Virtual Applications and Real Problem: Education and Higher Education in Iran

Important aspects of Education and Higher Education such as Flexibility, Access, Relevance, Privatization, Human Resources, National Development, Innovation, and Globalization are all subject to a radical transformation as a result of substantial changes and new circumstances occurred and are occurring with the introduction into and application of information technologies (IT) in this realm. It was justifiably expected that these transformations would also occur in the Iranian Education and especially Higher Education. The paper, after outlining the new expectations from and challenges in Education and Higher Education throughout the world and the rise of new perspectives for them, will focus on major developments in virtual Education and Higher Education in Iran—considering the framework of recent socio-economic demands and expectations. Based on a descriptive method, and with the use of available official data, though critically, an overview of e-learning in Iran will be portrayed and its recent developments, quantitatively and qualitatively, resulted from the introduction of IT into the pre-university and university systems (as an important part of national TAKFA plan and its aftermath) would be reviewed, and the achievements and shortcomings during the last ten years analyzed and discussed. It will be demonstrated in this paper that the aptitude for and expectation from virtual education is very high in the country. The paper tries to shed light on why the gap between what is realized and what is expected is so deep.