Investigating the challenges facing the distance learning leadership

This book is related to the expansion of distance learning programs in Saudi Arabiawhich mirrors similar changes in many developing countries. The adoption of distance education in higher education has had several purposes. However in Saudi Arabia the most important has been to expand access to higher education in order to allow those students who for whatever reason have been prevented access to conventional higher education. To date there has been no examination of the challenges that face distance education programmes at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Saudi Arabia. Moreover data have been collected from one of the most important distance education systems in Saudi Arabia. The distance education at Imam Muhammad bin Saud University shows that the majority of the administrators in these programs do not have studies available which focus on the challenges of such programs. Therefore this study aims to provide an analysis of the challenges of distance education for Saudi policy-makers using qualitative methods. The issues to be examined include some of the barriers confronting distance education in developing countries.