The evolution of e-readiness assessment models: From the digital divide to design-reality gap

In recent decades, every day we are facing new achievements in the applications of information and communication technology in the field of education and research. These new achievements have changed the expectations of education and research audiences from the level of services provided. Today, students and professors want easy and fast access to new scientific and research resources, interaction with each other in absentia, use of technology for better teaching and understanding, and in general, access to information and communication technology and its use for effect. Most of it is teaching and learning. To meet these expectations, universities and higher education institutions must continuously evaluate and equip themselves to achieve the desired level of access to and use of information and communication technology. The purpose of this research was to study the evolutionary trend of e-readiness assessment models with the approach of e-learning.

For this purpose, the studies were examined by both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the qualitative approach, by studying the articles in this field, the observed trends in these articles are compared with each other.

In the quantitative approach, the latest articles are investigated based on important parameters such as the scope of application, the type of model used, the methods of data collection and analysis, the type of transaction reviewed in the article, evaluation indicators, sources used to publish the article, geographical concentration, the outputs of the study, the types of data used. Based on the results of the qualitative approach, 4 evolutionary periods, from national and one size fits all model with top-down approach to bottom-up approach with special purpose models, are identified. In addition, results of quantitative approach indicate that infrastructure, people and service are the most important factors in electronic readiness; and national scope has been investigated more than other areas. Most studies have quantitative approach with public service orientation for citizen transactions. Also, assessment, maturity and adoption models have been the most used fundamental models in the studies.

Comparison of the three main parameters studied in most studies, namely infrastructure, people and services, shows that the rate of infrastructure review has been decreasing and the rate of reviewing people has been increasing, and services have maintained an almost balanced rate during this period. In terms of the geographical focus of the study, the readiness assessment is in the first place in the country and then the readiness assessment is in the province or state. The basic model used for evaluation also has several approaches, the first category is related to the use of preparation models and the next category is related to maturity models. Studies have generated different outputs and have about 18 types of outputs, among which the evaluation model, evaluation framework, effective parameters, current situation, relationship of indicators, strategies and guidelines have the most frequency. In terms of the type of data collected, quantitative data had the highest multiplicity, followed by historical data and finally qualitative data. In terms of data collection methods, the questionnaire is in the first place and the interview and evaluation of the existing documents are in the next rows. In terms of data analysis, categorization, descriptive analysis and strategic analysis have the highest number