The Reality of Distant Education and Its Contributions to University Education in Saudi Arabia: Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University as a Model

Table 6

Arithmetic means and standard deviations of the obstacles dimension items, arranged in descending order.

The rank	Number	Items	Arithmetic means	Standard deviations	Esteem
1	4	Poor quality and speed of communication networks and the internet	3.33	0.993	Medium
2	5	The high operational cost of distance education devices and systems	3.33	1.150	Medium
3	8	Weakness of students’ abilities in dealing with educational programs and applications	3.30	0.992	Medium
4	1	Society’s negative view of distance education	3.29	1.036	Medium
5	6	Frequent malfunctions of distance education communication devices and systems	3.28	1.224	Medium
6	15	The need for much stimulating effort for the effectiveness of student communication	3.28	0.991	Medium
7	2	The reluctance of official authorities to rely on distance education.	3.25	0.989	Medium
7	3	Weak infrastructure for distance education devices and applications	3.25	0.989	Medium
9	9	The lack of distance education meets the applied aspect of education	3.23	0.923	Medium
10	7	The continuing need to develop the capabilities of faculty members	3.22	0.927	Medium
11	10	Lack of personal impact of distance learning	3.22	1.078	Medium
12	11	The loss of the human factor in the educational process	3.21	0.883	Medium
13	13	Lack of technical support from technical specialists	3.21	0.956	Medium
14	12	Weak reliability and honesty in distance education evaluation activities	3.20	1.066	Medium
15	14	The need to continuously manage time in the distance education process	3.11	0.802	Medium
Obstacles dimension as a whole			3.25	0.535	Medium