Increasing learners' satisfaction/intention to adopt more e-learning

Purpose: E-learning is an organisationally risky investment given the cost and poor levels of adoption by users. In order to gain a better understanding of this problem, a study was conducted into the use of e-learning in a rail organisation. Design/methodology/approach: Using an online survey, employees of a rail-sector organisation were questioned about their use and likelihood of adoption of e-learning. This study explores the factors that affect the way in which learners experience and perceive such systems. Using statistical analysis, twelve hypotheses are tested and explored. Relationships between learning satisfaction, intention to adopt and the characteristics of e-learning systems were established. Findings: The study found that e-learning characteristics can buffer the relationship between learner characteristics and intention to adopt further e-learning in the future. Further, we found that high levels of support can compensate individuals who are low in technological efficacy to adopt e-learning. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional design of the study and its focus on measuring intention to adopt as opposed to actual adoption are both limitations. Future research using longitudinal design and research employing a time lag design measuring actual adoption as well as intention are recommended. Practical implications: From a practical perspective, organizations can focus on the actual content and authenticity of the learning experience delivered by the e-learning system to significantly impact how employees will perceive and use e-learning in the future. Low technological efficacy individuals tend not to adopt new technology. Instead of changing individuals’ personalities, organizations can implement supportive policies and practices which would lead to higher e-learning adoption rate among low efficacy individuals. Originality/value: The study integrates technology adoption and learning literatures in developing enablers for e-learning in organizations. Further, this study collects data from rail employees, and therefore the findings are practical to an industry

Factors affecting faculty\u27s intent to use e-learning systems at a university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

E-learning systems provide instructors with a platform to create, deliver, and manage course content electronically. Faculty members\u27 use of an e-learning system at Saudi universities concerns researchers, academics, and practitioners. Although most Saudi universities have an e-learning system, few faculty members are using an e-learning system. The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education has seen massive investment toward the educational improvement in e-learning systems through building and maintaining an advanced level of Information Technology infrastructure, improving the utilization and flexibility of Information Technology resources, and enhancing and developing the privacy and security of e-learning systems. While previous research has examined factors affecting the acceptance of e-learning, few studies have examined the security of e-learning systems. Previous studies indicate the security of e-learning systems is important for motivating faculty to use e-learning systems due to issues of trust. Previous research has also examined the positive impact on users\u27 attitudes toward using e-learning systems by two factors: perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between faculty members\u27 intent to use (ITU) the e-learning system at their university and their demographic characteristics, perceptions toward the existing e-learning system security, PEOU, and PU of the e-learning system in one of largest universities at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), King Faisal University (KFU), using an online survey available in Arabic and English. A sample of 219 faculty members from KFU completed the online survey. Results found faculty members\u27 ITU the e-learning system at KFU was influenced by their previous teaching experience with an e-learning system, the ability to change the user password in the e-learning system, and the PU of the e-learning system. The study findings encourage researchers to study other factors that may influence faculty members\u27 ITU the e-learning system. Furthermore, the findings will help Information Technology practitioners, especially e-learning systems\u27 developers, to design and develop systems that will be more likely accepted and useful by the University faculty members

The Student Perspective: Can the Use of Technologies Transform Learning?

This chapter explores students’ perspectives on the transformations that the use of technology has brought to higher education. The use of technologies in higher education facilitates flexible learning environments but the benefits to students who engage with these technologies will only be realised if the design is pedagogically sound. The pedagogic approach employed by lecturers when designing their e-learning platforms or learning management systems has the capability to transform learning. The author’s discipline is Information Technology and Business Information Systems; from experience and case studies there is ample evidence to suggest that the use of technology does not always necessarily meet user requirements. Students are the end users of the technologies that educators use to enhance students’ learning experiences. This chapter was undertaken to obtain students’ perspectives (as the end users) on the uses of technologies in higher education to assist educators in improving the pedagogical design of their e-learning platforms. The responses received from students clearly indicate they are of the opinion that the use of technologies in higher education beneficially transforms learning but will never replace lecturers. In essence, the benefits that can be achieved through the use of technologies are totally dependent on the ways they are employed pedagogically by lecturers

Mediating between practitioner and developer communities: the Learning Activity Design in Education experience

The slow uptake by teachers in post‐compulsory education of new technological tools and technology‐enhanced teaching methods may be symptomatic of a general split in the e‐learning community between development of tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively (i.e. between the teaching practitioner and technical developer communities). This paper reflects on the experience of transferring knowledge and understanding between these two communities during the Learning Activity Design in Education project funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee. The discussion is situated within the literature on ‘mediating representations’ and ‘mediating artefacts’, and shows that the practical operation of mediating representations is far more complex than previously acknowledged. The experience suggests that for effective transfer of concepts between communities, the communities need to overlap to the extent that a single representation is comprehensible to both. This representation may be viewed as a boundary object that is used to negotiate understanding. If the communities do not overlap a chain of intermediate representations and communities may be necessary. Finally, a tentative distinction is drawn between mediating representations and mediating artefacts, based not in the nature of the resources, but in their mode and context of use

Acceptance of competency-based workplace e-learning systems: Effects of individual and peer learning support

