Opportunities and Challenges of Online Education in the University Education System

These days, cyberspace has grown beyond a medium or technology and has become a living space. Many of the concepts of these days are created in the context of this space, and it is playing a prominent role in the field of education, learning and even training of human beings. In the present era, technological instruments in the context of cyberspace are growing fast and are even serving distance education and learning. Following thematic analysis, this study aims at finding an answer for the question of what opportunities and challenges distance education and especially online education can bring about in the university system of the Islamic Republic of Iran in students' learning. To answer the question, interviews were conducted with 25 scholars and experts which resulted in the identification of 4 comprehensive opportunities and advantages and 5 comprehensive challenges and threats. Opportunities included “passing through temporal and spatial constraints", "qualitative enhancement and expansion of educational justice", "economic opportunities and international development" and "diversity in evaluation methods and supervision development". The challenges included: "structural and technical problems", "educational and moral challenges", "mental and physical health challenges", and "Cultural and social challenges". Explanation of the comprehensive codes are presented in this paper.