As the main goal of this research is the development of a blended learning model for higher education in traditional universities in Palestine, it would be a good practice
to look at the experience and/or status of such development in countries with some similar conditions. Although the concepts of e-learning and blended learning are the same all over the globe, their level of implementation and utilization might differ from country to country, and more generally from group of countries to another, particularly developed and developing countries. In this section, e-learning in some developing countries was explored briefly.
Andersson & Grönlund (2009) conducted an intensive literature review to identify challenges for e-learning in developing countries, and compared that with developed countries. In terms of papers addressing these challenges, it shows that not all categories of challenges [per authors‘ classifications] were addressed in the same way and frequency [number of papers] in both groups. Different categories were addressed differently, and the authors attributed that to the gap between developed and developing countries in terms of e-learning implementation and maturity (Andersson & Grönlund 2009). For example, challenges related to individual were more addressed in developed countries, while those related to technology were more addressed in developing countries (Andersson & Grönlund 2009). This would make sense due to the technological gap between the two groups; and to the more attention given to individual [student and teacher] in developed countries due to the fact that they already bypassed the issue of availability and adequacy of technology, while developing countries are still in need of addressing challenges related to context and course (Andersson & Grönlund, 2009). In a different study related to policy for ICT implementation in education, Blignaut, Hinostroza, Els & Brun (2010) compared two developing countries – Chile and South Africa – through ―the second information technology in education study 2006‖ Blignaut et al (2010), with 20 developed countries. The study focused on ICT in education for schools and explored the policies and utilization of ICT in such countries. The results revealed considerable differences and big gap between the developed and
developing countries, and even within the developing two countries. Gap was identified in areas such as availability of ICT infrastructure, technical support, pedagogical support, ICT-related courses, teacher self-confidence, and pedagogical practices (Blignaut et al, 2010). The gap is obvious due to the digital divide between developed and developing countries, in addition to circumstances, conditions and problems unique to each developing country. In reviewing the technology-enhanced learning in developing countries, Gulati (2008) discusses the challenges facing developing countries in implementation of technology-enhanced learning, especially the use of the Internet to reach less-advantageous people. Several challenges have been identified, including: ―lack of educational and technological infrastructures, lack of trained teachers, negative attitudes towards distance learning, social and cultural restriction son girls and women, and inappropriate policy and funding decisions‖ (Gulati, 2008), which ―resulted in furthering the gap between rich and poor, rural and urban, and between genders‖ (Gulati, 2008). The paper argues that, although e-learning and distance learning have been advocated as opportunistic and being easily accessible to poor and rural areas, and although it open economy to world market, it has done little for the these people and area, while at the same time it is the rich and urban area residents who benefited most from new infrastructure and investment (Gulati, 2008). It seems that this is a common practice in developing countries where all or most of investments and development go to major cities and towns and less if any goes to rural areas. This would call for a revision of government policies and practices regarding e-learning and distance learning infrastructures investments and decisions.
In their paper Kahiigi, Ekenber, Hanson, Danielson, & Tusubira (2008) explored the status of e-learning in Uganda. It was not until 1997 when new policy and initiatives have been adopted to integrate ICT in education; therefore, infrastructure was improved considerably since then; which was reflected in number of fixed lines, mobile phone
subscribers and Internet service providers (Kahiigi et al, 2008). These efforts were directed to both school education and higher education. Example of e-learning implementation efforts is the Makerere University adoption of blended learning approach, however, this adoption did not explore the full functionalities provide by LMS (Kahiigi et al, 2008). In addition, the study indicates that e-learning development in Uganda is still at the very beginning stage. In their argument for developing an education evaluation framework for e-learning, Omwenga & Rodrigues (2006) introduced some challenges facing the adoption of ICT in education including political and socio-cultural factors such as resistance by authorities and teachers, linguistic and cultural inappropriateness of educational software, and conflict with traditional system (Omwenga & Rodrigues, 2006). They proposed a framework and evaluated it at University of Nairobi using two courses as case studies (Omwenga & Rodrigues, 2006), where it builds on a model developed by Omwenga (2004), which in turn builds on Hughes & Attwell (2003). The framework is two-dimensional consisting of system perspective in one dimension, and technology mediation as the other. The first consists
of technical perspective, human perspective and education impact, while the second consists of structure, process, and outcome (Omwenga & Rodrigues, 2006). The results were encouraging in terms of asserting that e-learning and ICT implementation in education can be sustained. In their paper Seleka, Mgaya, & Sechaba (2006) hav compiled several factors affecting blended learning implementation in universities within developing countries, which include: flexibility and convenience, cost reduction, access to technology, computer skills, and platform or tool used. In further assessing the use of various collaborative tools in blended learning at the University of Botswana, they concluded that some of the issues in developed countries are applicable to developing countries; however, there are some issues specific to developing countries such as low bandwidth which affects access to some blended learning tools like WebCT
(Seleka, Mgaya & Sechaba 2006). On another aspect of e-learning and education, Moussa & Moussa (2009) highlighted the issue of quality assurance of e-learning in developing countries. They painted a representing picture of the situation of education in developing countries, attributing the poor situation to several factors including: dependence on memorization rather than critical thining, neglecting interactive teaching and teamwork, giving priority to quantity rather than , little effort to update curricula, quality of material taught, and poor usage of modern technology, among others (Moussa & Moussa 2009). In addition, they identified problems pertaining to the establishment of e-learning in developing countries, which include: public universities are administered in a very conservative fashion, private universities are commercialized,
curricula are rarely updated, lack of financial support from the governments, lack of
qualified instructors to run e-learning systems, emigration of talented educated people
to developed countries, lack of educational technological facilities, and poor integration
in the new world system (Moussa & Moussa 2009).