E-LEARNING: WHAT TO LOOK FOR AMID THE PANDEMIC

• Published in: Journal of economics and economic education research 2020-01, Vol.21, p.1-4
• Main Authors: Hejase, Hussin J, Chehimi, Ghada M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Objectives; Colleges & universities; COVID-19; Distance learning; Educational Quality; Educational Technology; Learning Processes; Online instruction; Student Experience; Teaching Methods; Training; Universities
• ISSN: 1533-3604; 1533-3590

INTRODUCTIONCOVID-19 pandemic came as a major threat to the ecosystem of universities around the globe. Universities that were not ready or not familiar with online learning reacted and panicked while universities that were practicing online learning went through less reactive steps (El Dirani et al., 2020). Universities had to deal with financial burdens, information and communication technology (ICT) deficiencies and teaching and learning dilemmas. Though the top of the line academic concerns were achieving learning objectives, student competences and engagement. According to Rkein et al. (2020), educators, in their quest to provide quality education however remotely, they discovered that due to technical issues, classical examination tools cannot be deemed as authentic as before. Consequently, Universities were urged to search for and adopt alternative means to ensure the appropriateness, fairness, authenticity and quality of the learning process. Nevertheless, it is wise to define first what is online learning or e-learning. The term e-learning is used to define many areas such as virtual teaching, online teaching, web-based training, distance teaching, and distributed learning. In general, e-learning is defined as the utilization of technology to deliver learning materials using an electronic layout via the internet (Aljhani et al., 2018). Furthermore, the European learning communities define e-learning as "the use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration (Commission of the European Communities, 2002). In terms of knowledge acquisition, e-learning can be defined as " the acquisition and use of knowledge distributed and facilitated by electronic means (Khan, 2005). Khoury et al. (2011), Clover (2017); Gupta (2017) justify e-learning based on previous success stories and accumulated experiences asfollow: 1. Learning for all, especially for people living away from cities. It started as learning by correspondence before the industrial revolution and later on through learning by radio, learning by mail, learning by CD-ROM and other devices, Computer-based learning, Web-based learning, etc... Streamlining with technologydevelopment. 2. Training and development needs for corporations which needed to move people out of theirwork. 3. Continuous development of ICT and technology basedlearning. 4. Flexibility, affordability, wo