An exploratory study of eLearning challenges and

opportunities in the Gee

Case study: Saudi Arabia
Ali Saad Alali

Dimitrios Xanthidis

Information Science
IMAM University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Information Science
IMAM University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract- This ongoing research is aiming at revealing the

current reality of eLearning progress in the Countries of Gulf
Council (GCC). A number of diverse types of administrative,
technical and general challenges and issues related to eLearning
are covered. The first focus, reflected in this paper, was Saudi
Arabia due to its political, cultural and religious importance in
the GCC and in the Middle East more generally but its size as
well.

pre-tested

questionnaire

was

administered

for

the

purpose of data collection both online and offline. The data were
gathered from individuals and educational institutions of Saudi
Arabia, from all walks of life and from various employment
statuses.

This

first

part

of

the

exploratory

research

study

recognizes the slow progress of eLearning in Saudi Arabia and

suggests that the main reason behind that is the problems in the
local telecommunications and other infrastructure as noted by
the survey participants and far less the outcome of weaknesses of

strategy of following eLearning practices embedded into its

educational system especially in its Universities.
This research can be thought of as an investigation that
attempts to describe the current status of opportunities and
challenges resulting, so far, by the eLearning deployment held
in Saudi Arabia. Saudis, like other people in developed or
developing countries are computer and Internet literate and,
also, have the skills and knowledge to use eLearning facilities
for their benefit especially the young generation that
constitutes the majority of its national population.
The questions that need to be answered, however, are very
straightforward:

the established procedures and facilities available by the local

eLearning institutions.

Keywords-eLearning; challenges; opportunities; education;

universities; eLearning in Saudi Arabia;

I.

INTRODUCTION

It is like saying the obvious that eLearning application,

nowadays, cannot be thought off without the involvement of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs from
now on). Otherwise it could be characterized simply as
distance learning or, more generally, as online learning [1].
Therefore, teachers should be ICT literate and updated in
order to make contemporary learning easier and more
effective. In certain cases, though, like in intelligent schooling
systems, it is mandated for all stakeholders of the associated
education institute, e.g. administration staff, to acquire
computer based skills [2].
Long ago, the scientific community has recognized that
elearning practices can enhance effectively the learning
processes within educational institutes and that are keen to
increase the application of ICTs in their every day operations.
Of course there are always administrative, technical or other
hurdles that must be overcomed. During the last decades the
Golf Council Countries (GCC) are heading towards societies
that embrace digital communication technologies and follow
modern educational practices that deliver current knowledge
using effective tools. Saudi Arabia, arguably one of the most
important countries of GCC and of the whole region due to
social, political and religious reasons has also embraced the

II.

How do Saudis appreciate the current status of

eLearning development, and
What do they see as possible obstacles and
opportunities on the road to success and growth of
eLearning in their society?
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim of this part of the research study was to

review, examine and discuss with the locals the progress of
eLearning in Saudi Universities. This part should meet the
following objectives:

Examine the current status of eLearning progress in

Saudi Arabia higher education.

Explore this community'S view on the reasons behind

the slow or no progress of eLearning, if any.

Investigate the administrative and technological

challenges of eLearning in the local society.

III.

BACKROUND

It is generally accepted that the proliferation of ICTs was

the chariot that drove eLearning development. Conventional
or distance teaching institutions realized a huge impact on
their teaching/learning procedures from the application of
eLearning. ELearning should not be confused with the term
distance learning although quite often it is. ELearning should
be thought of as part of a complex learning environment
adopted by most universities nowadays as part of their overall
LMS (Learning Management System). On the other hand,
distance learning is rather a possibility and an opportunity that
many universities provide to prospect or current students by
fully utilizing eLearning tools as the basic procedure, the

