E-Learning Challenges in Saudi Arabia: Exploration of Factors with Special Reference to EFL

The development and use of online and e-learning system in many colleges are now the greatest obstacles in the field of EFL, but ones that are necessitated given the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Blackboard, e-learning has other useful avenues to use in EFL till the time that the pandemic is over. However, the success of e-learning platforms in EFL relies on an understanding of the dynamics of the application and the main problems affecting current e-learning programs. Teachers and learners of EFL in KSA are only now recognizing the problems and variables, whose resolution alone can ensure success of e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later as an expanding horizon in foreign language learning. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to examine the major challenges posed by current e-learning systems and the key explanations for the usage of elearning in EFL in the current circumstances. The paper used the thematic research interview approach using the NVivo development model. This was an interview with 30 EFL students and 31 e-learning specialists at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. The study results offer valuable advice for policymakers, programmers, content creators, academicans and EFL learners in identifying the key aspects of e-learning use during the COVID-19 pandemic in KSA.