Obstacles to activating e-learning at Iraqi universities

This study adopts a quantitative research approach to evaluate the research problem using collected data from a survey questionnaire administered to 124 respondents (professors, instructors, employee and students) from different Iraqi universities. Using both online and hardcopy questionnaires that were based on the TAM framework, it included questions related to the demographics of the respondents and any obstacles in activating e-learning. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested and a high degree of internal consistency was found. Our study provides an analysis of each variable using descriptive statistics. Using factor analysis, we extracted four factors (Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Attitude toward Using and Actual System Use (ATU), and Behavioral Intention to Use (BIU) which were used in the correlation and regression analysis. Per the results of the regression test, the impact of PEU and PU were shown to be statistically significant in predicting and explaining both ATU and BIU. The results revealed that the impact of Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness is significantly positive in affecting the attitude and behavioral intention of Iraqi universities' users towards LMS/e-learning, which is consistent with the TAM theory. Moreover, it shows that the two factors play a significant role in the acceptance of the new technology; i.e. the LMS at Iraqi universities can help to reduce any obstacles to e-learning implementation. In addition, conclusions and suggestions for future work are highlighted. Keywords: E-learning Obstacles, E-learning, Distance Learning, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).