Online-only Learning Challenges in Higher Education in COVID-19 Era: A Research Synthesis

The present study aimed to identify the challenges of online- only system in the era of COVID- 19. The qualitative research approach and the research synthesis method were adopted. The statistical population of the study included the research studies conducted during the COVID-19 in the field of e-learning system challenges which were collected from Scopus, Science direct, Eric, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar databases via using specific keywords. A total of 120 studies were selected and reviewed. After several screening stages among these studies, 47 study units were selected and reviewed based on their title, abstract, and research content, respectively. Research data were collected from qualitative analysis of the studied documents. Content analysis method was employed to analyze the research data. Analysis of the data revealed that the e- learning system in the COVID-19 era has challenges in twelve factors related to students, teachers, and managers which include ICT access and usage, studying and teaching from home, e-learning skills, content quality, teaching method, research activities, psychological factors, learning activities, evaluation, programs and policies, macro-social factors, and support.