E-learning Success Factors from the Perspective of Academic Staff at Nursing and Education Colleges During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study

Abstract

During the pandemic period of COVID-19, the use of electronic devices to enable teaching and learning, known as e-learning, was the most common format of education at all levels. Factors that interfered with academicians' ability to use e-learning successfully needed to be explored to enhance usefulness of teaching and learning and teaching outcomes. The present study aimed to evaluate E-learning critical success factors from the perspective of the academic staff at nursing and education faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative descriptive-correlational research design was used through a purposive sampling procedure to recruit 75 academicians from the Nursing and Education schools. Data was collected through an online questionnaire related to e-learning success factors (such as satisfaction level, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge transfer), from instructors’ perspectives towards e-learning and their sociodemographic characteristics. Data was analyzed using the SPSS-25 to compare the analyses of both groups of the study. The results illustrated a highly statistically significant difference was observed between the academic staff of both the colleges related to net benefits and institutional factors, where (P =<0.0001). The study recommends that a useful future extension of this research may allow looking at how critical success factors in education can be enhanced through comparing the two formats of education: the traditional and online educational. This study would have useful implications for higher education institutions and academics as there is a need to for them to be well exposed to the importance of e-learning as one of the alternatives to learning in the modern times of crises.