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This study identified salient challenges related to future preference for e-learning of undergraduates during closure of institutions of higher learning due to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and put forth suggestions to overcome challenges of e-learning for present and future crises.

Undergraduates were drawn from two universities in Malaysia who normally attend conventional classroom learning. Underpinned by the literature, the challenges and future preference for e-learning were operationalised into statements. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire hosted on Google Forms and were analysed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and STATA statistical software.

The hierarchical multiple linear regression results showed that the salient challenges related to undergraduates' future preference for e-learning, in descending order, were learning outcomes, followed by disadvantages (negatively) and discipline. Moreover, there were nuanced gender differences on the relative importance of salient challenges related to future preference for e-learning.

Because the literature on e-learning during the closure of institutions of learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving, some salient challenges may not be captured in this study. Next, this survey was carried out in July 2020 when all courses were conducted using one hundred per cent e-learning for the first time. Hence, future replication studies may produce different results. Lastly, findings are not generalisable to other contexts as the salient challenges may be unique to the Malaysian context.

Concerted efforts by all stakeholders to address these salient challenges will shift e-learning in higher education closer to a panacea during present and future crises.

The sudden and involuntary switch from face-to-face learning to e-learning during the closure of institutions of higher learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided opportunity to research the salient challenges encountered by undergraduates and to overcome these salient challenges.

This study aims to investigate the contextual challenges of emergency Web-enabled teaching from instructors’ point of view and their future preference for online education.

A total of 165 instructors from various public and private universities and university colleges in Malaysia participated in this online survey. Data were analyzed using multiple regression.

The significant challenges for future preference for online education in terms of their relative importance were supporting learners, effectiveness, disadvantages and advantages of emergency Web-enabled teaching.

This study discusses theoretical, practical and public policy implications for the future of teaching in higher education due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The primary purpose of this research paper is to understand the role of national cultural dimensions on e‐learning practices in India. India is considered a major player in the world economy today. US multinationals are significantly increasing their presence in India and understanding cultural preferences will help global companies transition better.

This conceptual paper uses the national cultural dimensions of the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness project, which is identified as the most topical theoretical framework on culture. The national cultural scores are used to develop hypotheses for specific cultural dimensions. Examples from the literature are also used to strengthen the proposed hypotheses.

This research proposes that national cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, in‐group collectivism, and future‐orientation influence e‐learning practices. This study distinguishes between synchronous and asynchronous methods of e‐learning and the role of culture on the same. Future research can definitely empirically test the hypotheses proposed.

This study provides strategic implications for multinationals with a guide sheet identifying the role of the various cultural dimensions on e‐learning. The suggested strategies can be implemented by multinationals in other countries with similar national cultural dimensions also.

This research also proposes a theoretical e‐learning model identifying the impact of national cultural dimensions on e‐learning practices. This research also provides practitioners a strategic implications model that could be implemented for e‐learning initiatives in multinationals.

The purpose of this paper is to provide description and analysis of how a traditional industry is currently using e‐learning, and to identify how the potential of e‐learning can be realised whilst acknowledging the technological divide between younger and older workers.

An exploratory qualitative methodology was employed to analyse three key questions: How is the Australian rail industry currently using e‐learning? Are there age‐related issues with the current use of e‐learning in the rail industry? How could e‐learning be used in future to engage different generations of learners in the rail industry? Data were collected in five case organisations from across the Australian rail industry.

Of the rail organisations interviewed, none believed they were using e‐learning to its full potential. The younger, more technologically literate employees are not having their expectations met and therefore retention of younger workers has become an issue. The challenge for learning and development practitioners is balancing the preferences of an aging workforce with these younger, more “technology‐savvy”, learners and the findings highlight some potential ways to begin addressing this balance.

The findings identified the potential for organisations (even those in a traditional industry such as rail) to better utilise e‐learning to attract and retain younger workers but also warns against making assumptions about technological competency based on age.

Data were gathered across an industry, and thus this paper takes an industry approach to considering the potential age‐related issues with e‐learning and the ways it may be used to meet the needs of different generations in the workplace.

Electronic learning (e‐learning) has gradually become an important part of university education. There is a trend among universities in Taiwan to offer more and more e‐learning courses. The effectiveness of teaching or learning in an e‐learning system can be quantified by multi‐criteria measures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching or learning in an e‐learning system measures in linguistic preferences.

A generalized quantitative evaluation model that considers both the interdependence among measures and the fuzziness of subjective perception is currently lacking in the literature. The results indicated that the fuzzy analytical network process is a simple, suitable, and effective method of identifying the primary measures that influence the effectiveness of e‐learning, specifically in the context of interdependent measures and varying linguistic preferences.

The most significant measures of e‐learning effectiveness were the quality of the e‐learning system and learner attractiveness. Enhanced usage of multimedia features can attract learner attention and may eventually increase learner attractiveness. Reducing the waiting time for learning materials to load may improve the quality of the system. Furthermore, the management should actively maintain and improve the responsiveness of instructors to learner inquiries.

The main contributions of this study are twofold. First, the evaluation can be considered as a complex‐dependence, hierarchical decision‐making problem. This study contains a review of the literature and identifies 21 criteria and five aspects to measure e‐learning system effectiveness. Second, this study integrates fuzzy set theory and the ANP to develop an evaluation model that prioritizes the relative weights of the proposed measures. The proposed method can be used to handle dependence within a set of measures and to construct a hierarchical structure.

The purpose of this paper is to explore experiences of e-learners in relation to their time preferences, and to examine how technology changes temporal culture in e-learning.

A pilot study using multiple methods of data collection to provide a rich picture of the experience of e-learners in relation to temporal flexibility. Taking a narrative approach it analysed data from a survey, time tracking data as well as data from online discussion boards, learners’ assignments and short telephone interviews.

