The transferability of university textbook standards to e-learning environments: the perceptions of university professors

The aim of the current research was to investigate the perceptions of university professors as to the degree of transferability of textbook standards to electronic learning environments in the Iranian academic environment. In this mixed-method study, 132 faculty members completed an online questionnaire consisting of seven categories and 90 items related to textbook standards and 8 descriptive questions and evaluated the transferability of each of the standards to the electronic learning environment. To compare the mean differences of the standard groups with one another, within-subject analysis of variance, partial eta square and Bonferroni test were used. Qualitative data analysis was also carried out using the thematic analysis method. The quantitative results of the research showed that the most transferable items were the educational, linguistic, and content standards, respectively. The group of social-cultural standards was also reported to be transferable to an acceptable extent. Finally, the lowest perceived transferability was related to the group of structural, appearance and technical standards. The qualitative findings of the research also led to the extraction of four themes, including fundamental principles in all environments, enhanced possibilities of e-learning, flexibility and adaptability of the standards, and challenges and problems of adopting the standards. The insights obtained from the present research can have significant theoretical and practical implications for the establishment of local standards of developing electronic contents in the Iranian academic context.