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The purpose of this study is to explore the role individual innovativeness along with e-learning self-efficacy play in predicting the e-learning readiness of first- and second-year students of an open and distance education institutions in an African context.

Therefore, building on previous related research in this area, a quantitative approach was adopted to address the research questions and to establish whether a statistically significant relationship existed between individual innovativeness, e-learning self-efficacy, the independent variables; and e-learning readiness, the dependent variable. In total, 476 first- and second-years students of the university participated in the four-Likert-type scale survey. The research instrument which comprises 74 survey items was completed by 217 of the students. Statistical tools used for analysing data included both Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients and t-tests.

It was discovered that a strong positive and significant relationship was observed between individual innovativeness and e-learning readiness of first- and second-year students of the Yenagoa Study Centre of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN); a statistically significant relationship was also found between e-learning self-efficacy scores and the e-learning readiness of the first- and second-year students of the Yenagoa Study Centre of NOUN; there was a statistically significant joint relationship between the three variables under investigation; findings equally revealed that male respondents had higher e-learning readiness than their female counterparts.

Like every other study of this nature, this one also suffers some limitations. First, NOUN is a very large university with over half a million students spread across almost 78 study centres. This means that observation from just one study centre amounts to a very small sample size. This according to Schweighofer, Weitlaner, Ebner and Rothe (2019) jeopardises the generalisability and validity of study results. The authors also maintain that empirical data generated from surveys that usually rely participants' abilities to read and select responses without further interpretation by the researchers suffer from cognitive biases like social desirability. To address the above limitations, detailed studies involving all studies centres of NOUN be undertaken and other qualitative and or mixed research methodologies be adopted in the future.

The implications for this study are that people who are innately innovative will willingly accept technology and by extension, learning in technology-rich environments like those found in like NOUN whose mode of study is blended learning inherently found in open and distance learning (ODL) institution. Therefore, this study is significant as it will provide relevant information to the management and administrators of NOUN, policymakers and regulatory institutions for the development, deployment and implementation of e-learning strategies. Findings will also benefit e-learning initiatives undertaken by similar institutions that adopt the ODL mode of education in Nigeria and other developing countries.

Even though, studies on the antecedents of e-learning readiness have been widely conducted across diverse contexts, studies exploring the associations between individual innovativeness, e-learning self-efficacy and e-learning readiness are relatively hard to come by. The above two variables as predicting the e-learning readiness in the study context are comparatively new. This study thus focuses on the relationships between the individual innovativeness levels, e-learning self-efficacy beliefs of students and their e-learning readiness which ultimately determines their ability to sustain studies in an ODL institution.

This study aims to explore the socio-cultural aspects of e-learning delivery in Saudi universities from the perspectives of universities’ instructors and expert designers from the Ministry of Education. More specifically, this study examined the opportunities and challenges faced in the development of online learning environments at Saudi universities from a socio-cultural perspective.

This qualitative research study addressed pervasive socio-cultural challenges connected to e-learning delivery in Saudi Arabia. Data collection methods consisted of 28 in-depth insider expert interviews as well a thematic analysis of documents related to socio-cultural aspects of e-learning delivery in Saudi Arabia.

Findings from the data analysis uncovered two main thematic areas connected to e-learning delivery in Saudi Arabia, namely, culture and female access to e-learning.

This research contributes original knowledge to international online learning research about the social and cultural complexity connected to online learning development in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other areas of the Arabic world where similar e-learning development initiatives are underway.

This research contributes original knowledge to international online learning research about the social and cultural complexity connected to online learning development in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other areas of the Arabic world where similar e-learning development initiatives are underway.

This research contributes unique knowledge about the social and cultural complexity connected to online learning development in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other areas of the Arabic world where similar e-learning development initiatives are underway.

The interaction between Saudi culture and online learning has nurtured a unique learning model that adapts to cultural values to provide a quality learning experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine quality assurance for archives and records management (ARM) education in an open distance e-learning (ODeL) environment in Eswatini with a view to conceptualise a framework for quality assurance in the development and implementation of an ARM programme in the context of ODeL.

The study is anchored on the interpretive research paradigm, which surrounds a systematic literature review. The researcher searched for literature online, using scientific databases such as Ebsco, Scopus and Google Scholar. The search applied the publications from 2005 to 2019. The main search keywords are “archives”, “records management”, “open distance e-learning” and “quality assurance”. A total of 15 articles, which included documents, journal articles, reports, web pages and monographs, were retrieved, reviewed and analysed in this study. This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

ARM as a form of study and delivered on ODeL platforms have been proposed in Eswatini. The major concern among stakeholders is how to ensure the quality of such programmes.

This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

The findings and recommendations will help in the development of ARM programmes to be offered effectively by way of ODeL, there is a need to develop a transparent quality assurance framework for such an application and its implementation.

