E-Learning Solution for a Large Multinational Organization

BUSINESS DOMAIN CERTIFICATION E-LEARNING SOLUTION FOR A LARGE MULTINATIONAL SOFTWARE SERVICES COMPANY

Nandhini Padmanabhan

The purpose of my research is to probe and find innovative solutions to present e-learning courses to suit employees in a corporate setting. Employees in a large multinational organization are typically required to take asynchronous e-learning courses which will have to be fulfilled in a self-directed manner. I will try and establish a suitable learning model, based on the theories of observational/social learning, meta-cognitivism, critical thinking and aspects of constructivism and establishment of learning communities. As an aid to my proposed learning model, my research also includes an understanding of the capabilities of power-point as a medium to present course content, and an attempt to innovate ways of including multimedia and interactivity into the play which could positively impact the employee and help the employees make their study a more enriching experience.

Introduction

Multinational companies today have moved to e-learning as a general solution to their organizational learning needs. However, one thing that must be understood is that e-learning is not a panacea. While deciding on a corporate e-learning strategy, the first error in the line of thinking is the assumption that ‘anytime anywhere’ access is always appropriate and valued (Servage, 2005). Clearly, the collapse of time barriers is a boon to multinational organizations as now their employees are working round the clock in some part of the world. However it is also a constant struggle to deliver consistent and high standards of training to employees who are spread across the globe. The blurring of lines between work and home may not be embraced by workers who intuit the colonization of their personal lives by their employees’ interests (Shapiro & Hughes, 2002). Another mistaken assumption is that online learning communities will come to fruition if workers are simply dropped into the online environment with a pressing problem or concern and left to fend for themselves (Servage, 2005). With e-learning methods, learning can take place on demand and trainees can be given greater control than before. This increased learner control should have the potential to increase training effectiveness (DeRouin, Fritzsche & Salas, 2004). However many times we see that this is not the case.

Many Fortune 500 companies today have taken the e-learning route without a clear and precise understanding of what motivates employees to learn and what kind of e-learning content stimulates and excites employees to willingly involve themselves with a view that the learning is both for the organization as well as for the individual themselves. This gives rise to the introduction of our case scenario. The problem analyzed as part of this research paper, is a specific e-learning concern of employees of a multinational company and our attempt to solve this, using some well-examined e-learning theories. I have then come up with a list of recommendations of design elements that can be used in this case, along with some research on recommended technology solutions.

Case Scenario

ABC Technologies is a large multinational software services company that has its operations spread worldwide. The company provides software solutions for a multitude of verticals (domains) like the Retail Industry, Health Sector, Aerospace, Banking Solutions, Insurance companies etc. Apart from being technically sound, its employees are required to have strong business knowledge on the Vertical industry they are working in. Hence, the organization requires all its employees (irrespective of location) to take up a domain certification exam every 6 months to sharpen their skills in various aspects of the business. For example, employees who work for Retail clients will have to take up various exams in subjects like Merchandise Planning, Warehouse management systems, Returns Processing etc. These exams are mandatory for every employee in the organization. So everybody ranging from an entry level developer to a senior manager has to take these exams corresponding to their level of designation. Clearly, there is a pressing need for the employees to gain this knowledge, and the concept of establishing an e-learning solution to manage this huge organizational learning task seems like the right solution. In an attempt to make sure that these exams are being taken seriously, the organization has tied the employee’s performance on these exams directly to their compensation review and promotions. Hence clearing these certification exams has serious consequences for the employees.

Problem Areas

Let us know analyze the problems the employees face during the learning process. Preparation for the exams is completely the onus of the employee and takes place in an asynchronous learner-directed manner. Though the employees have almost six months to prepare for and clear the certification examination, typically employee workload is high. Constant workload and peaks of high stress keep employees from working on the certification courses on a regular basis. Hence preparation time, though according to the organization is 6months, is not usually the case. It is a mistake to therefore assume that the ubiquitous availability of information and learning material online will ensure the willingness of workers to spend yet more time in front of their computers (Servage, 2005).

