Obstacles facing Faculty Members in the Effective Implementation of e-learning at Some Universities in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Higher education institutions in many countries around the world are facing serious challenges from expansion, leading to a number of developments in the process of integrating information and communication technologies into university practices. In recent years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has witnessed an unprecedented growth in higher education and e-learning. In addition, faculty members at many higher education institutions in the KSA are facing a number of obstacles in regards to the implementation of e-learning in their teaching. Hence, this paper will investigate some of the obstacles faced by some of the country’s universities in different locations across the country. A quantitative data approach was used with the analysis of 375 questionnaires. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were checked and statistical treatments such as percentages, means, frequencies, standard deviation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The results from the quantitative data analysis identified several obstacles facing faculty members in terms of the implementation of e-learning in their teaching at some of the institutions. This paper describes how most obstacles identified by faculty members were regarded as being at university level and involved, for example, the absence of an institutional policy for e-learning. In addition, a number of other obstacles were identified, including: lack of integration of technical support, lack of support in instructional design for e-learning and lack of adequate training in the use of e-learning techniques.