A Re-Structuring of the Critical Success Factors for E-Learning Deployment

E-learning, being an information system, suffers high failure rates due to the complexity of deployment. This paper has 2 objectives: (I) to compile the critical success factors (CSFs) of e-learning from current literature; (II) group CSFs that approximately attain the same objective into roles where the roles together accomplish the main goal of a best e-learning deployment. 17 critical success factors (CSFs) were obtained through an exhaustive search, and were partitioned into 4 natural roles of Student, Instructor, Technology, and Institution. The confinement of the CSF interactions to within roles resulted in a dramatic reduction of pair wise comparisons. Pair wise comparisons are a measure of interactions and concomitantly of complexity.