Prospect of eLearning in higher education sectors of Saudi Arabia: A review

The number of internet users in Saudi Arabia has increased rapidly from 7.7 million users in 2008, to 21.6 million in 2015. This is a result, in part, of the Saudi government's investment in information and communication technology infrastructure. In addition, the Saudi government spends between a quarter and a third of its budget on education every year. However, even with the number of Higher Education institutions increasing in Saudi Arabia, a significant number of students miss out on a place at a University. ELearning is one way to provide accessibility to more students and to overcome cultural barriers which may prevent some citizens from perusing a university qualification. This paper will focus on higher education in Saudi Arabia, in particular, the advantages and advances which are occurring in this country in terms of eLearning. Supportive departments created to help the educational processes to move toward eLearning, such as the National Centre of ELearning and Distance Learning and the Saudi Digital Library will be described and examined. Challenges in the field of education will then be examined and whether these challenges can be overcome by utilizing effective eLearning. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.