Identifying Barriers of E-learning Implementation by M.Sc. Students in Agricultural Faculty of Islamic Azad University, Ilam Branch

Abstract

Getting advanced in communication and information technologies 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 descriptive 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 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 barriers and educational-skill barriers that these barriers explained 52.53% of the total variance.