Current endeavors to integrate competency-based learning approaches with e-learning systems designed for delivery of training to adult learners in the workplace are growing. However, academic efforts in examining learners' perceptions of, and reactions toward, this technology-delivered pedagogical innovation are limited. Drawing together perspectives from the literature on training and instructional design and technology acceptance, this research proposed a conceptual model to examine the influences of perceived individual and social learning support on employees' acceptance of competency-based e-learning systems. Structural equation modeling and multi-group structural equation modeling techniques were applied to sample data collected from work settings in Mainland China. The results show the positive effects of perceived individual learning support and perceived support for promoting a norm of cooperation on employees' intention to use the competency-based e-learning system. It was also found that perceived support for enhancing social ties had a negative effect on employees' behavioral intention. The gender, age, prior experience, and work experience differences in the main effects were also investigated. Besides, qualitative data collected via semi-structured in-depth interview provide complementary evidence to the findings. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Modeling Dyslexic Students’ Motivation for Enhanced Learning in E-learning Systems

E-Learning systems can support real-time monitoring of learners’ learning desires and effects, thus offering opportunities for enhanced personalized learning. Recognition of the determinants of dyslexic users’ motivation to use e-learning systems is important to help developers improve the design of e-learning systems and educators direct their efforts to relevant factors to enhance dyslexic students’ motivation. Existing research has rarely attempted to model dyslexic users’ motivation in e-learning context from a comprehensive perspective. The present work has conceived a hybrid approach, namely, combining the strengths of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, to motivation modeling. It examines a variety of factors that affect dyslexic students’ motivation to engage in e-learning systems from psychological, behavioral, and technical perspectives, and establishes their interrelationships. Specifically, the study collects data from a multi-item Likert-style questionnaire to measure relevant factors for conceptual motivation modeling. It then applies both covariance-based (CB-SEM) and variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approaches to determine the quantitative mapping between dyslexic students’ continued use intention and motivational factors, followed by discussions about theoretical findings and design instructions according to our motivation model. Our research has led to a novel motivation model with new constructs of Learning Experience, Reading Experience, Perceived Control, and Perceived Privacy. From both the CB-SEM and PLS-SEM analyses, results on the total effects have indicated consistently that Visual Attractiveness, Reading Experience, and Feedback have the strongest effects on continued use intentio

A FRAMEWORK FOR MAPPING MULTIMEDIA TO EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTS

Multimedia provides exciting opportunities to education as it allows educational material to be delivered in a multitude of ways, fine-tuned to enhance the learning experience. By using multimedia in e-learning systems, educational material can be presented in ways that both simplify and enhance learning. Increasingly, educational material developers are taking advantage of multimedia technology to deliver education but use multimedia in a variety of ways that are more based on intuition and personal experience and this often leads to the development of an ineffective learning material. Although there are not many main media prototypes (animation, images, video, text, audio), when examined at sub-prototype level, we find that there are many media types that can be used to present educational information. Given the number of available media sub-prototypes, the choice and mode of delivery of multimedia presents a problem in designing educational material. What media type or combination of types do we use for a given educational concept? What media combinations will improve learning for a particular educational concept? This paper presents a method for the selection of appropriate media for educational material and demonstrates how the method could be effectively used in the design of educational material, suitable for e-learning applications

Adoption of Micro-blogging (Twitter) by Various Learner Types in an Information Systems unit: An Exploratory Study

A major obstacle in the practice of e-learning is the limited understanding of learners’ characteristics and perceptions about technology use. In this case, understanding the relationship between learning styles and Twitter usage could help educators to design better instructional strategies. This would also lead to better student experience and improved learning outcomes. Hence, in this study we investigate learning styles of an Information Systems undergraduate class and its influence on the use of micro-blogging (Twitter). The end of semester survey reveals that the majority of students were “well-balanced” on all learning style scales except ‘visual-verbal’ scale where visuals outclassed verbals. More importantly, active and visual learners emerged as the most significant adopters of Twitter. The study has implications for educators who wish to accommodate their students’ learning preferences and to enhance Web 2.0 usage in their teaching, in particular micro-blogging

A Personalized Knowledge Recommender System For Workspace Learning

Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is emerging as a popular learning approach utilized by both educational institutions and business organizations. Learning Recommender Systems (RSs) can help e-learners to cope with the data overload difficulty and suggest useful items that users may wish to use. This research aims to examine the design and implementation of personalized RS that supports individual learning in the workplace. First, a hybrid knowledge recommendation technique is proposed by combing content-based method with feedback learning method to adapt to the dynamic preference of users. Second, the design and implementation of a personalized knowledge recommender system using proposed technique in a case company is presented. Quantitative and qualitative data are collected to validate the system and evaluate its performance and impact. The preliminary results show that involving enterprise experts and target users in the system design phase can improve the system transparency and users’ trust in the system. It is also found that users’ learning attitude can be positively influenced by the system experience. This research provides important implications on employing intelligent recommender system to support workplace learning

The Virtual Tutor: Tasks for conversational agents in Online Collaborative Learning Environments

Online collaborative learning environments are becoming increasingly popular in higher education. E-tutors need to supervise, guide students and look out for conflicts within the online environment to ensure a successful learning experience. Web-based platforms allow for interactive elements such as conversational agents to disencumber the e-tutor. Repeatable tasks, which do not require a human response, can be automatized by these systems. The aim of this study is to identify and synthesize the tasks an e-tutor has and to investigate the automatisation potential with conversational agents. Using a design science research approach a literature review is conducted, identifying 13 tasks. Subsequently, a matrix is established, contrasting the tasks with requirements for the use of conversational agents. Furthermore, a virtual tutor framework is developed, clarifying the agent type selection, the technical structure and components for a prototype development in an online collaborative learning environment