978-1-4799-2806-4/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

cornerstone rather for delivering teaching and learning

services [3].
However, having implemented eLearning procedures and
established the appropriate infrastructure and maintaining
them to acceptable quality standards involves administrative
and technological challenges that cannot be underestimated.
Amir and Mehdi classified some challenges using a method
named ordinal factor analysis. They made a list of some
problematical issues faced in the technical level that include
lack of framework, hardware, software, connectivity
problems, limited access to education, rapidly changing
technology and limitations in the access to proper learning
materials [4].
According to a research held in 2008, the major issues
emerged by the application of eLearning in Kuwait, which is a
Gee country, were identified to be mostly, the lack of
management support, language hurdles, lack of IT
infrastructure, and lack of time for implementation of
eLearning systems in universities and institutions [5]. Hassan,
also, found several critical success factors that need to be
considered during the development and implementation of
eLearning based courses. These included the importance of IT
infrastructure, required for deploying and utilizing eLearning
systems, and the significance of support by universities for the
promotion of eLearning activities [6].
Furthermore, a research performed by Sandra, Juan and
Joaquin identified some challenges. They claim, from a
technical perspective, that the challenges are in currently
available infrastructures which can restrict the interoperability
of learning elements and maintenance, administrative support
for registration and enrolment, design of the joint curriculum,
guaranteed privacy and security, shared authentication and
internationalization of content. On the other hand, the
administrative challenges mentioned were funding and tuition
fees, issues relating to support, contracts with institutions and
affirmation of quality of the curriculum [7].
Annika Andersson identified 37 challenges out of which
she classified 7 as being major, namely, student support,
flexibility, teaching and learning activities, access, students'
academic confidence, localization of content and attitudes on
eLearning. She mentioned that these factors' crucial
importance clearly show how the students' former educational
progress can limit their eLearning perspectives especially
when eLearning does not match with the course requirements.
To overcome this problem, she suggests that while the course
is being prepared, this should be thought upon and conceived
by altering the requirements or by providing preparatory
courses. She goes on further mentioning that these factors also
show how the course production team should be more
involved in providing support functions. She says that in this
case where eLearning has just stepped in and leT literacy is
low, the students need guidance in understanding the
administrative and technical issues [8].
Another dimension of eLearning enforcement is the
Governmental and international sponsorships that should be
provided, as Issa and Saad recommend, which can contribute
to find and provide a way to assist and serve larger group of
people in their knowledge acquisition. Participation and

support from well-known and experienced eLearning

universities are required and ensure firmly branded and high
quality courses. Learning materials and courses must be
provided in a captivating manner using efficient technology
for the successful operation of the eLearning University. Also,
full time teachers and technical support staff must be available
[9].
Ahmed and Marianne identified some elements of creating
policies in eLearning. They believe that planning strategically
educational programs and their courses, Internet literacy,
quality affirmation and approval, network layout and
framework, professional advancement, copyright issues and
partner affiliations and financial issues, all contribute to the
creation of proper policies for eLearning [10].
Even more, in the Arab countries the educational system
must cope with the demographic increase reality. The severe
pressures of millions and millions of people in the whole
spectrum of education system during the last decades,
mandates their relevant ministries to accomplish policies that
will ensure equal education opportunities. Elearning systems
can facilitate a better and fairer educational environment that
will reduce digital divide phenomena and strengthen
countries' peaceful existence in their regions. The most
profound challenges to be successful, as Abdelraheem (2006)
suggested, are leT infrastructure completeness, successful
culture, leadership and elearning strategies, skilled instructors
and motivated learners [11].
Gulati (2008) concluded that inappropriate eLearning
policies and false funding decisions along with negative
participant attitudes, social-cultural restrictions, lack of trained
teachers and not well deployed IT infrastructure, may lead to
serious elearning access divide among the citizens of
developing countries, as far as equal elearning opportunities
concern. More specifically, he highlighted some significant
challenges faced in developing countries when they attempt to
use Internet for elearning implementation programs. He
argued that if there is a low level of IT facilities in poor and
deprived areas then educational management should turn also
to traditional technology solutions and in the meantime
continue to develop IT infrastructure [12].
IV.

METHODOLOGY

Saudi Arabia is the geographic scope of this preliminary

qualitative study aiming to shed light into eLearning status and
developments in the Gulf counties. This paper is only one part
of the study that involves other countries including UAE,
Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
At fust the research began with an opening of a circle of
contacts with educational stakeholders in Saudi Arabia trying
to extract important information for time saving reasons as to
what is the appropriate way to reach people due to distance
restrictions or gender related obstacles, what is the level of
interest in filling questionnaires of this kind, about translation
issues to be solved and so on. Afterwards a questionnaire was
formatted to unearth the information needed to address the
aims and objectives. A draft of the questionnaire was fust
tested on a small sample of 20 individuals and valuable

infonnation was taken that helped fine-tune the final version

of the questionnaire that was eventually used.

see sufficient progress and just about 2% find the country is

moving rapidly towards this kind of learning. There is a small
but significant part of around 8% who, for a variety of reasons,
either did not know or did not want to express an opinion.
(The term "around" is used here to remind the reader that there
are 3 different independent variables, namely age, gender and
education, taken into account when calculating these statistical
figures but they don't affect the general statistics more than
0.5%.)

