learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Hussein Al-Yaseen et al.
2000/2001 and 2006/2007, Jordan has seen an increased demand for higher education with
enrolments growing at an annual rate of 14 percent from 77,841 to 218,900 students (MoHE, 2011).
The first Jordanian university, the University of Jordan, was established in 1962. Today there are ten
public universities. In the past, higher education was the exclusive duty of government, but the role of
the state in this sector decreased with the establishment of the first private university, Amman Al-
Ahliyya University, in 1990. The emergence of private universities was a necessary development to
face the problem of the lack of university seats and to solve the problem of increasing demand.
Privatization of higher education has increased gradually and today there are seventeen private
universities. Foreign universities also became common in higher education. (e.g., German Jordanian
University, established in 2005, Arab Open University established in 2002 to provide continuous
education for all ages, and New York Institute of Technology).
The use of ICTs as a catalyst for development coupled with the importance of education for
Jordanians has led to the start of a number of eLearning initiatives both at school and university
levels. The benefits of eLearning in addition to the need to meet the increasing demand for higher
education in Jordan has motivated most Jordanian universities to invest in some sort of an eLearning
system in order to support “blended learning” or pure “on-line learning” modules. However, these
projects have faced a number of challenges. Our aim in this paper is to identify some of the issues
and challenges facing Jordanian universities which have adopted eLearning projects.
4. Research approach
This research follows the quantitative (survey) approach at this preliminary stage of work. A
questionnaire was developed based on interviews with some experts and previous literature. The
questionnaire was then revised with the help of experts with significant experience in eLearning
including academics from Jordanian universities. The questionnaire included fixed-choice questions
about the main issues and challenges of eLearning in higher education. A 5 point Likert scale ranging
from 1 as strongly disagree to 5 as strongly agree was used for the measurement; and 0 as not
applicable. Data collection for this research took place in May 2011.The questionnaire was sent by
email to the people who are directly involved in developing and implementing eLearning projects in all
the public and private universities in Jordan.
The data was analyzed using a combination of the parametric statistical methods: Descriptive
Analysis and Factor Analysis (Pett et al., 2003).
A factor analysis technique was employed in order to identify possible categories. Factor analysis was
performed in three steps (following Berthold and Hand, 2003):
A matrix of correlation coefficients for all possible pairings of the variables was generated.
Factors were then extracted from the correlation matrix using principal factors analysis.
The factors were rotated to maximize the relationships between the variables and some of the
factors and minimize association with others using Varimax Kaiser Normalization, which
maintained independence among the mathematical factors. The Eigenvalues determined which
factors remained in the analysis. Following Kaiser’s criterion, factors with an Eigenvalue of less
than 1 were excluded. A Screen plot provides a graphic image of the Eigenvalue for each
component extracted.
5. Discussion of findings
The questionnaire was distributed by e-mail to all public and private universities in Jordan (10 public
and 17 private universities). From 10 questionnaires sent to the public universities, 6 useable
questionnaires have been returned with a response rate of 60%, and from 17 questionnaires sent to
the private universities, 12 useable questionnaires have been returned with a response rate of 70.5%.
This makes the total response rate from all Jordanian universities 66.7%; which is considered to be
above expectation given that the generally accepted average responses to non-incentive based
questionnaires are around 23%. This response rate indicated that the respondents in both
public/private universities found the topic interesting and relevant, and more interesting in the private
universities where the competition rate is higher.
The results of descriptive statistics showed that most universities in Jordan have used an open-source
learning management system such as (Moodle or Blackboard). 40% of the public universities have an
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