A preliminary study of eLearning penetration and potential in the GCC

There is a strong belief that ICTs introduced new methods of teaching addressing mostly location and time management issues in the education systems. Likewise for Gulf Council Countries (GCC from now on) there has been a large-scale deployment of new ICT based educational changes. It is, however, very important to observe whether the local residents consent to those education methods concern. This paper is a preliminary research study that attempts to isolate and examine the GCC education reality from their residents´ perspective. Saudi Arabia was selected to be the first country under consideration due to political, religious, and cultural but, mainly, population size reasons. This research yielded outcomes illustrating the positive attitude of Saudis towards a digital formed society and their willingness to enhance the deployment of a successful eLearning education system with the significant involvement of the traditional way of teaching.