Obstacles to effective use of e-learning in higher education from the viewpoint of faculty members

Abstract

E-learning has reached advanced levels in developed countries, but it is still in its early stages in developing countries, such as Palestine. There are still many obstacles to E-learning using. This study therefore aims to identify the most important obstacles to using E-learning in higher education in Palestine from the viewpoint of lecturers. Palestine Technical University “Kadoorie” was chosen to apply the study. The sample included 95 faculty members selected using convenient sample from all colleges of the university. Data was collected using an electronic questionnaire. The data was then analyzed using SPSS 25. The results reveal the following arrangement for the obstacles from the highest impact to the lowest: technological infrastructure- related obstacles, university-related obstacles, student-related obstacles, curriculum-related obstacles and lecturer-related obstacles. The results also show that there is a moderate positive correlation between the lecturer-related obstacles and the student-related obstacles with the curriculum-related obstacles. Moreover, there are no statistically significant differences in the obstacles due to the academic degree. However, the results show that there are differences due to gender, age, teaching experience, and college. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a necessary need to take more activities related to the technological infrastructure and to develop strategies and incentives in order to reach the effective use of E-learning.