Toward Successful E-Learning Implementation in Developing Countries: A Proposed Model for Predicting and Enhancing Higher Education Instructors’ Participation

The rapid development and widespread of Internet and communication technologies have materially altered many characteristics and concepts of the learning environment. E-learning emerged as an imperative paradigm of modern education unrestricted by time or place, offering new possibilities to higher education institutions for providing flexible and cost-effective remote or distance learning environment, thus many universities put it in their programs. In developing countries e-learning can compensate the weakness of traditional education methods. While a considerable amount of research has been conducted on e-learning, little has tested it from the perspective of instructors, as a determinant or prerequisite for any successful implementation. Thus this research paper attempts to fill this gap in the current body of literature, specifically in our local context, by empirically examining and validating the critical factors that have the most significant influence on instructor’s participation in e-learning process. In contrast to previous works in this area, the current empirical study extended the research scope by combining the most critical factors identified in literature and applied them in the local context, therefore researcher’s proposed model contained variables that have not been integrated into one framework, to examination simultaneously for validation and relationship. A richer research methodology is used in this empirical study combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Based on its findings the study has made a number of important managerial and academic implications.