Obstacles to e-learning and how to overcome them

The world is now witnessing a great development in technology, which has become involved in all areas of life, from education and health to finding job opportunities and other areas. As for education, despite the development that has occurred as a result of the use of technology, there were some difficulties that it faced. Among the obstacles to e-learning that it faced, for example, are the difficulty of evaluation and the lack of credibility and transparency, especially since the test is remote.

When did the term e-learning appear?

After we learned about the obstacles to e-learning and ways to overcome these obstacles, a question may come to mind: Did the term e-learning appear all at once, i.e. suddenly? And when exactly did it appear? The answers to these questions are what we will know now. After research, we found that this term did not appear all at once, but rather appeared in stages or generations, and the beginning was in the eighties, passing through time until we reached the form known at this time. Let's get to know the stages, which are:

• The first stage

This stage began in the eighties and was through CDs. This method focused on the student and the interaction took place individually between the learner and the teacher.

• The second stage.

This stage appeared with the beginning of the use of the Internet, and with it the interaction changed from individualism based on the teacher and the learner only to collectiveism that is between the teacher but this time with all the learners, and we cannot deny that this stage was more developed and more effective.

• Stage 3 or 3rd generation

This stage began to appear in the late nineties of the last century, i.e. the nineties, coinciding with the concept of commerce and the concept of electronic security. In this generation, we notice the development of technologies used in multimedia, which led to the development of electronic media, including the transmission and reception of information. The interaction here was between the learner and the school and between the school and the teacher, so the interaction was more general and comprehensive.

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Obstacles to e-learning

There were many difficulties that stood in the way of e-learning , including the following:

• It is difficult to provide experienced personnel in the field of e-learning , due to the novelty of the matter.
• The absence of the human aspect in the educational process, and thus the weakness of students’ response to the new method of education.
• Because students are accustomed to traditional exams and education itself, they are not inclined towards it.
• There is a weakness in what is called digital filtering, which is the ability of individuals or educational institutions to determine the time frame or communication environment, whether communications are beneficial or not, and whether they lead to harm. All of this is done by placing filters to prevent and close unwanted communications, which is the same in advertising and publicity.
• The high cost of education and the lack of financial resources are somewhat due to the need to provide an electronic device such as a tablet and the Internet.
• Difficulty in finding quick maintenance for electronic devices in remote locations.
• Lack of awareness among people about e-learning and its benefits.
• There are some faculty members who shy away from this type of education.
• The necessity of training teachers as well as male and female students to use the Internet in learning and searching for information, because this type requires continuous training as a result of the updates that occur in it or the new technologies used.
• Websites may be hacked due to lack of security, which makes it fearful to use them in the teaching and learning process.
• Lack of adequate infrastructure in communication with the educational institution.
• One of the obstacles to e-learning is the lack of compensatory or encouraging incentives, as well as systems and methods through which learning occurs more clearly.
• The lack of standard specifications and clear criteria for the e-learning and teaching process, as there are some educational curricula and syllabi at all educational levels that we find need to be modified and updated due to the many developments that occur on a permanent basis.
• One of the obstacles is that technical decisions in the field of e-learning are mostly taken by technicians, and this is a warning bell if technicians happen to control the educational content represented by the educational material.
• Lack of knowledge of educational personnel about the latest technologies, which makes them unable to make decisions. It is necessary for educators to have a role in making educational decisions or the content of the educational material.
• Lack of credibility in the work of evaluation and testing, which hinders the teaching and learning process.
• Teachers and learners are accustomed to old systems that stand in the way of innovation and creative thinking and limit its development.

Read more about: What is the importance of e-learning in the teaching process?

How to overcome the obstacles of e-learning

After mentioning the obstacles to e-learning , we move on to the methods through which we can overcome these obstacles and remove the barrier that stands in the way of the educational process proceeding in a correct manner. These methods include the following:

• Working to increase community awareness by making individuals aware of the advantages of this type of education , and not surrendering to traditional methods of education for fear of entering into modern experiences.
• Work on training learners, because this method requires continuous training.
• Focus on modifying the old traditional rules and methods that hindered the process of innovation and the process of using the mind, and working on developing modern methods that depend on innovation and finding modern ideas suitable for all times and places, so that education advances through the ingenuity of learners.
• It is important that the published content is of a good standard, because the competition here is global and not local.
• Determine the extent of students' response and interaction with the modern method of learning.
• Working to solve the infrastructure problem and working to expand the electromagnetic spectrum and the scope of the Internet.
• Attention must be paid to training teachers in the modern way, and attention must be paid to the teacher and his sense of his importance in the educational process and that he has not become something old and outdated.
• Students must be trained on how to use the Internet and technology in education and information search.
• It is necessary to ensure that the modern curricula are implemented in accordance with what the Ministry has set out in the curriculum, and it is also necessary to monitor the integration of the halls designated for receiving lessons in instant education.

We talked about the obstacles to e-learning and how we can overcome these problems in order to benefit from this type of education as much as possible, because in the current and upcoming period, the field of electronics will be the field that dominates all areas of life.