E-LEARNING PROGRAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: BENEFITS AND LIMITS FROM STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVEi

ICT-enhanced learning and online learning environments are presented as a major challenge for educational institutions. In higher education, colleges and universities tend to feel the pressure for proactively embrace technologies in their administrative routines and teaching practices. This increasing pace of change led to the progressive development of distance learning with an emphasis on e-learning. Some authors even consider that the traditional, face-to-face, classroom (as we now perceive it) could disappear in a near future (Shachar & Neumann, 2010). When it comes to organizing programs for ICT-integration and e-learning initiatives in higher education, the need to think about how these programs can converge with universities' strategic plans, faculties direction councils' ambitions and departments projects tend to be highly valued. In the contrary, students opinions, their favourable/ unfavourable positions regarding the defined lines of actions, their concerns, suggestions and needs tend to be poorly considered. Thus, in a critical and determinant resolution, it is necessary to include students in the institution decision-making processes (Castells & Benner, 2004; Behrens, 2009), especially when main changes, that directly affect this audience, are intend to be implemented. Trying to fill this gap, the study described in this paper reports the inputs collected from the analysis of students' point of view regarding the e-learning program developed for the University of Lisbon. An empirical research based on qualitative-analysis methods were conduct. Data was collected in 2010 through semi-structured interviews developed with the students unions form each faculty. As participants, the study presents twelve students' representatives nine of the eleven faculties of the University of Lisbon. From the information collected, it was possible to perceive the students' association evaluation of the pertinence of the universities' e-learning program, considering 4-domains of analysis: (i) value and relevance of an e-learning program for their institution, (ii) identified potential of the e-learning program for the each faculty;(iii) positive and inhibit factors of the programs' implementation process, (v) benefits and limits of the initiative for the students.