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Hussein Al-Yaseen et al.
phase involves investments considering that many universities established an eLearning centre as
part of their projects. However, this may not be a major obstacle especially in private universities.
6. Conclusion
In Jordan, eLearning adoption level is still at its early stages. In order to achieve eLearning benefits in
higher education it is important for universities and government to work together to resolve the issues
and challenges discussed above. By analyzing the findings of this paper, we can propose some
recommendations that may be useful to universities and decision makers in implementing eLearning
projects.
eLearning approach to use: Jordanian universities are still at the early stages of transition between
the traditional and eLearning modes. It is proposed that the blended approach is more suitable (faceto-face
and online interactions). Using blended approach may be a successful delivery mode and
could contribute to overcoming many of the issues and challenges such as improving the relationship
between learners and students, increasing of the understanding level of the advantages of eLearning,
increasing level of awareness about knowledge and skills needed for using eLearning, and change
management. Furthermore, blended learning is allowed by current legislations of the MoHE while fully
online courses are not.
Awareness: Generally there is still a lack of awareness amongst the main stakeholders (instructors
and students) of the effectiveness of eLearning. Many instructors feel that the traditional learning
mode is better. Workshops and training courses need to be set up to increase the awareness level of
top management, instructors and students of eLearning. Such awareness will overcome some of the
obstacles such as feeling that eLearning will threat instructors’ role, problems related to the culture of
eLearning users, not taking eLearning seriously by users, the negative preconceptions of users and
universities towards eLearning.
Top management support: Decreasing the unfamiliarity of decision makers in higher education
institutions about eLearning advantages will contribute to increasing the rate of adoption between
users and decrease the effect of some problems related to culture of developers, educators and
learners towards eLearning systems.
Legislations of eLearning in higher education: Legislations of eLearning in higher education in
Jordan restrict adoption level of eLearning systems in Jordanian universities as the fully online
certificates are still unrecognized by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) regardless of the quality
and source of these certificates. It is proposed to establish a national committee, which represents the
various stakeholders such as representatives from the ministry of higher education, ministry of
education, ministry of information and communication technology, and representatives from both
private and public universities. The role of this committee is to review the legislation of distance
learning in developed and developing countries; develop regulations and standards for eLearning
systems; establish accreditation policies for online certificates; increase the awareness level of
eLearning in higher education; encourage and support eLearning in higher education; monitor and
control eLearning practices in higher education; train and develop eLearning content experts;
establish of standards of quality e-content; encourage eLearning knowledge sharing among higher
education institutes in Jordan.
Finally, eLearning is hoped to play an important role in improving the quality of education and provide
learning opportunities to people who may otherwise be deprived from such opportunities. In order to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of eLearning practices in Jordan, ministries related to
education need to move towards a higher level of eLearning development which will require
establishing a strategic vision in developing eLearning and more effort especially technically and
financially. Issues like human, legislation, culture appear to be the major challenges of adopting
eLearning projects in higher education institutes in Jordan and need attention in the deployment of
distance learning. Furthermore, in order to realize the full benefits of eLearning, the decision makers
in the government need to play an active role in supporting and promoting eLearning practices and
initiatives adopted by higher education institutes in Jordan. The research findings may be useful as
they provide a clear insight to other developing countries about the main issues and challenges that
face the adoption of eLearning projects in Jordanian universities when planning for and developing
their eLearning systems.
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