Success and Failure of e-Learning Projects: Alignment of Vision and Reality, Change and Culture

Online education is fast developing in the education system and is widely used in many universities and research areas. Jordan is a developing country with limited natural resources, a fact that has led the country to depend heavily on its human resources. This has encouraged the Jordanian government to implement a number of ICT-led development initiatives since the succession of King Abdullah II to the throne in 1999. Furthermore, to achieve excellence as qualified human resources who are able to compensate for the lack of natural resources, Jordanians have been oriented towards education. This has resulted in high literacy rates in the country. Awareness, qualifications and commitment, rules and regulations, and technological uncertainty and change were found to be the main causes of changes and challenges faced by AAU in implementing its e-learning program. Other changes were due to the users or project team's lack of awareness, qualifications and commitment to the project, in addition to the high turnover level. The case provides rich insights to other educational institutions wishing to implement such projects.

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