Assessing the E-Learning Readiness of Selected Sudanese Universities

In today’s knowledge-driven society and information economy, there is general consensus that higher education requires emphasis on lifelong learning and flexible forms of teaching. This expectation has heightened the initiatives of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) worldwide to adopt e-learning technologies in an effort to overcome deficits in education and improve pedagogy. Universities in Sudan are not exempted from recognizing this technological trend. However, although the need to implement e-learning is critical, there is also a need to realize that the process of implementing e-learning in an institutional setting and inserting it into the educational context of a university is a complicated endeavor; one which is not only costly but also presents a lot of challenges. In order to ensure a higher rate of success, it is imperative for universities to first conduct initial assessments to identify their level of organizational readiness and help determine how best they can implement the technology. This study presents a first step towards this goal. It is intended to make an assessment of e-learning readiness (henceforth e-readiness) in selected Sudanese institutions of higher learning in order to identify challenges that may impede possible implementation and enumerate measures that can be taken to address these challenges early on. Questionnaires were used to collect data from two hundred students along with sixty faculty members from selected universities in Sudan. The results of the study reveal that Sudanese universities, within the context of the universities surveyed, are overall not yet ready and still needs some work in several areas, particularly in the area of providing training and developing its technological infrastructure. In conclusion, appropriate policy suggestions were suggested to help enhance the e-readiness of the surveyed institutions.