| Summary: | The lockdown of universities and educational institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the educational process. Saudi Arabia became a forerunner during COVID-19 by taking initial precautions of curfews and total restrictions. However, these restrictions had a disruptive effect on various sectors, specifically the educational sector. The Ministry of Education strived to cope with the consequences of these changes swiftly by shifting to online education. This paper aims to study the impact of COVID-19 on the educational process through a comparative study of the responses collected from different cases, and the challenges that are faced throughout the educational process. The study conducted a cross-sectional, self-administered online questionnaire during the outbreak and distance learning, which was designed based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework of students. Most questions used a five-point Likert scale. The responses were randomly collected from 150 undergraduate and postgraduate students who were studying in Saudi Arabian universities, to study the overall performance of education institutions during COVID-19. The collected data were analyzed and compared to the results in the literature. The main factors impacted by this transformation are addressed. These factors are based on research and observations and aim to overcome the encountered limitations and to present their level of impact on distance education. The research framework can be useful for higher educational authorities aiming to overcome the issues highlighted and discussed in this study.
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