The impact of moving from traditional method of learning to e-learning or distance learning on student-teacher relationship

The traditional method of teaching was the only main method used until the previous decade. Currently, modern technologies are being used in most universities in Saudi Arabia following as a policy directive of the ministry of Higher Education. “The educational process is based on three pillars: Teacher, educational content, and the learner. Our task - in short is to redefine these three pillars and their involvement in order to create a civilization leap, emerging from the higher education sector and stretching, in the remote horizon, to make learning general principle knowledge, and a daily culture of the various members of the community.”, Ministry of Higher Education Mission (MOHE, 2011). This paper focuses on the impact of new modern methods of learning such as e-learning and distance learning on learner and lecturer relationships. ELearning and distance learning have advantages and disadvantages which are important to consider when making instructional and learning decisions. This research investigates the impact of using modern technology such as e-learning and distance learning from five perspectives of relationship; expert power, referent power, self-confidence, reliance and connectedness. The impact needs to be considered when moving from traditional methods of teaching to e-learning or distance learning because both student and lecturer roles are changing as required by the modern learning system