TE-Learning Readiness among Faculty Members … Farazkish M et al. Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences Original Article E-Learning Readiness among Faculty Members of Iranian Universities: A Survey of 23 Universities Mahdieh Farazkish1*, PhD; Gholam Ali Montazer2, PhD 1Faculty of Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 2Department of IT, Engineering School of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT Background: The aim of this study was to assess the level of *Corresponding author: e-learning readiness among the faculty members in Iranian Mahdieh Farazkish, PhD; Faculty of Management, universities. Tarbiat Modares University, Methods: This is a survey research and the statistical population Tehran, Iran included all faculty members of 23 selected Iranian universities Email: [email protected] in March-September 2018. The population of the study included about 750 professors selected through simple random sampling. The instrument of study was a questionnaire titled “Evaluation of Instructors’ Readiness for E-learning in Iranian Universities”. Please cite this paper as: Farazkish M, Montazer Its content and face validity were verified by professionals, and GA. E-Learning Readiness its reliability was measured through Cronbach’s Coefficient alpha among Faculty Members which was (0.72-0.86). To analyze the data, descriptive and mean, of Iranian Universities: A SD statistics (independent T-test) were used. Survey of 23 Universities. Interdiscip J Virtual Learn Results: The average e-readiness score of professors from the Med Sci. 2019;10(4):54- 23 selected universities amounted to approximately 4.3 out of 10, 64. doi: 10.30476/ which is indicative of a relatively “weak” e-readiness status. Also, ijvlms.2019.84302.1003. Received: 07-10-2019 the score of over 60% of the criteria was “less than average”. Revised: 10-12-2019 Conclusion: Given the decreasing numbers of e-learning students Accepted: 16-12-2019 in Iran, the results of this study show that one of the important reasons for the failure in the development of universities’ e-learning systems can be the lack of e-learning readiness among instructors. Keywords: E-learning, E-learning readiness assessment, Faculty members, Higher education, Iranian Universities 54 Interdiscip J Virtual Learn Med Sci 2019; Vol. 10, No. 4 Farazkish M et al. E-Learning Readiness among Faculty Members … Introduction E-readiness is the extent to which More than four million students are instructors are prepared to apply their currently studying in Iran, with less than e-learning experience to an ELS (9, 10). one percent of them attending “Electronic E-readiness measures have been widely Learning Systems” (ELSs), indicating that researched, from Australia (11), Egypt (12), this educational system is not favored by Nigeria (13), Iran (6), Myanmar (14), South Iranian students. In the current era, even Africa (15), Turkey (16), Kenya (17) to the prominent universities and pioneers such United Kingdom (18), and USA (4, 19). One as Shiraz University, Tarbiat Modares of the most important e-learning readiness University, Amir Kabir University, and dimensions identified in all of these studies Science and Technology University, which is the dimension of instructors’ readiness. have been pursuing e-learning courses for Indeed, the implementation of a successful more than a decade, appear to be facing serious ELS requires instructors to be: trained in terms challenges. Despite the large investment of technical skills for using online courses in technical infrastructure and e-learning and programs, computer literate in hardware systems, their revenues from e-learning are and software, and mentally accepting of the rapidly declining (1). move to a digital environment (4, 20, 21). A review of similar international Similarly, other studies have examined the experiences also shows that despite the high factors affecting instructors’ readiness in potentials of e-learning in “Higher Education e-learning systems, which is summarized in Institutions” (HEIs), investments in this Table 1. area are still deemed to carry high risks. For It seems that one of the first steps in example, in Nelson’s study about the reasons the implementation of e-learning systems for e-learning systems success or failure, 36 should be an assessment of the readiness common misconceptions have been identified of instructors. Since faculty members are in four main categories: “human resource”, responsible for instruction in universities, this “process”, “product” and “technology” (2). paper has expanded on the measures applied Another study identified 43 success factors for in the assessment of ELSs by identifying e-learning projects, more than half of which those unique characteristics that describe are related to human resources readiness (3). e-ready online instructors with an effective