Barriers to distance learning administrators

The administrative role in the DL institution is part and parcel of the institution‟s ability to overcome the many barriers that face DL faculty members and students. The challenges that hinder the administrative team‟s ability to implement a successful DL, therefore, must be reviewed. A major barrier that faces administrators is a lack of funds; Savage (2013) suggested that, with inadequate funds, the administrators‟ ability to manage an independent educational system that has a significant educational contribution, is unobtainable. Such a barrier was indicated by Al-Jarf (2007) and Sahab (2005) as a barrier that faces the implementation of quality DL in Saudi Arabia.

Barriers to administrators that are related to technological aspects of DL are self-evident. McFarlane (2011) and Savage (2013) indicated that the provision of adequate technology and its related support is one of the greatest challenges that face administrators in the DL institution.

According to Savage (2013), barriers arising from inefficient planning for financing the technological requirements and support are the predominant challenges to a successful

administrator‟s mission. These challenges include insufficient consideration of the costs of installing, using and upgrading the technology in use and, most importantly, the provision of adequate trained human resources to support the DL system, which was reported in many local studies like Al-Jarf (2007), Al-Shehri (2010) and Sahab (2005).

Hashim, et al. (2015) suggested that other barriers that face DL administrators are related to the unavailability of an adequate telecommunication system which they described as a situation which persists in developing countries and entails innovative planning when designing and delivering DL. Related to the aforementioned issue, however, providing high level communication systems that include synchronous communication and video conferencing was a factor indicated by McFarlane (2011) as a challenge to DL organisations. He continued to explain that such a provision necessitates adequate funds, efficient technological infrastructure, appropriate physical settings and adequate planning schemes that many DL organisations struggle to offer. In conjunction with this, the lack of government support constitutes a major barrier that has many implications for providing a productive DL environment (Roby et al., 2013). They indicated that government support includes government regulations, educational plans and financial support. The inadequacy of the government regulations was indicated locally by Al-Shehri (2010) and Mirza and Al- Abdulkareem (2011) to hinder Saudi DL universities‟ plans in providing a DL system that is equivalent to TL in sustainability and value. According to Moore and Kearsley (2012), many

barriers to the DL institutions‟ sustainability can stem from the inadequacy of plans that take

account of the production facilities and personnel, the cost of purchasing or developing DL learning material and assessment tools and inadequate research-based planning, which are all challenges to the administrators in DL.

To conclude, barriers to DL intersect in many ways and, in some cases, they are also

influenced by organisational barriers. Accordingly, the organisation‟s ability to employ

adequate arrangements to alleviate or eliminate barriers that face students and faculty members is key to implementing quality DL. This observation reflects the study aim of providing a strategic approach for the universities in Saudi Arabia as organisations to overcome these barriers and alleviate their impact, informed by a variety of theoretical and practical recommendations from the literature and practice.

. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Through exploring the current status of international approaches by leading DL universities to implement quality DL learning programmes, it can be suggested that a characteristic shared by all the reviewed examples of leading DL universities is the application of criteria of quality. Despite variation in the application of DL criteria which can be ascribed to the available technology and funds, the reviewed universities have applied different strategies to sustain a high level of DL quality. In conjunction with this, the study thematic approach to examine the implemented quality in the reviewed DL universities, through the use of the study evaluative framework, has shown sufficient criteria to conduct such an examination as it has covered sufficiently all aspects of the implemented quality.

The conducted review of the Saudi educational system has revealed that the country has great potential for developing a leading DL experience in the Middle East and has pinpointed a gap between the available resources and the current low quality of the provided DL in the country. Such a gap was underpinned by the great advantages that quality DL can offer in solving many issues related to student numbers, geographical location, gender and the financial burden on the Saudi government. In conjunction with this, the chapter‟s review of the characteristics of the four Saudi DL universities has pinpointed symmetry in characteristics and approaches in providing DL in the country. This reflected the status of the Saudi universities that work under the same umbrella and are funded and regulated by the same rules and policies of the Ministry of Higher Education. This finding supported the study argument that investigating the quality of the implemented DL in one of the Saudi DL universities can reflect a valid status of the current quality of DL programmes in the country. This extends to validate the transferability of the proposed study strategic approach to implementing quality DL in the country.

The review of the literature pertinent to DL barriers indicated that the inadequate quality of the offered DL programmes can create many barriers that influence negatively the attitudes of DL stakeholders (administrators, faculty members and students) towards DL. Moreover, the review highlighted the fact that barriers to DL intersect in many ways and organisational barriers have the biggest negative impact compared to the other barriers related to the other DL stakeholders. This has pinpointed the importance of a strategic approach that targets the organisation as a whole to alleviate or eliminate barriers that affect students and faculty members, which reflects the study aim.

To conclude, this chapter has contributed to the achievement of the third objective by exploring the current status of approaches to implement quality DL generally and in Saudi Arabia in particular, to gain insights into the strengths, weaknesses and barriers to the implementation of quality DL. The next chapter is designed to define the study philosophical position and methodological approach in achieving the next three objectives (see Chapter I: The Research Aim and Objectives).

CHAPTER IV

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