An Integrative View of Knowledge Sharing Impact on E-Learning Quality: A Model for Higher Education Institutes

Literature Review

No single agreed definition of e-learning can be found among scholars (Allen & Seaman, 2007; An et al., 2009; Chen, 2008; Lee & Lee, 2008; Mitchell & Honore, 2007; Singh et al., 2004; Smith & Kurthen, 2007; Taran, 2006; Vernadakis et al., 2011), but “it generally refers to internet based forms of learning, rather than face to face interaction and where traditional methods of learning are supported by online resources” (McKenzie & Murray, 2010, p. 17). Nowadays online instruction is widely adopted in universities (Huang et al., 2011) and in many institutions (Chen, 2008) which want to keep their staff up to date, mainly because of the rapid increase in internet use (Chen, 2008; Huang et al., 2011).

The notion of e-learning is not new; during the past decade many advantages have been identified and documented by different researchers. According to McKenzie and Murray (2010) there are various reasons for using e-learning, including anonymity. They argue that since people have the opportunity to withhold their real names in online communication, “this nature of the technology used in e-learning may actually facilitate the identity shift that underpins learning” (p. 18). This finding seems to be reasonable, especially given that certain subjects are taboo in some societies or forbidden by some governments. E-learning increases motivation by allowing instructors to communicate information in a more engaging fashion (Wang, 2003) and by exploiting technology and personalizing information (Mohammadi et al., 2011). It also fosters self-paced learning whereby students can learn at their own speed (Mohammadi et al., 2011; Wang, 2003; Zhang et al., 2004). Table 1 reviews the advantages of e-learning.