E - Learning Experience at Various Universities Academics Perspective :

Online teaching is becoming a common practice these days in providing higher education. Distance online education is defined as “a general term used to cover the broad range of teaching and learning events in which the student is separated (at a distance) from the instructor, or other fellow learners” [1]. Introduction of e-learning has become the technology imperative, since it improves both teaching and learning and develops habits and routines referring to lifelong learning [2]. With the advent of elearning technologies in the past decade, the accessibility of training, teaching, and learning has drastically increased. Elearning has grown into a revolutionary way of learning due to the rapid development of information and communication technologies [3] and has received considerable attention as a means of providing alternatives to traditional face-to-face, instructor-led education [4]. At Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), the IT intelligence analysts set the total global e-learning market at $8 billion and predict that it will grow up to $13 billion in the next five years [5]. This mode of learning provides flexibility to teachers as well as to students in terms of place and time. The evolving needs of students have been changed considerably due to the impact of several factors including graduate students' increased geographic mobility, increased numbers of women returning to the work force with related needs for updated competencies and knowledge, longer and more flexible hours required by employers, older, employed students who desire knowledge and skill augmentation, and increased commute times due to impacted traffic conditions adjacent to universities, especially those located in major cities [6]. The swift developments in technologies and business environment are also demanding comprehensive skills upgradation. The flexibility of time and place in elearning provides students with an opportunity to improve