This is the first study on quality assurance for ARM education in an ODeL environment in Eswatini. As part of the study, a quality assurance framework was designed for the implementation of ARM education on an ODeL platform. This quality assurance framework is intended to help higher education institutions in Eswatini such as the University of Eswatini as well as stakeholders such as the Eswatini National Archives and others to design ARM education and deliver it on an ODeL platform in a manner that guarantees adequate quality.

Distance universities are of great importance for establishing sustainability literacy, as they operate as multipliers for thousands of students. However, despite several advantages of e-learning environments compared to traditional class-teaching, there are still challenges regarding suitable e-learning tools and didactical models. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of several e-learning tools on students’ knowledge and skills growth and to compare two learning paths, synchronous vs asynchronous, exploring how each affects the level of students’ knowledge achievement and skills acquisition.

The empirical analysis is based on an online course “Participatory processes in environmental politics”. International MSc and PhD students who enrolled in the course were from FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany) and Aberta University (Portugal). The course was designed as the flipped classroom, applying different e-learning tools and activities, some synchronous and others asynchronous. A pre- and post-evaluation questionnaire was applied to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills. Descriptive statistical analyses were carried out on this data.

Results showed that in the synchronous group, knowledge about theoretical approaches to citizen participation and sustainable environmental governance improved to a greater extent, whereas the asynchronous group showed greater improvement in nearly all skills related to intercultural communication and e-learning. Also, in the synchronous path, students enhanced their knowledge on “research application” to a greater extent.

Evaluating the effectiveness of different e-learning tools on students’ sustainability knowledge and information and communication technologies skills is a fundamental issue. The study discusses these issues, contributing to enhancing the use of adequate and grounded e-learning models on sustainable development in higher education.

E-learning has gained much focus from educators and researchers, with many extolling e-learning over traditional learning. Despite this focus, implementation of e-learning systems often fails. The purpose of this paper is to consider a range of barriers, impacting the success of e-learning implementations, yet to the best of the authors’ knowledge no conceptual framework is able to consolidate existing research.

This paper undertook an in-depth review of literature concerning e-learning implementation barriers. Papers were extracted from established peer-reviewed journals and open sources. Articles not related to e-learning implementation barriers were discarded. A total of 259 papers were identified, published between 1990 and 2016. Hermeneutics and data-driven qualitative content analysis was used to define 68 unique barriers.

The 68 unique barriers were thematically grouped into four conceptual categories, i.e. Technology (T), Individual (I), Pedagogy (P), and Enabling Conditions (EC). These four categories led to the conceptualization of “TIPEC” framework, which highlights the key concepts hindering e-learning implementation and delivery. Results show that most articles only consider a narrow range of success barriers.

The proposed TIPEC framework acts as a guide for education practitioners, system developers, policy makers, and researchers. It provides stakeholders with a summary of e-learning barriers.

This paper fulfils an identified need for a conceptual framework that consolidates all current research related to e-learning implementation barriers.

The COVID-19 crisis experience is shaping new guidelines for learning activities that need to be developed from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective based on the analysis and assessment of potential impacts and social expectations.

The research is devoted to the study of modern e-learning challenges in the context of social distance, the analysis of learning experience, problems and opportunities associated with online learning. The research was carried out at the “Blinded for peer review” and involved 300 graduate students. A qualitative method based on a two-step process was used in the study. The discussion allowed participants to discuss and compare personal learning experiences primarily related to the COVID-19 crisis.

The results of the study demonstrated that online learning is an efficient tool for the development of hard skills while being less effective for the improvement of soft skills; they also allowed us to identify important aspects of professional personnel training which should be taken into account while developing a strategy for harmonizing on-campus and online education with the diversification of curricula by various pedagogical technologies and digital tools, as well as bringing social interactions into classroom activities.

Due to the fact that most study participants were technical and economic students, it was concluded that the e-learning format is an effective methodology for the development of technical and digital skills of students.

By using a technology acceptance model (TAM) on survey results collected from two member schools of a Vietnamese educational institution, this study aims to uncover the key factors that affect students’ acceptance of e-learning during the Covid-19 period.

A bilingual questionnaire in English and Vietnamese was delivered. It was pre-tested on 30 participants before it was finalized. The authors first reviewed the measurement model and made adjustments to the theoretical TAM model. Then the adjusted TAM was used to investigate the relationships of the constructs in the model.

The results of the structural model show that computer self-efficacy (CSE) has a positive impact on perceived ease of use (PEOU). There is also a positive relationship between system interactivity (SI) and PEOU. Surprisingly, the authors documented that PEOU has no significant impact on students’ attitudes (ATT). The results show that SI can moderately affect ATT. Finally, it is noted that the social factor (SF) directly affects the student’s attitudes (ATT).

