Bridging the Digital Divide and Enhancing the Quality of Engineering Research in Libyan Universities

This paper aims to identify the factors enabling the bridging of digital divide and enhancing the quality of engineering research at Alfateh University through an effective ICT implementation. The authors study the global digital divide with emphasis on the Info-tech disparities between developed and African countries (including Libya) in relation to generalised rates of social and technological development. Also, investigate the relationship between the digital divide and Higher Education (HE) teaching and the current status of digital divide in Libya. It is obvious that an effective ICT implementation should focus on understanding individual faculty needs. Then a thorough investigation of the importance of implementation of electronic education at Libyan universities and the challenges and solutions of ICT implementation is performed. Stakeholders are advised to include faculty members in every step of the planning and implementation of up-to-date technologies.
This paper presents the factors that affect the Internet use by the staff members from Engineering Faculty at Alfateh Universit. A questionnaire is designed to find answers to the following research questions:
a. What are the patterns of internet use of faculty members?
b. What are the main purposes for using internet resources?
c. How does the internet affect research and teaching?