Challenges of Entrepreneurship E-Education: Evidence from a Developing Country

Abstract

E-learning has been applied in education systems in many universities and is accepted by students in the world especially by graduate students. One of the educational fields presented in e-learning systems is entrepreneurship. Increasing demand for entrepreneurship education in Iran, especially from entrepreneurs, governmental managers and private sector, who cannot leave their job on one hand and the growth of information technology in higher education in Iran on the other hand, has made the University of Tehran (UT) offer virtual learning as a new way for entrepreneurship education. This research aims to find out the drivers and barriers of e-education at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship at the UT. Moreover, authors detected the role of students, professors, curriculum, teaching methods, ICT infrastructures, staff and other factors in the process of e-education development at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship. The samples of the research were chosen between two groups, i.e. students and professors. Sixty-five questionnaires were filled out by e-learning students were evaluated. The scale was developed to identify students' perception about driver and barrier factors of e-education based on different groups of factors. In addition, 10 deep interviews with e-education professors were conducted. Findings of the research suggested that there are three existing groups of driver and barrier factors of e-education at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship, based on a system approach, as follows: (i) Input factors (students, professors, curriculum, ICT infrastructures, Staffs and Budget), (ii) Process factors (teaching methods, cultural and structural factors at university), and (iii) Environmental factors.

Keywords: E-learning Challenges, Entrepreneurship, Educational Institutions