This study contains three limitations. First, as this study only focuses on undergraduate programs, readers should be careful in applying the findings and/or implications of this study to other education levels such as K-12, vocational training and postgraduate programs. Second, the findings are generated within the context of one type of e-learning, conducted via Google Meet. Therefore, future research is needed to provide further validation and comparison across other forms of e-learning. Finally, to further prevent the common bias problem, future research should use both five-point and seven-point Likert scales for the response options in the survey, as well as use negatively worded items. This will help prevent respondents from providing similar answers to all questions.

This study has both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, the study can provide a solid framework for similar studies. From a practical perspective, this study offers implications for governments and universities in the process of adopting e-learning, given that the Covid-19 pandemic is currently in its second and more dangerous wave.

The paper seeks to describe the Catalan corporate e‐learning providers from the perspective of quality perception, quality assessment and quality control.

A literature review reveals key aspects of the definition of quality in e‐learning. The results of the review constitute the basis for exploratory research into the way quality is perceived and handled within the Catalan corporate e‐learning sector.

It was found that the organisations studied attribute major importance to quality dimensions related to any kind of teaching/learning, whereas other dimensions with clear relation to e‐learning receive lower priority. The study also reveals certain incoherence between the dimensions of quality and the applied strategies of quality assessment and control.

The presentation of pre‐defined quality indicators could have led to a distortion in the answers given to the questionnaire presented. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the findings using interviews addressed to quality managers and focus groups in organisations representative of the sector.

The paper integrates the discussion of theoretical approaches and models for quality in e‐learning with the description of important players in the field of e‐learning that had not yet been studied from the perspective of quality perception and quality control. It can be understood as an exploratory step towards further studies in order to contribute to an improvement in the quality policies applied in the corporate e‐learning sector.

This paper reports on an empirical study exploring the way in which campus‐based higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK apply their internal quality assurance and enhancement (QA/QE) procedures to their e‐learning courses. The purpose of this paper is to identify those characteristics of e‐learning courses which affected the capacity of these procedures to assure and enhance the quality of courses.

A case study approach is selected as most appropriate for an in‐depth examination of the features of the courses as well as the way in which the procedures are applied. Two sets of data are collected and analysed from each of four e‐learning courses: QA documentation and interviews with stakeholders.

It is found that the main factors impacting on the effectiveness of the QA procedures are: the organisational position that these courses had within their institutions; the distributed configuration of course, teams; the disaggregated processes that characterise e‐learning courses; and the distant location of students. These factors are found to be impacting on the potential of the QA/QE procedures to enhance the quality of the courses.

These case studies highlight the need for campus‐based universities to reassess their approach to the QA/QE of e‐learning courses, and identify the challenges that course teams face in moving on from the application of QA procedures to addressing the issues of QE.

The originality of this paper lies in its analysis of empirical data about the application of QA/QE procedures in e‐learning courses in higher education.

In this paper, the authors review the extant literature on e-learning effectiveness in higher education (HE) to investigate how teachers are affected by the actions that the management of higher education institutions (HEIs) need to take to address the success factors that are critical for e-learning effectiveness. E-learning, in the context of this study, encompasses the delivery of and access to a coordinated collection of learning materials and instructions over an electronic medium using a web server to provide the materials and a web browser to access them.

To address the study's aims the authors employ a narrative literature review methodology. Since the area under review is comprehensive and it entails the examination of several topics, the authors have selected this methodology to ensure thorough coverage, and a narrative literature review approach can provide the required degree of thoroughness as it covers a wide range of topics within the thematic area under review. The authors focus on contemporary scientific studies published between January 2017 and May 2022 on how teachers involved in e-learning are affected by management actions taken to achieve success factors for e-learning effectiveness within the HE sector, after identifying and grouping the success factors identified in prior literature into dimensions that reinforce effectiveness.

The authors of the present study have identified and outlined the most prevalent success factor dimensions by performing a narrative review of the extant literature on the topics of e-learning effectiveness and success factors, and by grouping the various success factors identified into the overarching dimensions presented. These dimensions must also be examined in terms of their relevant importance to the most significant e-learning stakeholder groups. Prior studies have made attempts to obtain relevant stakeholder views on success factors for e-learning, with the student perspective naturally being the most widely covered point of view in terms of e-learning success factors prioritization. More studies are needed that tackle the teachers' perspective as well, since this would enable researchers to determine how teachers view e-learning effectiveness success factors.

The authors also discover that the main success factors in literature are not discussed nearly enough from teachers' perspectives. The authors, therefore, highlight the importance of addressing teachers' perspectives, mainly because this will reinforce teacher acceptance of the e-learning system adopted by an HEI, and the authors also outline future research avenues through which the perception of teachers could be obtained. The authors have identified the technique of knowledge management as a potential method to involve teachers in the decision-making process concerning the management of e-learning more, by taking their views into account and documenting them. The authors have discerned that teachers' acceptance of e-learning would be reinforced by supportive management actions since as a result, teachers see improvements in their technological literacy and pedagogical skills, and this would bring about increased motivation, satisfaction and acceptance of e-learning systems.