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1 – 8 of 8Kamal Abouchedid and George M. Eid
The overwhelming traditional knowledge delivery system for higher education in the Arab world demonstrates the pronounced information technology (IT) gap between Arab countries…
Abstract
The overwhelming traditional knowledge delivery system for higher education in the Arab world demonstrates the pronounced information technology (IT) gap between Arab countries and the developed world. This study demonstrates the problems and possibilities of implementing e‐learning in Arab educational institutions through analysing the attitudes of university professors (n = 294) in Lebanon towards three a priori e‐learning dimensions. Favourable attitudes towards e‐learning attested to faculty members’ interest to get engaged in a fully‐fledged e‐learning programme in a country where the primary delivery educational model is essentially traditional. Discusses these attitudes in the light of the social, political and economic hindrances that impede the implementation of e‐learning in the Arab region. A series of K‐independent Kruskal‐Wallis tests yielded significant attitudinal variations between males and females as well as between computer daily users and occasional users. Furthermore, daily computer users documented more favourable attitudes towards e‐learning than their occasional user counterparts. Offers recommendations for the implementation of e‐learning in “traditionally” demarcated educational systems in countries where the deployment of information and communications technologies is not widespread.
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The aim of this paper is to examine gender role attitudes between Christian and Muslim college students towards 11 most heatedly debated cliches in Lebanon that concern equal…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine gender role attitudes between Christian and Muslim college students towards 11 most heatedly debated cliches in Lebanon that concern equal access of men and women to political and social spheres including employment.
Design/methodology/approach
A three‐way MANOVA (gender by religion by class) was conducted on gender role items. Correlation of religiosity were performed between Christian and Muslim college students to explore associations between religiosity and gender role attitudes among respondents.
Findings
Main effects were found among respondents, with females consistently holding less gendered attitudes than males; hence attesting to the universality of gender role attitudinal differences. The gender by religion interaction showed that Christian respondents and Muslim females documented less “traditionally demarcated” gender roles in social and public domains than Muslim males. Furthermore, class appeared to be a weak predictor of gender beliefs compared to the impact gender and religion had on gender role attitudes. Finally, correlation results showed that religiosity was associated with traditional gender roles.
Research limitations/implications
While the temptation is strong to generalize the attitudes of college students to the general public in Lebanon, the present study recognizes that its findings are only a mild reflection of gender role attitudes in Lebanon since it was exclusively limited to college students.
Practical implications
Comparing gender role attitudes between Lebanese Muslim and Christian college students is of particular importance to academics, public citizens and policymakers interested in the removal of gender inequalities.
Originality/value
Scarcely any research in the Arab World compared gender role attitudes among Arabs, particularly between Christian and Muslim samples.
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Ramzi Nasser and Kamal Abouchedid
The study examines the level of satisfaction amongst Lebanese university graduates on their training/education in light of their current occupational level.
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the level of satisfaction amongst Lebanese university graduates on their training/education in light of their current occupational level.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups were interviewed to understand factors that helped graduates in their occupation. These factors were turned into a Likert‐scale questionnaire in which a large sample (n=604) of university graduates from public and private universities in Lebanon were asked to report the utility of their university education and training required for their current job.
Findings
Findings showed that graduates from private universities documented greater satisfaction in their education and training, especially in the fields of engineering, medicine, and information science, than did graduates from the public sector of higher education. Graduates in the low occupational status category perceived university education as important in the performance of their occupation.
Research limitations/implications
The study was intended to find if graduates' were satisfied with their university education. Satisfaction in that sense is used as a proxy for quality. The need to refine the concept of quality in higher education is recommended in any future study to provide a possible measure of value to higher educational training.
Practical implications
Importantly, public higher education in Lebanon need to compete aggressively with private institutions to provide key “soft skills” needed at the work place.
Originality/value
The paper offers some empirical data in an under‐researched field.
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Ramzi Nasser and Kamal Abouchedid
This study sought to analyze university graduate job attainment in Lebanon through an individualist, societal and structuralist perspectives. Differences appeared between females…
Abstract
This study sought to analyze university graduate job attainment in Lebanon through an individualist, societal and structuralist perspectives. Differences appeared between females and males on factors that predicted occupational attainment. In concert with neo‐patriarchal discourse increased occupational attainment among males was significantly predicted by fathers’ occupational status. The data reported that male and female university degree type produced higher occupational attainment between male and female graduates. Further analysis would seek to understand graduate attitudes towards their occupational attainment along individualist, societal and structural dimensions.
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Kamal Abouchedid and Ramzi Nasser
The first encounter of students at universities is the administrative office, which leaves a lasting imprint for their entire experience in higher education. With the exponential…
Abstract
The first encounter of students at universities is the administrative office, which leaves a lasting imprint for their entire experience in higher education. With the exponential growth of higher education in the Middle East, private universities face hardened competition in the overall retention of students. Registrar and academic advising offices are vital components to the university as well as the front end to the universities’ service quality. This study attempts to measure student attitudes of registration and academic advising across different faculties to assure positive quality service complementing that of the academic. Keeping in mind that many developing universities in the Middle East and other nations have not yet utilized automated services to meet student needs, the present study provides recommendations in the inroads en route to the development of touch‐tone and Web‐banner automated registration for a positive assessment of service quality.
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Ramzi N. Nasser, Bechara Khoury and Kamal Abouchedid
The purpose of this paper is to survey students on their satisfaction with university services and programs in a coeducational Lebanese Catholic higher education institution. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey students on their satisfaction with university services and programs in a coeducational Lebanese Catholic higher education institution. The study attempts to relate self‐assessed knowledge of the university procedures, rules and regulations on six dimensions of satisfaction, being: academic experience, academic advisor, residential life, campus life, personal development opportunities, resources and student services.
Design/methodology/approach
A cluster random selection procedure was used to select n=870 students from within the university. Students rated 31 knowledge items and 33 satisfaction items. The study analyses student satisfaction in relation to their knowledge of procedures, rules and regulations. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run to determine differences between university class level, and knowledge level on satisfaction. In addition, a regression analysis was run to determine whether university class (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior level) and knowledge level (low, middle and high knowledge levels) were predictors of the satisfaction dimensions.
Findings
Generally, those who assessed their knowledge (of the services) as higher were more inclined to be satisfied. In addition, seniors in general were less satisfied with programs and services than freshmen students. Self‐rated knowledge and university level (freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors) significantly predicted satisfaction with both variables being highly associated (i.e. predicting) with satisfaction in academic advising.
Originality/value
Self‐enhancement theory suggests that those individuals with greater self‐worth have greater affective need to feel satisfied. Increased self‐worth is manifested in active roles of decision making and judgments about events that the individual experiences (Wells and Sweeney, 1986). Thus, self‐worth is highly correlated with knowledge about an aspect. This study shows that knowledge is an important predictor to satisfaction – i.e. the higher the knowledge the more satisfied students are likely to be.
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