Abstract:

In 2001, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) University led strong campaign for adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the learning process and as a result it launched what is known as the Academic Computing Environment (ACE) program. The objective of the program is to provide access to resources in the University, for example, Student Information System (BANNER) and course management software (BLACKBOARD). A number of courses had already been uploaded to the web site of the University. Key to the success of online courses are faculty members, therefore, understanding of their perceptions to online courses is an important element for Internet-ization of any academic institute. The objective of this article is to study the major factors that affect on adoption of Internet in the learning process. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data from UAE university faculty members. Analysis of the surveyed data identified the factors that influenced implementation of Internet in the learning process. The understanding of the factors will help UAE University or any other academic institutes to draft plans and policies that support online courses and e-learning.

Keywords:

perception, online courses, uae.