Professors' perceptions of distance education in virtual environments: The case of the Education Faculty of University of Al-Yarmouk (Jordan)

The goal of this study is to determine the perceptions that the teaching staff of the Faculty of Education at University of Al-Yarmouk (Jordan) have of the implementation of distance learning in virtual environments, more specifically, the professors' opinion of the potential and limitations of this educational strategy. To fulfil this goal, we developed a survey study. The main findings indicate that, overall, distance education in virtual environments has earned a good opinion among the professors who participated in the study, although the potential benefits of distance education are the most highly valued dimension. The professors rank the dimensions of goals and difficulties in implementing this educational strategy second, and planning the third and lowest dimension. Further, some identifying variables (e.g., department, gender) show statistically significant differences relative to the dimensions of the scale used.