Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction
The traditional delivery system for higher education has been a classroom setting with a professor giving a lecture and students listening and writing notes. Interaction between the professor and student has been viewed as an essential learning element within this arrangement. However, innovations in educational delivery mechanisms have challenged this paradigm. Advances in Information Technology (IT) are enabling little used educational delivery methods such as On-line Learning (OL).
The result is that many institutions of higher learning have adopted on-line education as the next logical step in educational delivery systems. These systems are being promoted as the educational pedagogy of the future. Some experts have gone as far as to predict that the "residential based model," that is, students attending classes at prearranged times and locations will disappear in the near future (Blustain, Goldstein, & Lozier 1999; Drucker 1997). However, one overriding question that must be addressed is how will these new educational delivery approaches that move away from the basic face to face relationship between a professor and students impact student learning and student perceptions of learning.
Online learning can be defined as an approach that utilizes Internet technologies to communicate and collaborate in an educational context. This includes technology that supplements traditional classroom training with web-based components and learning environments where the educational process is experienced online. OL is a form of education that is conducted through indirect student teacher interaction and independent study via a variety of media. OL course can be carried out by mail, radio, television and –increasingly nowadays – by way of online learning over the internet. OL is becoming more common with