There is also this issue of motivation. Employees are not motivated enough to clear the exams due to the non-stimulating course content and a feeling of isolation. It has been seen that repeated attempts and consequent failure on the part of the employee only worsens this situation. The sense of isolation that online study may engender among learners is a factor that is very often ignored by educators, but one that can make a difference between successful and unsuccessful online learning environments (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004). It would be reasonable to suppose that difficulty in mastering course concepts can greatly influence and add on to the feeling of isolation among online learners. Hence, support for distance learners should not be overlooked when planning a distance learning program. Students always want to be part of a larger learning community (Galusha, 1997). It is safe to say that the same holds good for corporate employees too.

The third and most important factor contributing to the failure of the company’s e-learning model is the presentation of content. The organization provides all employees with course material which is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation corresponding to the certification. The content of this power-point is endless slides of text (ranging anywhere between 50-300 slides).In general the content does not stimulate the learner. Instead it becomes monotonous and boring. As the common saying goes “Telling isn’t Training”. The fault lies in trainers and educators who believe that simply sharing knowledge is training. PowerPoint is designed to present information and is suited very well for that purpose. But for knowledge and skill transfer to occur, training needs to be a two-way street (Hess).

There is no opportunity for self-reflection, critical thinking or going back to concepts learnt and strengthening and testing knowledge learnt. E-learning designers that understand both self-directed and critical thinking are able to engage adult the learners in a learner content reflection process that draws upon their experiences from different levels and lenses (Waight & Stewart, 2005). Online learners should not be required to remember too much material when transferring from one instructional segment to another (DeRouin, Fritzsche & Salas, 2004). However this is not the case in the current course material. The entire content is organized as a sequence of topics one after another with little or no modularity and self-containment. A lack of visually stimulating course content, where necessary is another problem in the existing design.

Proposed e-learning model

The proposed e-learning model addresses the problems stated above and makes an effort to bring an effective learning environment for the asynchronous corporate learner. The following are the highlights of the solution model proposed.

Modified design will now include stimulate the learner and allow him to experience new levels of learning through critical thinking. Critical thinking is the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment. This process reasons consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, methods and criteria (Facione, 2007). Embedding critical thinking practice into the student’s learning of course concepts helps in developing this competency. This is especially needed, since the course being taught is business domain concepts. Guided questioning is a good technique for critically exploring concepts and issues. Such content embedded critical thinking approaches often use the Socratic method of questioning to bring content alive and facilitate deeper learning of concepts and course content (Braun 2004).

Socratic questioning is one of the most powerful teaching approaches that can be used to guide students in generating thoughtful questions thus fostering their critical thinking skills (Yang, Newby & Bill, 2005).Instead of providing direct answers, Socratic questioning approach stimulates students’ minds by probing into the subject with thought stimulating questions. For example, a marketing course can pose questions such as ‘What are the qualities of effective advertising?”. Course content is balanced with these focused critical thinking exercises to reinforce concepts through the application of critical thinking skills (Braun 2004). The Socratic questioning method is thus considered as an effective instructional scaffolding technique. Scaffolding allows the instructor to provide selective hints or questions that direct student thinking into new areas and provide perspectives for critical thinking that the student might not have pursued. When such practices are applied to developing business domain courses, it will result in the development and honing of critical thinking skills to identify and question assumptions, draw inferences about inter-relationships in the practice of business theory with regard to the larger scope of the environment (Braun 2004).

In order to address multiple senses and stimulate the learner, content will include visual and auditory supplements as needed. Social learning emphasizes that learning occurs by observing other persons or models that are perceived to be credible and knowledgeable. Social learning also shares the belief that new skills come directly from observing others and seeing the consequences of their behaviors (Waight & Stewart, 2005). In order to reinforce these observational learning concepts it is also important to consider one’s learning styles and preferences. As our target audience for the certification exam consists of a wide variety of employees of different ages and cadres within the organization, it is important to explain and portray concepts in a way that stimulates multiple senses.

