Assessing the impact of e-learning systems on learners: a survey study in the KSA

With the rapid growth of the use of e-learning systems around the globe, assessing the success and impact of such systems is becoming increasingly important. This paper presents findings from a study of the impact of e-learning systems on university students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is asserted that gauging the impact of e-learning systems on learners is central to the development of suitable and effective e-learning systems. Students from two different universities in the KSA were surveyed to capture their perceptions regarding their current e-learning systems.The assessment framework is based on the IS Success/Impact Measurement framework, which has been successfully applied to similar studies on e-Learning, e-Health, and e-Government. This paper reports on the impacts that the e-learning systems have had on student participants’ performance with regard to the depth of learning, customization of learning pace, student productivity, and student satisfaction. The conclusion of the study isthat the use of e-learning systems shows a positive impact on student learning. This paper provides information that will be of interest to e-learning system designers and developers.