CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPING ONLINE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRAN

Online learning has now become an accepted and popular method of education for
large numbers of universities in Iran, and now many higher education institutions are
offering online courses to their students. The present study was carried out with the
aim of investigating challenges to developing online learning in higher education. The
study was based on survey research method and a questionnaire was developed to
gather the data. The study population was postgraduate students (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) of
different faculties in Tehran University who were selected by applying purposive
sampling technique. The sample size for students was 152 persons. Data were analyzed
by using SPSS/WIN software and descriptive and inferential methods were used for
the data analysis. The results of the research indicated that three major factors
explained 74.4% of variances of challenges to developing online learning. These
factors were cultural/educational, technical, and financial challenges.