Abstract:

Many universities are increasingly adopting e-learning as a strategic tool to improve teaching and their educational process, and online courses are emerging as a pivot of t e-learning strategies in many of the universities. Online courses hosted on web-based platforms are used for distance or blended learning. In many institutions, the responsibility for developing the online courses usually falls on individual faculty members teaching various courses. This has created significant challenges for many teaching staff, in view of already pressing demands for improvements in research output, consulting, and community service. Based on the experience of participation in an online course in the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, this paper examines the nature of the demand on faculty in the development of online courses, the challenges academic faculty face in participating in the development of such courses and how these challenges are affecting desire to participate in online course development. The paper concludes with suggestions on how best to support faculty and improve the process of online course development in academic institutions.

Keywords:

online course, content development, faculty participation, distance learning.