scholarly journals Limited technology helps to deliver ‘e-Learning’ in a developing country

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 05-12
Author(s):  
Simon Coelho ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Tobias Sopu ◽  
Yoshifumi Chisaki ◽  
Tsuyoshi Usagawa

<p class="2">The Kingdom of Tonga is an isolated least developing country located on the northeast of New Zealand with a population of 103,252 (2011 census) and with a gross domestic product per capita of USD $2,545.20.  Before educational systems in a least developing country like the Kingdom of Tonga begin employing e-learning, an assessment of the current situation of students and learning institutions may contribute to its success. Using an appropriate assessment tool is important for accurately measuring the degree of e-readiness. In this study, we administered a survey to 186 students randomly selected from five secondary schools in the Kingdom of Tonga to measure Facebook usage as an index of e-readiness for e-learning. We found that a large percentage (81%) of secondary students use Facebook, and most (74%) of these students have used Facebook for two or more years. All (100%) students use a computer to access Facebook, and most also access Facebook through mobile phones (62%) or tablets (46%). We also found correlations between duration of having a Facebook account and other indicators of e-readiness. Our findings suggest that secondary students in the Kingdom of Tonga have developed e-readiness for e-learning through their use of Facebook.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 788-795
Author(s):  
Masoud Yaghoubi Notash ◽  
Mas`oud Mahmoodi Shahrebabaki

E-learning has lately grown into a proliferating area because of its good potentials for instructional and assessment purposes. Context of instruction where e-learning is commissioned can bear implications for the scope and instances of application.  The present study addresses the major challenges faced in this respect by Iranian practitioners and also offer some practical solutions to these challenges. As a descriptive study in nature, the data population comprised 350 Iranian citizens from various social, economical and educational backgrounds aged between 16 and 53 who were asked to prioritize six major challenges Iranian people face regarding the e-learning arena on a standardized Likert-type scale. The challenges were selected from among those earlier cited in the related literature. Six major challenges to be prioritized were: lack of government support, lack of public awareness, high costs of e-learning, collectivist society of Iran, low-speed internet, internal filtering and external sanctions. The results indicated that lack of public awareness, lack of government support and collectivist society of Iran were chosen by the participants as the main hurdles in the path of e-learning development in Iran, respectively. Further solutions and implications of the study are discussed in the study.


Author(s):  
Davoud Masoumi ◽  
Berner Lindström

By discussing the cultural-pedagogically inscribed norms, this chapter argues that, regarding the design and implementation of e-learning from the perspective of globalization, it is critically important to recognize, understand, and thus take into account cultural situatedness. Such cultural-pedagogical norms are often taken for granted in educational settings. Drawing on the literature, this study presents a model of cultural-pedagogical paradigms in higher education in general and e-learning in particular. The authors use this model to explore cultural-pedagogical orientations in Iranian virtual institutions as an instance of a developing country. This is done from a comparative perspective, looking to the similarities and differences of teachers’ and learners’ points of view.


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