An Analysis of Factors Affecting Community College Students' Expectations on E-Learning (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Opportunities the Internet provides make e-learning widespread and easy to access. E-learning has been integrated to most of today's university programs. However, universities providing e-learning should consider several factors while developing and implementing these programs (Selim, 2007). Weller (2007) stated that e-learning environments have three components: people, process, and technology and these factors form the basis of a learning community. The most important of all in this triangle is the "people," as the success of a community depends on its members. Moreover, new technologies increased interest in e-learning and thereby it rapidly improved. Nevertheless, e-learning initiatives remained mainly at the stage of course development and course material preparation, disregarding the highly complex interrelated structure of e-learning systems (Alexander, 2001). Additionally, this triangle is associated with each of the three components and it is not possible to separate them with precise lines. Experiences and expectations of both students and teachers should be openly discussed and set in e-learning environments (Stodel, Thompson, & MacDonald, 2006). To find answers to the fundamental questions like why e-learning environments are to be developed, who the students are and what their expectations are, and to learn the structure and content of these environments, a pedagogical approach and theoretical background must be necessitated (Minocha & Sharp, 2004).