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current status of e-learning in public Iraqi universities and highlighted major hindrances of its successful
application.

Next, Nabil Sultan and his colleagues (2012) studied e-learning in the Arab Gulf in light of the
changing world of education. Their study adopted the view that e-learning is an umbrella concept for
selfpaced or instructorled online learning in and outside schools worldwide. Moreover, e-learning refers to
the computerenabled transfer of skills and knowledge. It concerns a variety of electronically supported
learning and teaching activities. The information & communications technology and the Internet serve as
mediums and providers for the e-learning process. In the last two decades, the e-learning domain is rapidly
growing, since the Internet was made widely available to the public and industry in the 1990s. Nowadays,
e-learning activities such as content transfer, training exercises, and communication may be enabled via
the Internet or the intranet of a school or university. Electronic means like audio, CD ROMS, video, TV, or
the latest mobile (phone) devices may further facilitate the e-learning environment and create connectivity
almost everywhere you go.

After that, Abdelraheem (2006) has investigated the challenges of implementing e-learning in Arab
universities. The study hypothesized that in spite of the importance of e-learning to the Arab universities as
an important tool for human development, e-learning is facing increased challenges in almost all the
universities of the Arab states. Those challenges can be summarized as follows: ICT infrastructure, culture,
leadership and e-learning strategy, the local content, copyright issues, instructors, and learners. Regardless
of these challenges there seem to be bright futuristic opportunities. The opportunities of e-learning in Arab
countries can be classified into the two main categories of business opportunities and flexible learning
environments.

Then, Abouchedid and Eid (2004) studied the e-learning challenges in the Arab world. Their study
guessed that the overwhelming traditional knowledge delivery system for higher education in the Arab
world demonstrates the pronounced information technology gap between Arab countries and the
developed world. The study demonstrated the problems and possibilities of implementing e‐learning in
Arab educational institutions through analyzing the attitudes of university professors (n = 294) in Lebanon
towards three a priori e‐learning dimensions. Favorable attitudes towards e‐learning attested to faculty
members’ interest to get engaged in a fully‐fledged e‐learning program in a country where the primary
delivery educational model is essentially traditional in discussing these attitudes in the light of the social,
political, and economic hindrances that impede the implementation of e-learning in the Arab region.

Finally, Al Musawi and Abdelraheem (2004) have studied the statusquo and future of e-learning
at the university Sultan Qaboos in Oman. Their study described the current issues emerging from research

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