Obstacles for Establishing Interaction between Faculty Members and Students in Virtual Courses: A Qualitative study

Introduction: Communication and interaction are the main features of e-learning. Without interaction, students cannot be motivated to continue the course which undermines their learning. This study endeavored to identify barriers to interaction in e-learning and providing solutions for creating and improving interactions from the point of view of professors and students of virtual fields at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: To identify barriers and strategies for creating and improving interaction in the e-learning, qualitative study with qualitative content analysis method was employed. Twenty-two participants with maximum diversity were selected from faculty and students through purposive sampling with theoretical approach, sequential and gradual method until data saturation. To analyze in-depth semi-structured interviews, a commitment approach of Granheim and Lundman model was used in 2020. The accuracy and robustness of the research was confirmed through Lincoln and Guba criteria. Results: According to faculty members and student’s point of view the barriers were divided to 6 main categories which related to the incomplete educational process, motivational and attitudinal barriers, infrastructure barriers, individual frameworks, weakness of the knowledge and cognition incomplete structural planning and policy as well as 16 sub-categories. Conclusion: As to the barriers, the most influential were related to the incomplete educational process, after that related to motivational and attitudinal barriers, infrastructure barriers, individual frameworks, weakness of the knowledge and cognition and incomplete structural planning and policy. The results of this study help educators, educational administrators and curriculum planners, professors and students in the field of e-learning to remove existing barriers and develop interaction in e-learning.