*The survey was deployed during a period of three months

(from March till June of 2013) and 484 individuals agreed to
participate in it either offline through personal face-to-face
interviews or through online survey using Google docs. The
sample size should be considered as appropriate enough
because this is only a part of a larger study that includes more
countries of the Golf area as already
Figure 1: Elearning progress in Saudi Arabia universities (based on respondents' age, gender and education)
mentioned earlier. Also the age of the
(Sample: 429, 433 and 421 responses respectively)
respondents is considered satisfactory
although not quite representative of all
18
the age ranges. Indeed, although a
considerable number of individuals were
approached (more than 600) of all age
ranges but only mainly those under 45
did accept to contribute to this research
study. In addition the population
percentage of those being more than 45
is far less than those under 45. The final
answers were checked also for
duplication and around twenty of them
were excluded from the survey sample
as erroneous.
less than

Underaraduate

The questionnaire consisted, besides

its demographic questions, mainly of
four questions extracting the Saudis'
opinion on the current status of
eLearning processes in local Universities
and their views on the challenges they
face associated with those. The purpose
was to obtain a grouped and codified set
of data suitable for processing through
statistical analysis packages that can
perfonn cross tabulations and statistical
calculations (ANOYA) necessary. For
this purpose SPSS was used to perfonn
the statistical analysis, mainly cross
tabulations and descriptive statistics, and
MS Excel was used to provide quality
charts used to interpret the results.
Y.

t 46-60

Diploma

FeMa
' le

o pro&ress of elearnlna

FINDINGS

A. eLearning progress in Saudi Universities

The participants were asked, first, to decide whether the
consider the progress of eLearning in Saudi universities as "no
progress", "slow progress", "sufficient", or "rapid" and were
given the flexibility to not answer at all by selecting "don't
know/can't say". The vast majority of the participants
complain for slow (around 57%) or no progress (around 25%)
of eLearning in Saudi universities. Only around 7.9% of them

-.s low pro&ress

Sufficient progress

Rapid ,rowth

-oon't know/ can't say

Figure I: Eleaming progress in Saudi Universities

A more detailed analysis of the results on the progress of

eLearning in Saudi universities is illustrated in Figure 1. One
can easily see in the diagram that the "slow progress" response
is the dominant one followed, from a distance, by "no progress
of eLearning". The rest of the responses just fill the missing
25% of the statistical space. The diagram also shows clearly
that age, gender and education don't seem to significantly
affect the statistics.

Indeed, following the ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)

investing in eLearning infrastructures, establishments and
relevant human resources in the country.
model it was found that based on the "age" independent
variable the statistical mean is increased rather progressively
B. General reasons for slow or no progress of eLearning in
from a little less than 2 to 2.55, with 2 representing the "slow
Saudi Universities
progress" response. (Note: looking at the figure I the reader
The participants were given a number of suggestive
can easily map mark 1 as "no progress", mark 2 as "slow
reasons for the slow or no progress of eLearning in Saudi
progress", mark 3 as "sufficient progress", mark 4 as "rapid
Universities and were offered the choices of accepting,
progress" and mark 5 as "don't know/ can't say"). What is
refusing and not deciding those or not responding at all. Figure
also significant is that the standard deviation of the mean is
2 illustrates their answers based on the respondents' age (more
always around 1 that means there are no noteworthy variations
data is available for their responses based on their gender and
on the responses especially for the ages between less than 18
education). As the saying goes "one picture is worth a
and up to 45 years old. The only considerable change to this
thousand words". The majority of the respondents were keen
pattern is for the individuals between 46-60 who are split
to accept all general reasons to them as it becomes clear from
between "slow progress" and "sufficient progress" (statistical
the figure's illustration. Only in 3 cases some of them
mean 2.55) with a relatively increased standard deviation of
disagreed namely in the cases of "language hurdles" as one of
1.7. The pattern shift is quite different when analyzing the
the reasons and "illiteracy" and "financial problems" as two
responses of those more than 60 where the statistical mean is 4
more.
("rapid progress") and the standard deviation is 1.7. It should
be noted, though, that the sample
population for both last categories, i.e.
Figure 2: Reasons for slow or no progress of eLeaming in Saudi universities (based on respondents' age)
between 46-60 and more than 60 is very
small and the results are neither safe nor
lack of ICT
very conclusive.
infrastructure
Looking at the data from the
respondents' gender viewpoint the main
previous findings don't really change.
The
statistical
mean
for
male
participants is 2.05, meaning that they,
too, confirm the "slow progress" of
eLearning in Saudi universities with a
standard deviation of 1.2 meaning the
mean statistic is not very significantly
altered between them. Also in the case
of females the statistical mean is 2.11
and the standard deviation is 1
suggesting similar conclusions as those
for the males. Finally, from a
respondent's education point of view, it
is clear that except from those with an
elementary education (mean: 2.5, std.
dev.: 1.7) and those with a Phd degree
(mean: 2.67, std. dev.: 1.2), in which
cases the sample is very small and,
hence, not conclusive, the rest of the
cases, i.e. undergraduates, graduates,
those with secondary education (i.e.
high school or similar), or those with a
diploma are following the same pattern
as the one described before.

