Volume 15 Issue 5 / Oct 2017
pp367‑466
Keywords: Open Teaching; Open Educational Practices; Open Educational Resources; MOOC; Information and Communication Technologies; Open Education; E-learning, E-Resources, e-learning, open and distance education, pre-service teachers, e-Learning practice, continuum, use, e-Teaching, e-Learning, traditional, innovation, systems engineering, systems thinking, systems approach, system dynamics, systems engineering education, systems thinking assessment, educational games, experience accelerator, experiential learning, game-based learning, system analysis and design, systems engineering and theory, simulation, Feasibility, e-learning, Iranian university, strategies, gamification, games and learning, drivers, barriers, teachers, Higher Education, connectivity, subject advisor, integration, curriculum delivery, 21st Century, South Africa, multimedia storytelling; traditional storytelling; foreign language learning; Chinese idiom learning; non-native novices
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Abstract
The present research aimed to investigate the feasibility of e‑learning implementation in an Iranian comprehensive university (included medical and non‑medical fields) to provide appropriate solutions in this regard. To achieve this objective, seven research questions were formed. Surveying method was applied for data collection in this study. From the results, the readiness of the Iranian university to implement e‑learning was moderate to low. This means that the Iranian university is not prepared for this type of learning. Accordingly, five factors were evaluated of which three factors: human, infrastructural, and cultural factors were in moderate to low level, and two factors: pedagogical and support, were at a low level. Ten basic strategies for successful implementation of e‑learning were extracted at the Iranian university based on the studied five factors and they were presented according to the knowledge and research in the field of e‑learning in the world and in Iran. Some of these consisted of holding training courses at the university level, considering a special place for e‑learning in the university strategic plan, developing a mechanism for monitoring the activities of teaching and research in e‑learning environment for students and faculty, and allocating and spending an appropriate budget.