An Investigation of Electronic Learning in Higher Education: The Egyptian Context

El-Gamal, Sarah (2014) An Investigation of Electronic Learning in Higher Education: The Egyptian Context. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University.

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Abstract

The current study investigated e-Learning acceptance, adoption and implementation in the Egyptian higher education. The study also explored the attitudes and perceptions towards the acceptance and readiness for e-Learning from a variety of perspectives. The degree of meeting local needs and the main factors of improvement that e-Learning could provide to the Egyptian higher education sector are also investigated. The study achieved its aim through answering the following research questions:

1. What are the various stakeholder perspectives regarding e-Learning adoption in Egypt?
2. What are the opportunities for improving Higher Education in Egypt through the adoption of e-Learning programmes?

A pragmatic research approach using mixed methods with a range of stakeholders was employed. The investigations included higher education students, employers, academics and government representatives from both public and private sectors. Investigations were conducted in two cities; Cairo and Alexandria.

A total of 398 higher education students were surveyed through structured questionnaires. Two separate questionnaire forms were designed to investigate on-campus higher education students, as well as e-Learning higher education students. Quantitative data was analysed through a range of statistical techniques: patterns of frequencies were used to allow the comparison between students groups, median calculations to determine the range of opinions towards e-Learning adoption criteria, besides correlation and regression analysis to determine the strength and shape of relations between the main variables the study intended to investigate.

Twenty four semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders that include academics, employers and higher education government representatives. Interviews were interpretively analysed through the deriving of common themes from each group of stakeholders highlighting the differences and similarities found between investigated groups.

The contribution to knowledge presented in this research work emerged from the development of a conceptual framework that bridges the gap between societal
acceptance and the adoption of e-Learning in Egyptian universities. Although the investigation has one country in focus, but still the analytical methodological framework could be generalised.

The research identified the following:

- main factors that affect e-Learning adoption;
- potential obstacles faced by online degree holders in Egypt;
- the role of organisational culture in e-Learning adoption, as determined by the perspective of academics, employers, government authorities and students at public, private and e-Learning universities

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