Don't know! Can't say

Disagree

Undecided

I-+++++-+c+++-H'++;,-+!+u.

Undecided

The safe conclusion from this first

part of the findings is that Saudis
suggest and recognize the slow or even
no progress at all of eLearning at Saudi
Universities. Taking into account the very young population of
Saudi Arabia with the vast majority of the Saudi national
under 45 and the fact that these young people are mainly the
ones complaining the most it is rather easy to see the challenge
of facing the problem but also the opportunity behind in

Don't know! can't say

Financial Problems

ess than 1882S6 35

364S660+More than

60

Figure 2: Reasons for slow or no progress of eLearning

More specifically, the average of the statistical means of

the responses for the suggestion of "lack of leT" as a reason
for the "slow or no progress of eLearning" in the country,
based on the different age ranges, is 3.4 (1: "strongly
disagree", 2: "disagree", 3: "undecided", 4: "agree", 5:
"strongly agree", 6: "Don't know/can't say") but given the

average standard deviation at the level of l.8 and the fact that
the largest population of the sample is in the area of the ages
18-25 and 26-35 it becomes clear that the illustration of figure
2 is supported actually by the ANOVA model on the data.
In the case of the suggestions of the "language hurdles" as
a possible reason the results of this qualitative survey are very
similar, almost identical and only very slightly shifted away
from the "agree" choice towards the "undecided" one with the
average statistical mean at the level of 3.35 and the average
standard deviation at 1.72 but, again, having the largest part of
the data in the sample population that is towards the "agree"
selection. There is no major change in the responses when the
suggestion is "illiteracy" but only a further slight shift away
from the "agree" selection with the average statistical mean at
3.17 and the average standard deviation at l.69. Almost the
same pattern is followed for the cases of "financial problems"
(average mean: 3.11, average stand. deviation: l.96), "lack of
eLearning institutions" (3.4, l.72) and "lack of promotion"
(3.29, l.62). Statistics also suggest the same pattern is
followed quite closely for the cases of the analysis (ANOYA)
based on the gender and, also, based on the education of the
respondents.
C.

Administrative reasons for slow or no progress of

eLearning in Saudi Universities

major universities" (0.305, 0.47), they don't complain for

"lack of usage and training on eLearning" (0.37, 0.49) and the
"accept the online curriculum" (0.35, 0.45) . The reader should
note, however, the quite significant standard deviation
averages associated with the average means, as seen in the
second numbers inside the parenthesis, which basically means
there is a rather considerable variation among the responses
that although provides a pattern but not a very stable one for
all cases.
Second, concerning possible technical challenges based,
again, on participants' age, responses follow a more variable
pattern. Like in the previous case of the administrative
possible challenges agreement was valued as 1 and
disagreement with O. Then, the respondents don't recognize
any "personal privacy concerns" with the average mean
moving towards the disagreement (0.22) although the standard
deviation is rather high ( 0.42) indicating a significant
disagreement amongst the participants. Quite similar is their
reaction about possible fears for "security breach
uncertainties" with their average response moving to the
disagreement side (0.27) but also having a lot different
opinions (0.46) . The fact that the leT is "changing rapidly"
does not seem to be regarded as an obstacle either by most of
them (0.29) but with quite a few of them seeing problems in it
(0.46). Things are shifted just a little away from the
disagreement although still away from the agreement side
when the individuals were asked if they have any complains
for "limited access to educational software (average mean
0.36, average stand. deviation 0.48) or if they "see
administrative weaknesses" (0.4, 0.48)

