Identifying the Barriers upon Development of Virtual Education in Engineering Majors (Case Study: The University of Isfahan)

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating barriers upon development of virtual education in engineering majors at the University of Isfahan. The study has applied a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) and its population consists all of the department members of the technical and engineering majors at the University of Isfahan including 125 persons, the department heads of the engineering majors and selected managers and experts in charge of virtual education and information technology of the University of Isfahan including 17 persons. 8 of these 17 persons were interviewed purposefully. Also, 95 of 125 were selected as the sample by using Cochran formula and Morgan Table and by applying a researcher-made questionnaire the barriers upon development of virtual education were investigated from the professors’ viewpoints. The findings resulted from interview by categorizing method and the results of the questionnaires were analyzed by statistical analysis and SPSS software. The results of the study indicated that the barriers upon development of engineering education could be divided into three parts including physical, human resources, and organizational conditions. Among the barriers in the physical area, we can mention shortcomings in technical and software infrastructures, shortage in laboratories and workshops, in humanistic area there are weaknesses of interactions between professors and students, low ability of the professors in using software, and in the area of organizational conditions, we can refer to decision-making focus on the virtual section, organizational separation of the virtual education from educational departments and weakness of the interaction between the virtual section and faculties and engineering departments of the university.

Keywords: virtual education, engineering majors, development, university