This article advances knowledge on the factors that lead to successful e-learning in universities, through a comparative study of the perspectives of academic staff and students. In particular, it contributes to the limited knowledge bases on the effectiveness of e-learning in Saudi Arabia, and on the differences in perspectives of different groups of stakeholders in e-learning. Based on previous research, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to convenience samples of academic staff and students at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Respondents were invited to express their opinion regarding the importance of a number of factors to the success of e-learning. Principal Component Analysis was conducted on each dataset, in turn, to assess the loading of items onto factors, and the variance explained. The most important finding from this study is that the perspectives of students and academic staff differ, with there being nine factors for academic staff and seven for students. Categories that are common to both groups are: student characteristics, instructor characteristics, ease of access, and support and training. The order for academics is: student characteristics, ease of access, instructor characteristics, and support and training; and, the order foe students is: instructor characteristics, student characteristics, support and training, and ease of access.

Introduction

E-learning has been implemented in many universities in different countries (Garrison, 2011). Sangrà, Vlachopoulos & Cabrera (2012, p.152) define e-learning as: “an approach to teaching and learning, representing all or part of the educational model applied, that is based on the use of electronic media and devices as tools for improving access to training, communication and interaction and that facilitates the adoption of new ways of understanding and developing learning”. E-learning systems provide learning opportunities that are free from the constraints of place and time, and support new teaching and learning approaches. E-learning includes learning that is fully dependent on the e-learning system, as well as blended learning, involving a mix of traditional learning methods and e-learning. Despite the significant investment in e-learning systems in both developed and developing countries, the level of use of these systems by academics and their students is often low (Bhuasiri et al., 2012; Ssekakubo, Suleman & Marsden, 2011). A number of researchers have sought to contribute to solving this issue by research that focusses on the factors that affect the adoption of e-learning (e.g. Boateng et al.,2016; King & Boyatt, 2015) or user satisfaction with the e-learning system (González-Gómez et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2008; Teo & Wong, 2013). Other researchers have sought to identify the impact of e-learning systems on student learning (e.g. Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015). An alternative approach to the evaluation of the experience of e-learning, that also has the potential to inform an agenda for further development of e-learning systems, is to explore the critical success factors (CSF’s) or the characteristics of e-learning systems that, from the user perspective, contribute to their success. The concept of critical success factors has its roots in the organisational strategy literature. CSFs are the most important factors that should be managed in order to enhance the chances of project and/or organisational success. Bruno and Leidecker (1984: 24) define CSFs as “characteristics, conditions or variables that, when properly sustained, maintained, or managed, can have a significant impact on the success of a firm competing in a particular industry”. The strength of a CSF approach to evaluation is that it can generate a clear agenda for the management and enhancement of a phenomenon (Sun et al., 2008).