The participants were, also, provided with a number of

suggestions as to whether certain possible issues related to
administrative and/or technical aspects of eLearning may be
the causes for the slow or no progress of eLearning in the
Saudi universities. Figure 3 illustrates their answers based on
the respondents' age (only for the economy of space in this
paper data available based on
Figure 3: Administrative and Technical Reasons for slow or no progress of eLearning in Saudi
their gender and education is not
Universities (based on respondents' age)
presented herein in detail).
A. Low Quality of online Curriculum

A deeper look into the

A. No support from International
statistics behind the illustration
Institutions
of figure 3, from the respondents'
age viewpoint, yields some more
interesting facts. First, regarding
the suggested administrative
A. No affiliations with major
challenges and based on the
T. Limited access to edue. Software
universities
respondents' age there seems to
be a pattern on their perception
on the issues discussed. On
Disagree t+t-H+!H ":otI+
Disagree
average they seem to disagree on
potential
all
suggested
administrative causes of the slow
T. Administrative weaknesses
A. Lack of training
or no progress of eLearning in
the Saudi universities. Indeed,
given that in every suggestion 0
was
the
value
for
the
for the
disagreement and
online curriculum
agreement then on average they
don't see a problem with "low
T. Personal Privacy concerns
quality of online curriculum"
(average mean 0.31, st. deviation
ess than 18 825
635 X 36-45 660 -More than 60
0.39), they disagree there is "no
support
from
international
Figure 3: Administrative and technical reasons
institutions" (0.33, 0.47) , they appreciate the "affiliation with

11:'1

VI.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

It is already pointed out that this is only one part of an

exploratory study of eLearning application in the Gulf Council
Countries and in particular Saudi Arabia. It has dealt with the
local population's perception on whether they are happy with
the progress of eLearning development in the country's
universities. Mostly young people and generally individuals
less than 46 years old accepted the invitation to participate in
this research effort. The results of this part are quite clear and
rather expected for a developing country.
eLearning progress in Saudi universities is generally seen
as slow. More effort must and actually is, when these lines are
written, made towards the goal that is nothing less than
incorporating ICT in the learning process at the level of higher
education. Although Saudi Arabia is a rich country and one
would expect eLearning processes to be fully deployed in all
levels of the educational system, however, let's not forget that
it is still a developing country with most of its educational
units, whether private or public, at all levels still developing
and a very young population making an effort to familiarize
with all educational processes with eLearning not being an
exception.
The main problems identified by the sample population of
this research were the lack of Information and
Communications Technology infrastructure and the lack of
eLearning institutions. Actually both ICT and relevant
educational institutions are established the past several years
in the country but they are still developing, improving their
facilities and services to the local residents and probably this
is the reason why they are taking most of the blame. In other
words, although a long distance has been covered towards the
goal but, compared to the developed countries, a lot more
needs to be done both from the part of infrastructure but also
training those that will be assigned the huge task of
maintaining the systems.
Also, following very closely behind the first 2, illiteracy of
a considerable part of the population and the problem of
foreign languages, a necessity when aiming towards eLearning
procedures, are the next 2 serious reasons behind this slow
developments. Indeed, though it is quite apparent for the
outsider that the young population, male and female, is both
eager and strongly motivated from a variety of governmental
and other institutions to be educated but it is also quite
obvious that the literacy level of a very large part of this
population is low, once again, given the standards of the
developing countries.
Furthermore, the fact that some eLearning institutions but
also individuals interested in following this new trend in
education are facing financial problems and the reality that the
eLearning promotion campaigns don't seem to be as extensive
as they could causes problems that delay the faster
developments of eLearning in Saudi Arabia universities
despite the fact that the governmental and other agencies fully
support financially all efforts towards this goal.
Finally, it is rather clear that the majority don't see as
obstacles several administrative and technical issues that
usually are raised during the implementation of eLearning

processes including the online curriculum, the support from

international institutions, the affiliations with major
international universities, the training of the students to these
processes neither they are troubled by the usual personal
privacy concerns, or the security breach uncertainties, or
possible administrative weaknesses, etc.
It is only a matter of a few years time for Saudi Arabia to
get into the club of those countries with highly developed
eLearning systems.
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