Representation Challenges of Virtual Training in Iran's Higher Education System: A Study of Phenomenological Approach

Virtual training is a unique opportunity to face the limitations of face to face training, realization of the education goals for all and contextualization for sustainable and balanced development in the country. The present study was done to analyze the perceptions and lived experience of students and faculty members about the challenges of virtual training in higher education. For this purpose, phenomenological method was used to identify and representation the depth of the phenomenon under study. Data were collected using purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews with twenty students and faculty members of virtual courses of University of Tehran and were analyzed by Colaizzi's method. In the sixteenth interview data saturation was achieved but to validate the findings continued interviews until the twentieth person. Analysis of the interviews led to the identification of five main categories, including challenges related to the “University”, “professors”, “students”, “LMS” and “virtual class”. The results showed that virtual training in the higher education system are facing diverse challenges and is very far to achieve optimal conditions and improve the quality requires a serious attention of custodians and lack of discrimination in this type of education.