Barriers to Successful Implementation of E-Learning in Design Education

Information Technology (IT) plays a critical role in today's business environment including education sector. E-learning enhances teacher-students collaboration and interaction among peers through varies types of new technologies including Forums, Wikis, On-line Chat and On-line classrooms. E-learning uses various types of media including text, audio, images, animation and video. Design education is one of the disciplines that are largely driven by visual media. Teaching methods often involve one-to-one interaction and collaboration and mainly visual-based. However, use of E-learning applications in design education is not prominent in many parts of the world due to various factors. This paper attempts at identifying those barriers that are associated with successful implementation of E-learning in design education. Qualitative method of focus group interviews, classroom observations and classroom-based action research was used to collect primary data from a representative sample of Fashion Design undergraduate students, tutors and IT experts in the education sector. Qualitative data was analysed using coding method and assisted by QSR Nvivo version seven software. Findings revealed three main types of barriers to successful implementation of E-learning in design education. They can be broadly categorised into the following propositions: (1) limitations of E-learning itself that do not address specific nature of design education; (2) Technology barriers and; (3) Human factors. The study also suggests that some of these barriers such as human factors can be easily eliminated through enhanced awareness and attitudes towards E-learning.