Factors for the Acceptance of Recommender Systems in E-Learning for Saudi Universities: A Proposed Framework

Abstract

There is still a gap of knowledge on the usage of recommender systems in Saudi universities and the wider issue of technological change in the universities of developing counties. Relatively, this lack of knowledge is an issue to universities seeking to meet students/instructors expectations and requirements by offering consistently high perceived service standards of e-learning services in a rapidly changing technological environment. In addition, Saudi universities are not able to accept and adopt the good practice of UK universities to solve the problems of Saudi universities.This is because a) there is a different university environment, b) the education level of Saudi people compared to British people c) Service quality levels that are proposed by the Saudi universities do not depend on British standards and criteria d) Local technical issues e) regulations of e-learning and information technology are not used or even exist and i) the social recommender systems are enabled in UK universities through using e-learning systems and while are not adopted or even exist at the Saudi universities. To address this issue, this paper seeks to explore the impact of the acceptance and adoption of recommender systems in e-leaning for Saudi universities and this will help to investigate the students/instructors experience according to the e-learning service quality. Thus, a proposed e-framework has been presented. Such framework describes the factors of acceptance (such as service quality, student/instructor experience, and Human Computer Interaction guidelines) should be considered in the e-learning system because it is viewed as a determinant of student/instructor/university satisfaction. Consequently, a number of dimensions have been taken into account for conducting the relationship between the student/instructor and universities via electronic means such as electronic services. Note that the proposed conceptual framework will be based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) since it has been validated 25 years ago. The implication of this study along with patents will be vital in assisting learning practitioners and academies to reconsider the types of recommender services they provide and identify methods of enhancing and encouraging students/ instructors to utilize service offered. In general, it will be expected that perceptions of e-learning technology would impact on the Saudi universities-student/instructor relationship. This perception of the relationship could lead respondents to develop a perception of e-learning technology. Further research will be recommended.