2005 European College Teaching & Learning Conference ]' tfiIIlC- 13 -11- 1 2t71JS Athens, Greece Adult Learners And E-Learning Readiness: A Case Study s Muhammad Hasmi Abu Hassan Asaari, Universiti Sains, Malaysia Noorliza Karia, Universiti Sains, Malaysia ABSTRACT Distance education program has been in demand as the working adults can gain tangible and intangible benefits. Thus the challenge for higher learning institution is to provide an e- learning environment to these students. Moreover higher learning institutions need to blend the conventional classroom environment with the e-learning method. INTRODUCTION Eagerness of working adults pursing their higher education at various universities in Malaysia can be seen as opportunities for the institutions to enhance their teaching method from conventional distance education program into e-learning opportunities. Moreover with the encouragement of their employer, these working adults are rushing for career advancement. This career advancement can be seen as they are being promoted and well paid based on the academic qualification that they gain from the distance education program. Further the advancement of information and communication technology (lCT) in the nation can be considered as contributing factor toward the advancement of the distance education program. Most course materials were uploaded into the university's web sites in order to facilitate the learning environment of the working adults. As the education materials can be accessed from the Internet, it is considered the right moment for the university to embark on the e-learning environment. This case study of working adults was carried out in the assessment of working adult learners in accepting the e- learning method. Moreover, this paper tries to justify whether working adults that enroll into the Universiti Sains Malaysia's distance education programs are ready for e-learning environment? LITERATURE REVIEWS Education has been on the uprising industry in Malaysia. Ministry of Education has been urged to setup the education standards as way back in 1960. They came up with a report known as the famous "Abdul Rahman Talib's Report" (MOE, 2004). All the higher learning institutions in the country have benchmarked against the report in their education strategy. Further with the liberalization of the education industry, private higher learning institutions are also required to benchmark against the same report. As indicated by Sahney, Banwet and Karunes (2003) that education is a service industry; as they study education industry by measuring the quality of its services and the satisfaction of its customers. The most important is the perceived quality of the institution and the graduates it produces. Further with the advancement of the ICT, the requirement of the industry change ever more rapidly as industry become more flexible, adopts changing technologies and demands different skills and expertise. Thus, conventional distance education in the nation also faced the tidal wave of the ICT on the introduction of the e-learning method. E-learning had been coined in the late 1990s, and it had experiencing growth similar to that seen with e-mail during the 1995-1998 periods. Moreover millions of people were learning online, thus e-learning became a regular tool of business (LaBranche, 2002). By definition, e-learning can be said as making learners have an access to education through technology (IHETS, 2004). Further from e-learning, it expected to make sense to learners wherever they live, work or go to school. With e-learning having to have an education will be as 1