The Design of Distance Education Management model for higher education system of Iran

The purpose of this study is to investigate the design of distance education management model for higher education system in Iran (Payam Noor). The research method is a combinational (quantitative, qualitative) framework. The statistical population is 3892 people, including managers, professors and Ph.D. students of distance education planning. In the qualitative stage, the purposeful sampling method and in the quantitative phase, appropriate stratified sampling method and to collect information, the field method (interview, Delphi, researcher-made questionnaire) was used. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and inferential techniques (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and independent T-groups) by using SPSS and Lisrel software. The findings showed that the main components of distance education management are environmental factors, customer orientation, technology, leadership and insight. The results also showed that there is a difference between the views of the institutional and operational levels on the ranking of distance education management factors and the environmental factor has a significant role in the management of distance education and the managers of Payam Noor university should pay more attention to environmental factors, customer orientation, technology, leadership and insight to achieve the effectiveness and efficiency of management in the management of Payam Noor University. In addition, the obtained result using factor analysis indicates that fitness indices are appropriate, (CMIN/DF= 2/23), (RMSEA= 0/066), (ACFI= 0/98), (IGFI= 0/981), (CFI= 0/97) and (NFI= 0/993).