E-learning Effectiveness from a Students’ Perspective: An Empirical Study

E-learning is pervading higher education, being a convenient training opportunity in a busy and demanding society. Despite being a popular phenomenon both in research and in practice, e-learning is however far from being successfully implemented in any context. This is a matter of both inadequate exploration of the learners’ perspective and insufficient reflection about the implications for the instructors. This paper focuses on the first aspect, surveying 277 university students about their opinion and experience of e-learning. The results are partially unexpected and expected: first, despite recognizing a positive future trend for e-learning, students are still confused with regard to its meaning and have a only limited awareness of its potentialities. Secondly, despite the general familiarity with its use, there is still a high percentage of students who haven’t used e-learning yet and who are uninterested in using it. Thirdly, e-learning seems to present more advantages than disadvantages, yet there are still many areas to work on to make e-learning really works. Based on these findings, we develop some managerial implications for instructors and educational organizations.