenges in the Arab world: revelations from a case study profile

Authors: Abouchedid K.; Eid G.M.

Source: Quality Assurance in Education, Volume 12, Number 1, 2004 , pp. 15-27(13)

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Abstract:

The overwhelming traditional knowledge delivery system for higher education in the Arab world demonstrates the pronounced information technology (IT) gap between Arab countries and the developed world. This study demonstrates the problems and possibilities of implementing e-learning in Arab educational institutions through analysing the attitudes of university professors (n = 294) in Lebanon towards three a priori e-learning dimensions. Favourable attitudes towards e-learning attested to faculty members' interest to get engaged in a fully-fledged e-learning programme in a country where the primary delivery educational model is essentially traditional. Discusses these attitudes in the light of the social, political and economic hindrances that impede the implementation of e-learning in the Arab region. A series of K-independent Kruskal-Wallis tests yielded significant attitudinal variations between males and females as well as between computer daily users and occasional users. Furthermore, daily computer users documented more favourable attitudes towards e-learning than their occasional user counterparts. Offers recommendations for the implementation of e-learning in "traditionally" demarcated educational systems in countries where the deployment of information and communications technologies is not widespread.

Keywords: Internet; Learning; Teaching Methods; Globalization; Attitudes; Lebanon

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684880410517405

Publication date: 2004-02-13