Learners, system and organizational culture factors towards e-learning success in public universities in Baghdad

Abstract

This research sought to investigate and identify the factors which could contribute to e-learning success in universities in Baghdad, Iraq through focusing on the learners, systems and organizational culture. Another primary focus of this research was to address the applicability of two models; Information System (IS) success model and Open Shoura (OS) paradigm. A total of 293 respondents (142 males and 151 females) were drawn from a stratified sample randomly, then cluster sampling was used to choose students from two departments: computer engineering and information and communication technology department from the four public universities in Baghdad. Two instruments were developed to collect data; the first instrument was a questionnaire adopted from five previous studies and the second instrument was open-ended interviews. The success of the e-learning process in public universities in Baghdad is influenced by several factors from the user’ perspectives, namely Learners’ Infrastructure Capability (LIC), composed of computer self-efficacy, internet access, and electricity generation. The role of an open innovation process which indicates the necessity of using external resources with internal resources to improve the performance is so important in all public universities in Baghdad surveyed. The role of using Information System (IS) Success model play important roles in ensuring the qualities of e-learning system (SYSQ), services (SERVQ) and contents (CONTQ), the usage of the system itself (SYSUSE) and students’ satisfaction (USERSAT). The findings indicated to the necessity of benefiting from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in enhancing the e-learning process in Baghdad. The success of E-learning process in universities needs to some factors that should be fit with the revolution of technology and enhance the learner’s knowledge. Universities in developing countries such as Iraq need to collaborate with other national and international universities to develop e-learning tools and methods through adopting a collaborative culture. This study focuses on the collaboration and innovation cultures (COLLUNIV) and (COLLINDUST) with other universities and industries and adhocracy culture (ADHOC) to follow the innovation in e-learning process. The outcomes of the developed e-learning model indicated an importance of linking an individual and organizational impact on the e-learning and achieving the net achievements consisted of Net Benefits (NB) composed of knowledge acquisition, transfer and sharing, improving the learning management system (LMS) of the universities, cost reduction of learning, save time of study, exchange and cross culture and improved productivity (innovative joint projects and new ideas and solving e-learning-associated problems). This study develops an integrated model of e-learning through an innovative collaboration environment which can participate to improve and add values to the e-learning process in universities in Iraq. This research would assert that Learner Infrastructure Capability (LIC), the organizational university innovative and collaborative culture (UC) and System Quality (SYSQ) are positively and directly influence the Net Achievements (NetAchiev) of the e-learning process. Moreover, it would further assert that Service Quality (SERVQ), Content Quality (CONTQ) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are positively influence an organizational University Culture (UC). The study found that the Open Shoura (OS) influenced Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) significantly. These results demonstrate the success of the proposed e-learning framework in achieving the objectives of this study.