The Role of Leadership In the Success of e-Learning Programs: The Case of Sakarya University e-MBA Program

Developments in information technologies have significant influence on all aspects of modern life. Especially in the area of education, information technologies has a widespread use. In this respect, the concept of e-leaning is gaining acceptance all over the world. Many universities around the World tend to implement e-learning programs for undergraduate and postgraduate programs. But, they face a number of problems in implementing these e-learning-based programs given the fact that the traditional teaching mentality predominantly prefers face-to-face classroom teaching methods which have different assessment procedures and knowledge transfer methods. In order to successfully implement these e-learning programs in traditional education settings, a clear and insistent leadership style plays a critical role. In this study I wanted to examine the e-learning practices carried out for more than ten years at the Sakarya University e-MBA program. To this end, as a researcher, a teacher and a coordinator in this program, I have witnessed the whole evolution of the e-MBA program from beginning up to now. I have done many observations, carried out various interviews with students and professors, conducted many focus group studies and run several surveys on many aspects of this distant education program in order to sort out problems, develop solutions for problems, seek for new ways to improve the program. Findings indicates that a clear and sound leadership is critical in establishing and implementation of e-learning programs successfully. Also, many of the factors affecting student satisfaction and the success in e-learning based programs are discussed in the study.