CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPING ONLINE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRAN.

Online learning has now become an accepted and popular method of education for large numbers of universities in Iran, and now many higher education institutions are offering online courses to their students. The present study was carried out with the aim of investigating challenges to developing online learning in higher education. The study was based on survey research method and a questionnaire was developed to gather the data. The study population was postgraduate students (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) of different faculties in Tehran University who were selected by applying purposive sampling technique. The sample size for students was 152 persons. Data were analyzed by using SPSS/WIN software and descriptive and inferential methods were used for the data analysis. The results of the research indicated that three major factors explained 74.4% of variances of challenges to developing online learning. These factors were cultural/educational, technical, and financial challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]