Designing a model of critical success factors in e-learning based on learner self-assessment and autonomy

E-learning is considered as the ability to focus on the individual needs of the learners. The e-learning environment helps learners to be self-reliant, so that instructors are no longer a solitary source of knowledge, but act as guides and advisors.The purpose of this study is to design a model of critical success factors in e-learning based on learner self-assessment and autonomy.

The present study is an applied research and is classified as "qualitative research" in terms of how to collect the required data. For the interview, 20 experts and specialists in curriculum, educational technology and philosophy of education (faculty members of the country's universities) who had sufficient knowledge of the subject were selected based on purposive sampling. Using the focal interview method, qualitative modeling is performed based on the content analysis of the interviews and then using the information related to case studies of the obtained model to explain and analyze the critical success factors in e-learning based on self-assessment and learner autonomy.

Summarizing and coding the data in two major dimensions of autonomy and learner self-assessment led to counting 38  components and 9 key categories and a conceptual model of research was designed based on them.

The results of the research indicate that the two constructs of self-monitoring and self-evaluation have the ability to measure success in e-learning. In examining the overall fit of the model, the value of GOF, which is an index for checking the fit of the model for predicting endogenous variables, was equal to 0.72 and showed that the research model has a good fit and the relationship between the variables is significant and positive.