VARK learning styles model is a sensory model and defines learning styles as an individual’s characteristic and preferred ways of gathering, organizing and thinking about information (Fleming, 2001). Learners are categorized as being Visual, Aural, Read/Write or Kinesthetic, or a combination of the above sensory states. Visual learners prefer maps, charts, videos, graphs and diagrams as an aid to help explain concepts. Aural learners like listening to lectures in an audio or audio-video mode, use stories, discussions as an aid in learning. Read/Write learners prefer essays, text, definitions and taking notes. Kinesthetic learners like a more hand-on approach, real life examples and demonstrations to understand course content (Hawk & Shah, 2007). In order to incorporate a majority of learning preferences into the certification course content, it will be a good idea to incorporate videos, audio narration, graphic displays in the form of charts and graphs along with textual information to provide a multi-sensory experience.

Using concepts of meta-cognition, the learner will be able to evaluate and reinforce their understanding of concepts by answering post evaluation questions at the end of every module. As this is the case of a self-learning training environment, self-monitoring skills need to be taught so that trainees learn how to better assess their own skill development. Enhancing one’s metacognitive and self-regulatory skills during learner-led instruction allows trainees to better judge their training needs (DeRouin, Fritzsche & Salas, 2004). Learners can self-evaluate their understanding of concepts and decide if a particular module needs to be studied again or if they are comfortable with their understanding. By offering self-help and feedback trainees get a clearer picture of their knowledge gained. Feedback helps the learner decide what steps need to be taken to gain an even better understanding of the content and whether external help needs to be sought.
Content will be presented in a modular fashion. Every module will be an independent segment of study. Each segment should have enough information so that the learners do not have to return to previous segments to understand the concept being trained (DeRouin, Fritzsche & Salas, 2004). Learners should be able to complete an entire segment of the course and gain understanding of the concepts, without having to go back and forth to other modules. Hence in the proposed design, I have decided that every certification course will be first split into logical units of study, called a module. The structure of each module will be similar and will include pre and post evaluations, critical thinking exercises, concepts explained using any of the chosen modes (text with diagrams, audio narration of the concept, videos from the internet etc).
Provide aspects of self-discovery. As learning takes place in a self-directed, self-paced manner, it is also an ideal place to provide some aspects of self-discovery, so that the learner is free to make new meaning out of the content and concepts through his individual project experiences and ideas. The constructivism theory of learning considers learning to be an active process where learners construct concepts based on their own current and past experiences (Stephenson et al, 2009). Two common themes of constructivism have been identified. Firstly, learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge and secondly, instruction is a process of supporting construction rather than communicating knowledge. It is possible to achieve this by keeping the subject matter as close to the real-world as possible. Active engagement of the learner during the learning process can be achieved through interactive features in the course content where the learners are provided opportunity to connect the concepts being studied with their thoughts, ideas and experiences. In our proposed design, the learner will also have provision to go out and read about related concepts that are not directly explained in the course material but will provide a trigger for the learners on their path of self-discovery.
Establishing learning communities. Online education is often preferred for its convenience and flexibility. Although no one style of learning is going to be successful for all students, it is important that educators appreciate that effective support may be given to distance learners by the implementation of and adherence to communication protocols (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004). Social context of the learner is crucial in determining the success or failure of the program. A learning community is defined as a common place where people learn through group activity to define problems affecting them and decide upon a solution and to act to achieve the solution (Tu & Corry, 2002). In our case, the reason for forming learning communities is two-fold. Firstly they will give the learner a sense of belonging and remove the feeling of isolation. The learner will be able to interact with other employees who have signed up to take the certification exam. The learning group will also contain some senior staff that are well versed in the business area and can help answer questions and can offer clarification on the course content. Secondly, these learning communities can be used to reinforce critical thinking. Socratic questioning method can be employed in which learner’s thinking can be extended to a higher level of development. The knowledgeable experts in the community can provide selective hints or questions that direct student thinking into new areas and provide perspectives for critical thinking that students might otherwise not have pursued (Braun, 2004).

Proposed Technology Solution

Now that we have drawn out the key design elements for our proposed e-learning model, it is now time to explore some aspects of technology that will aid our design. As mentioned earlier, the existing model used Microsoft PowerPoint for the entire course. It is our intention to still use Microsoft PowerPoint as the basis of the training. However it is possible to create interactive, engaging courses by employing some plug-in software, which can give PowerPoint some additional features to enhance the technology. ISpring Presenter by ISpring Solutions Inc., is a powerful e-learning authoring tool. It provides interactive capability like creating quiz and games, embedding videos, including audio and video narration. It is always a good idea to convert PowerPoint presentations into a medium that can be used on the internet, maintains the animations and video, and can be integrated with other interactive activities (Hess). ISpring has an embedded PowerPoint to Flash Conversion tool that not only converts our PowerPoint slides to a Flash file within seconds but also has a host of additional features like bringing in modularity to the presentation and giving the learner whiteboard accessories (like Marker, Highlighter, Pen, Eraser etc) that they can use while accessing the course.