The study found e-learners may experience temporal culture shock when starting to study online for the first time. It highlights the need to explore an individual's time preference and to consider the temporal culture of the e-learning programme.

It highlights that the issue of time is still missing from educational studies and suggests that temporal aspects are included in e-learning research studies. This is a small exploratory study but it indicates the need for further research to explore the potential for temporal culture shock and influence of e-learner time preferences.

Designing an e-learning environment for learners needs to consider learner time preferences to ensure that temporal flexibility is a realised benefit, not a barrier to learning. The temporal culture of the online learning environment also needs to be made explicit so that learner expectations can be managed.

It contributes to the literature on e-learning in the higher education context by providing a temporal lens to explore learner experiences. It is of value to educationalists and learning technologists designing, delivering or evaluating e-learning programmes. Online learners may also benefit from its findings.

Today, the high cost of e-learning systems’ implementation and the difficulty of managing the infrastructures motivate educational institutions toward application of cloud-based e-learning systems. This new system should be aligned with the academics’ aims and pedagogical principles to be beneficial for learners and instructors. Therefore, the vendor selection of learning systems is one of the most important processes to migrate toward cloud-based e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework to facilitate the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning systems in the cloud market.

To identify the initial criteria as to the vendor selection of cloud-based e-learning services, a literature review is done. To enrich the initial criteria, a focus group of experts is investigated, and the framework developed; then, a survey analysis is conducted to validate the proposed framework. The extracted criteria and sub-criteria are weighted and prioritized using best-worst method (BWM).

The results indicate that the main dimensions of vendor selection framework as regards cloud-based e-learning systems are managerial, technological and pedagogical factors. The rank orders and weights of the mentioned aspects and their sub-criteria are calculated using the BWM.

The proposed framework helps managers to get a big picture of requirements as to cloud-based e-learning and more effectively to select appropriate vendors in this initiative. In the vendor selection process, managers must pay attention to technological issues as well as managerial and pedagogical considerations.

Cloud-based e-learning systems are getting increasingly essential to offer training courses more efficiently in educational institutions. Although the intersection between cloud computing and e-learning has increasingly grown in both practical and academic contexts, there are little studies on how educational institutions and organizations could be able to select appropriate cloud-based e-learning systems. This paper explores the ignored but critically important subject of cloud-based e-learning. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a novel and integrated framework containing the important aspects of vendor selection in cloud-based e-learning services. The proposed framework comprises managerial, technological and pedagogical aspects simultaneously as well as sub-criteria denoting each aspect.

The use of e‐learning in corporate universities enables access and broadens the curriculum. This paper assesses the use and implementation of e‐learning through case material, and explores some of the challenges and emerging concerns.

The paper reviews the corporate university concept and considers how an e‐learning pedagogy might contribute to its success. Three case reviews of e‐learning adoption within corporate universities in the UK are included.

The paper argues that if corporate universities do not incorporate both the pedagogical and learner preferences perspectives into their use of e‐learning, this will seriously devalue the training experience. It concludes that the advantages of an online pedagogy are not fully exploited due to limitations in technology and other strategic priorities. In addition, a number of lessons have been learned by the pioneers of corporate e‐learning, including the evolutionary nature of the programmes and the need to create “organisational readiness”.

Further research into the views of learners in this debate is necessary.

Provides evidence of the potential of e‐learning as a key learning and development strategy within corporate universities.

A recommendation algorithm is typically applied to speculate on users’ preferences based on their behavioral characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of recommendation systems by collecting related journal articles from the last five years (i.e. from 2014 to 2018). This paper aims to study the correlations between recommendation technologies and e-learning systems.

The paper reviews the relevant articles using five assessment aspects. A coding scheme was put forward that includes the following: the metrics for the e-learning system, the evaluation metrics for the recommendation algorithms, the recommendation filtering technology, the phases of the recommendation process and the learning outcomes of the system.

The research indicates that most e-learning systems will adopt the adaptive mechanism as a primary metric, and accuracy is a vital evaluation indicator for recommendation algorithms. In existing e-learning recommender systems, the most common recommendation filtering technology is hybrid filtering. The information collection phase is an important process recognized by most studies. Finally, the learning outcomes of the recommender system can be achieved through two key indicators: affections and correlations.

The recommendation technology works effectively in closing the gap between the information producer and the information consumer. This technology could help learners find the information they are interested in as well as send them a valuable message. The opportunities and challenges of the current study are discussed; the results of this study could provide a guideline for future research.

Educators in the accounting discipline are faced with the challenge of finding innovative ways to accommodate the flexible learning styles of Millennial students, using “in classroom/contact time” effectively and decreasing transactional distance between students and educators in large classes. In an attempt to address these challenges, this paper aims to describe the implementation of basic e-learning tools (podcasts, vodcasts and voice-over-PowerPoint) as supplementary and substitutional tools in an undergraduate taxation curriculum. The tools were implemented as part of a student-centred approach to the facilitation of learning, embedded in the Blended Learning Theory. The paper reports on students’ use and experience of various basic e-learning tools, as well as the impact of the use of these tools on student performance.

An action research methodology was followed, and data were collected by way of a voluntary, descriptive student survey and student class lists. A total of 387 students completed the survey.

Students appear to have access to devices and data to use e-learning tools. They perceive these tools as helpful study aids and prefer synchronous, substitutional tools. Use of the tools does not have a significant impact on performance; however, it does appear to have a positive impact on the learning environment and student engagement.

The results of the study may be of benefit to educators and curriculum designers who are responsible for reviewing and updating the content delivery methods of undergraduate taxation curricula in large classes with diverse student populations. These results add to the limited body of knowledge on the implementation of basic e-learning tools in a South African accounting education setting.