International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD) Available online on: www.ijamad.iaurasht.ac.ir ISSN: 2159-5852 (Print) ISSN:2159-5860 (Online) Identifying Barriers of E-learning Implementation by M.Sc. Students in Agricultural Faculty of Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch Zahra Shirkhani 1, Marjan Vahedi 2* and Mohamad Bagher Arayesh 2 Received: 25 December 2015, etting advanced in communication and information tech- Accepted: 18 June 2016 Gnologies and their impact on all aspects of human life, the world is experiencing a new phenomenon named information society. Therefore, e-learning is a necessity to develop the quality of learning in this kind of society. The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers of e-learning implementation by M.Sc. Students in agricultural faculty of Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch. This research was applied and a de- scriptive survey method was used. The population of this study included 153 M.Sc. students in the agricultural faculty of Islamic Azad University (Ilam Branch) that were studied Abstract by census method. Instrument of data gathering was questionnaire that its content validity confirmed by an expert panel. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire and its value was equal to 0.96. Findings of factor analyses showed that the barriers of e-learning included five categories such as: infrastructure barriers, attitudinal barriers, technical, professional barriers, human Keywords: E-learning, Higher educa- barriers and educational-skill barriers that these barriers tion, Barriers explained 52.53% of the total variance. 1 M.Sc. of Agricultural Extension and Education, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran 2016. Agricultural Management and Development, 6(3): 353-362, September, International Journal of 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran * Corresponding author’s email: [email protected] 353 Identifying Barriers of E-learning Implementation / Shirkhani et al INTRODUCTION higher education has been emphasized by experts: The development of Information Technology 1) the variety of learning methods allows the (IT), in the last century, has brought about sig- users choose their favorite method; 2) the fellows nificant changes in many areas including learning can accomplish their educational activities when- and teaching (Jerry, 2000). Higher education ever and wherever they want (Broadbent, 2001); has not been an exception (Cahill, 2008). Nowa- 3) students can choose their courses from days, with the rise of Information Technology different universities without considering the (IT), new revolution has taken place in teaching location and employed people can enjoy the ed- and learning process and traditional methods of ucation opportunities; 4) the communication in- education like using paper, reading texts, and creases between the fellows and they can coop- doing exercises can hardly attract the young erate on curriculums and researches (Murphy people who live in the world full of media and Terr, 1998); 5) e-learning presents more (Rezai, 2009). E-learning is an alternative way various learning experiences for the students to improve traditional approaches of education. and the fellows of agriculture faculty enjoy In e-learning the net technology is used to more facilities on teaching (Wilson, 2006) ;6) create, enrich, present and facilitate learning at the fellows of agriculture faculty can transfer anytime and anywhere (Abdon et al., 2007). E- the information in a more charming way because learning is based on three standards: 1) e- this type of learning is a spectrum of texts, dia- learning is a net which supply continuous up- grams, audible and visual pictures (Broadbent, dating, storage and distribution of information, 2001; Zhang et al., 2002); 7) e-learning increases 2) the text message is transferred to users via the communication between the students and standard technology using computers, 3) e-learning professors (Asmal, 2003). Cooperation between is a complementary training tool which can be agriculture faculties will be increased and uni- used as along with traditional educational versities will have the chance to perform more methods (Czerniewicz and Brown, 2009). services to society and people outside the uni- Using e-learning along with classroom training versity (Anstead et al., 2004). means using internet technology to transfer in- In Iran, the number of students is growing faster formation extensively which lead to increasing than the number of public and private universities the knowledge and performance. The significant or any other institutions of higher education. The point in this method is that e-learning and class- web based learning is the solution to this problem. room methods get synchronous and e-learning However, the current Iranian higher education is considered as an effective and efficient tool. system faces so many challenges that it is very E-learning makes traditional border removed difficult to achieve the effectiveness of web based and combines the inside and outside university learning (Fariborzi and Abubakar, 2011). The activities and introduces some models for im- large youth population and growing demand proving the costs (Hanna, 2000). Technology for acquiring higher education in Iran (Araste transforms the modern educational structures et al., 2009; Emadzade, 2009; Ghavidel et al., through presenting new methods of watching 2012; Iran’s National Education Report, 2006; and learning for the university students, trans- Roushan, 2009) create a condition wherein re- ferring knowledge for professors and new meth- plying to the need for e-learning is not only re- ods of organizing educational systems for man- plying to an educational need but also to a agers. Yet those universities could win in this social need. A lack of classrooms, the flexibility age of information that changes their structure of time and place for education, access to mul- in order to mix the distance learning courses. ti-media resources, the ease of updating infor- Those institutes that don’t or can’t change their mation, and the growing number of applicants structures may be ignored by education pro- for higher education are reasons to increase grammers online access to education in Iran. Studies show International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development, 6(3): 353-362, September, 2016. and Development, 6(3): 353-362, September, Agricultural Management International Journal of The importance of e-learning in agriculture that acceptance of e-learning for Iranian students 354 Identifying Barriers of E-learning Implementation / Shirkhani et al in comparison to traditional learning is advancing in the bulletin board threaded discussion areas with high speed, especially in higher education at any hour, or visit with classmates and instructors (Rabiee et al., 2013). remotely in chat rooms. Such flexible access to E-learning in spite of having an important role, information and resources has also been ac- is used very rarely in Islamic Azad university of knowledged by Naidu (2006); he appreciates Ilam due to numerous problems. The present study distance learning for giving learners, who are was conducted to identify the main barriers of e- generally adults in full or part-time employment, learning implementation by M.Sc. students. So the opportunity to study at a time and place that the main question of this research is that what are is convenient. This way, distance education the barriers of using e-leaning among M.Sc. frees learners from the constraints of conventional students of Islamic Azad University of Ilam Branch? residential, educational settings since they are E-learning was first coined by cross and refers not required to attend lectures in locations away to any kind of learning which is mediated from where they may be living and working. through the use of the Internet and an Intranet Ali and Magalhaes (2008) indicated that that (Atashak, 2007). Examples of e-learning are the key implementation barriers in Kuwait are web-based teaching, web-based learning, and (1) lack of management support; (2) language Internet-based teaching and advanced learning barriers; (3) IT problems; and (4) workload and (Khan, 2005; Yaghoobi et al., 2008). Cooper lack of time. Of these, two are common in (2004) defines e-learning as the set of training western countries (technology and time). The activities employing audio, visual, computer, remaining two (management support and lan- and networking electronic devices. Mayer (2005) guage barriers) are specific to Kuwait. Regarding views e-learning as an active kind of learning the comparison between the two implementation which changes teaching and learning processes models, the key finding was that the usual e- dramatically and plays a significant role in de- learning development cycle (plan–design–inte- veloping information and communications tech- grate–improve) was not followed in Kuwait. nology. In a more comprehensive definition, The planning, designing and improving stages Murthy and Mathur (2008) define e-learning as was largely ignored, with the emphasis resting incorporating all educational activities that are almost completely on integrating the e-learning carried out by individuals or groups working tools and processes in the rest of the organization. online or offline and synchronously or asyn- This finding was found to be in line with