Objective One: Increasing the quantity and quality of educational resources available

In terms of the quantity of resources being used in this programme, it can be assuredly stated there is a wide range of applications and activities available to the teaching staff. Among the interviewed students and faculty members there was no comment on the diversity of these online resources. LEC-6 indicated, “The resources used in this programme, including the electronic library, are effective and satisfy our students.” Furthermore, all the papers included in this programme are supported and delivered via Blackboard as an e-learning management system. The content is organized and delivered in a very standardized way across all course papers, supported with a wide range of web-based resources, such as online lectures, content-related quizzes and discussion forums. These online activities and materials are used across disciplines. This, however, was not preferred by all lecturers involved in this programme. LEC-2 argued that this consistency made online courses less effective than face-to-face education where lecturers could develop and deliver the lesson. Moreover, the interviews with both students and faculty members raised very critical points about the quality of delivery technology used in this programme. To begin with, students‟ responses were considerably varied. A large majority described the technical problems, frequent malfunctions and slowdown of the system to be major concerns that contributed to workload and discouragement. They were disappointed by the delays in presenting the lectures on Blackboard and this would prevent them from submitting their assignments on time. STU-1 reported that, “Blackboard is slow with frequent technical problems … sometimes it becomes frustrating and time consuming … we always need to reload the Web page and even when it opens it would be with a failure!” In contrast, a few students did not face any difficulty when using Blackboard. They assumed that technical issues were caused by a weak Internet connection or by downloading too many resources at the same time. STU-3 pointed out that, “My fellows and I had not faced any difficulty when using the Blackboard as we used to download the resources needed in time and without postponing anything … I assume that students who do not download their lectures frequently caused an overload on Blackboard especially at the exam period.”

Turning to the quantitative data, a simple descriptive analysis was applied to two items on the scale that measured Delivery strategies in the staff questionnaire. Specifically,

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frequencies and percentages were used to measure faculty members‟ perceptions of the reliability of online materials and ease of download.

Table 18

Lecturers’ perceptions of the reliability and accessibility of the online materials

Statement Always Sometimes Never

f % f % f %

The materials are accurate and error free in their operation across all platforms and browsers.

11 34 19 60 2 6

The materials download without lengthy delays.

12 37.5 20 62.5 0 0

Table 18 represents the reliability of the technologies used to deliver the materials in this programme and their effectiveness at being free of errors. More than half of the participating lecturers were neutral towards the reliability of the online learning materials and the expected time to download them. Although the positive responses outweighed the negative ones, the interview sessions showed that the KFU should employ delivery strategies and online resources that are reliable and error free and that minimize the download time (Buchanan, 2002; Cavanaugh, 2002). Moreover, faculty members admitted that there have been technical issues and malfunctions, especially during examination days. As mentioned by one of the programme administrators (LEC-5), the KFU‟s online programme is not perfect or free from errors, but at least it does not have major technical problems. He said, “Some careless students are exaggerating … we advise them to organize their schedule to study on a regular basis during the year rather than postpone their assignments to the last weeks.” Nevertheless, the KFU needs to address these issues and use the most beneficial and valuable learning resources that attract, satisfy and engage its students in the learning environment (Cavanaugh, 2002).

A further point about the learning resources being used in this programme is the online lectures and their quality and accessibility. Interestingly, all the interviewed students, except one, could not attend any online lectures. The main reasons were technical problems and overload on the system. Some of respondents noted that the University needs to improve its IT system in order to provide an effective online education programme. Another relevant

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point came from (STU-7): “One day I joined the online lecture but actually I did not hear anything and could not know whether I was really with my fellow students or not!” No wonder that most of the enrolled students in this programme were disappointed or distracted from the online activities. These findings confirm the previous research conducted in the KSA by Ibrahim et al., (2007). They found that the success of the online education programme at the Arab Open University (AOU) depended on the variety of technology being used to support and ensure the quality of instruction. That is, an advanced media product or the newest technological tool might increase the interactive potential of lesson activities, but they do not necessarily ensure the quality of online education (Kearsley, 1998).

In short, there is a wide range of online resources used by students in this programme, but the quality of their delivery is questioned. In this respect, many researchers document the usefulness of using accurate and error-free resources (Feenberg, 1999; Kearsley, 2002; Murphy, 2008; Huang 2002; Sun et al., 2008). At the same time, these resources need to be supplemented with effective ways of delivery (Harasim, 2000; Bates, 2008).

4.3.2 Objective Two: Supporting the faculty with the right tools for learning