In our proposed design we planned to include the following design elements to the course. Let us now see how to address these elements through our technology solution.

Provide for critical thinking elements : There are many ways to induce critical thinking during the learning process. Once a concept has been explained, we could present the learner with some real-life case scenarios and question the learner on what their course of action would be to solve the scenario. Some brainteaser questions could be part of the course content which can get the learner to think tangentially. Remember, by including this design element we do not actually want to test the learner’s knowledge but just trigger a process of thinking and analyzing the concepts and trying to connect the concepts to real-life.
Course content to include visual and auditory aids as needed : ISpring has provision to embed YouTube videos. This feature can be used to visually explain concepts, include speeches from people involved in the business domain under study, actual real-life operations of business processes etc. The options are endless. Care must be taken to select visual elements that are not too long and have a direct relevance to the subject. After the video, we could also include an audio narration to reinforce concepts seen, ask critical thinking questions etc. In some cases, we could simply use audio narration to effectively explain concepts using diagrams/charts/graphs etc. PowerPoint has provision to provide some basic animation. Using this feature, it is possible to highlight of certain elements on the screen etc. This will increase focus and attention of the learner.
Use of pre and post evaluation exercises : ISpring has options to include evaluation questions in various formats, like True/False, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blanks, Sequencing, and Matching. Any of these formats can be used to create evaluation exercises. Every module will contain one pre-evaluation exercise before the content is presented that the learner can use to assess prior knowledge on the subject. A similar kind of exercise will be presented at the end of the chapter to test knowledge gained through the course material. It is important to keep the questions direct and the test short. If the learner answers a question wrong, ISpring also has provisions to provide feedback.
Bringing in the aspect of modularity and making every module self-contained : In order to maintain consistency, it is a good idea to keep all chapters similar in structure. Every chapter could start with a pre-evaluation exercise, followed by content and end with a post evaluation exercise. Content could be free format however and can include visual, auditory support and critical thinking questions anywhere as deemed fit. In order to achieve modularity, ISpring has a feature called Presentation Explorer. Through this tool, it is possible to set levels of indentation and modularity of each PowerPoint slide. It is easy to use and can create a clean modular look for the final Flash presentation.
Provide aspects of self-discovery: The ISpring PowerPoint to Flash converter contains various player templates. These templates determine the final look and feel of the Flash presentation. One of the template selections is called Navigation + Marker (which will give the learner a drawing toolkit consisting of a highlighter, felt pen, pencil and eraser). This will assist the learning in taking notes on the PowerPoint slides along with the content, use the highlighter to mark any content that stand out etc. This kind of interactive study will help the learner construct his/her own thoughts from the presentation. Apart from this option, the learner will also be provided website links to real-life business operations websites, study material, interesting articles explaining the concepts etc as part of the content, which will help the learner go outside of the content to construct and create ideas and thoughts.
Establishing learning communities: This particular design element is a recommendation to the basic design of the e-learning model developed by the organization. A space on the organization’s learning management system or intranet needs to be allotted to create a discussion forum for every certification exam and all students that register for the exam will be given access to this forum. Apart from the learners, this forum will also contain some employees with a lot of experience in that particular field or business domain. Together they will be able to promote critical thinking, clarify doubts, answer questions and also socially construct thoughts and ideas, and hence create a sense of community. The learner no longer feels isolated and will give them a sense of belonging and this is a big motivation that the organization is going above and beyond just the course material in order to encourage employees to take up and clear the certification exam.

Conclusion

This research takes an existing e-learning model of a multinational software organization and makes an attempt to address the underlying problems present in the model, and make design change recommendations. Design changes have been suggested after a careful consideration of many learning theories, e-learning concepts and proven models. The paper also provides pointers on how to implement the proposed design changes through a technology solution.

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