Open source e-learning application adoption: Medical colleges in a developing world.

A review of normative literature, in the field of Electronic Learning (e-learning) implementation, indicates that traditional approaches to e-learning implementation in higher education have failed to result in cost effective, integrated and sustainable learning environment. In addressing this issue, a new movement called Open Source (OS) has emerged and addresses most of traditional e-learning application by resulting in the development of reusable and manageable platforms. The use of Open Source E-Leaming Applications (OSELA) in Higher Education Institutes (HEI) is a new research area with many research issues needing to be investigated. At this end, OSELA adoption has not efficiently studied with HEI and researchers needing to understand and analyze OSELA adoption.This work examines the introduction of Open Source E-Learning Applications in Higher Education Institutes and proposes a novel model for its adoption. The model is based on a comprehensive set of factors that influence the introduction of OSELA in HEI.The work is based on a qualitative case study approach to examine the concepts of the proposed model for the adoption of OSELA. In doing so, three case studies were conducted in Medical Higher Education Institutions. The case studies were presented and analyzed. However, some modifications were made to the conceptual model as some complementary factors emerged during the empirical research. The main factors that influence the adoption of OSELA are: (a) costs; (b) benefits; (c) barriers; (d) external pressures; (e) support; (f) level of IT sophistication; (g) limitations of existing IT infrastructure, (h) internal pressure and, (i) an evaluation framework that supports higher education institutes to assess OSELA.The proposed model makes novel contribution and can be used as a decision-making tool to support management when taking decisions regarding the adoption of OSELA. Additionally, it can be used by researchers to analyse and understand the adoption of Open Source Software for E-learning.