Therefore, although creating the right network performance in an ELS. Accordingly, the infrastructure with the right hardware and main question of the research is: what are software components is a prerequisite for the abilities and skills of faculty members for e-learning success, human resource readiness the successful implementation of e-learning is a sufficient condition (4). systems? The term “e-learning readiness” Therefore, the purpose of this study is to (e-readiness), which is defined as users’ analyze the factors affecting the readiness competence to ‘‘use’’ an ELS and its of faculty members in Iranian universities technological tools, has resulted from the and measure their e-learning readiness in need to assess the technological, social and order to determine the factors of failure of organizational readiness levels among users Iranian HEIs’ e-learning systems in the light for implementing ELS (5). At the very least, of faculty members’ readiness or lack thereof. an e-ready online instructor should be capable of efficiently and effectively applying the Methods technology they require for ELS (5-8). Few From a philosophical perspective, this studies have been conducted on assessing research falls into the positivist paradigm the readiness of online instructors (including and uses the logic of deductive reasoning. lecturers, teachers or professors) in ELSs In terms of objective, the research is applied across a university system (8). and the survey research strategy is used to Interdiscip J Virtual Learn Med Sci 2019; Vol. 10, No. 4 55 TE-Learning Readiness among Faculty Members … Farazkish M et al. Table 1: Instructors’ e-learning readiness factors No. Researchers Technical Network Technological Cultural Instructors’ readiness readiness tool readiness readiness e-learning readiness factors 1 McConnel (22) ✓ ✓ ✓ 2 Rosenberg (23) ✓ 3 Engholm & McLean (24) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 4 Bradbent (25) ✓ ✓ 5 Anderson (26) ✓ ✓ 6 Haney (27) ✓ 7 Worknowledge (28) ✓ ✓ ✓ 8 Borotis & Poulimenakou (29) ✓ ✓ 9 Cloete (30) ✓ 10 Kaur & Zoraini Wati (12) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 11 Chapnick (31) ✓ ✓ ✓ 12 Aydin & Tasci (14) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 13 Psycharis (32) ✓ 14 Machado (33) ✓ ✓ 15 Lopes (34) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 16 Akaslan & Law (35) ✓ ✓ 17 Saekow & Samson (36) ✓ ✓ collect first-hand data using questionnaire collect factors and measures from previous tools from September to March 2018. The studies and the second approach was statistical population in this research is all employed to select factors and measures in faculty members of 23 selected Iranian accordance with the indigenous requirements. universities, including 10200 professors at It is worth noting that more than 50 experts, the time of conducting the research. For including a number of managers and planners sample selection, simple random sampling at the Ministry of Science, Research and method is used which considering Cochran’s Technology (MSRT) and universities (26 statistical formula in the following relation, people), professors familiar with e-learning the minimum number of samples under study (15 people), and technical experts (12 people), is 370 people. were selected by “Snowball Method” and The statistical sample consists of 746 contributed to determining the relative faculty members of the selected universities, importance of selected factors and measures. of which: 50 (7%) are professors, 142 (19%) are The acquired responses were then associate professors, 417 (56%) are assistant formulated in accordance with Likert’s five- professors and 132 (18%) are lecturers. In option spectrum (i.e. scale 1 for the fully other words, the rank of Associate Professor opposed and 5 for the fully agreed), which is represented the most in the research sample. is considered as one of the most commonly Also, the sample included professors from used scales for assessing closed answers the faculties of fundamental sciences (17%), (37). A diversified assessment of the research engineering (43%), human sciences (22%), tool (i.e. the questionnaire) is presented in agricultural sciences (14%) and arts (4%) (See Table 2, covering different aspects, from Appendix 1). its reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha test) to its In order to extract the e-learning readiness construct validity (Explorative Factorial factors and measures of professors, this study Analysis). The table shows the values of the was conducted using two complementary Cronbach’s Alpha index, the KMO measure approaches: a documentary study and expert of sampling adequacy ranges, as well as the opinion. The first approach was applied to variance percentages for the model. Based on 56 Interdiscip J Virtual Learn Med Sci 2019; Vol. 10, No. 4 Farazkish M et al. E-Learning Readiness