E-Learning Training Strategies: Organisational Issues
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E-Learning Training Strategies: Organisational Issues
Research Strategy
Research strategy has been defined as the orientation in which business research conduct is carried out. Different quantitative strategies in research are used when determining the situation of the operations in a given institutions and organizations. These strategies will both emphasize on the qualitative as well as the quantitative strategies (Rosett, 2002, p. 43). As there is an increase in the importance of e-training in different organizations, majority of research areas have been dominated by a number of quantitative strategies and qualitative strategies, which have been giving an additional as well as a deeper knowledge which is relevant to every individual carrying out a research. It is quite known that qualitative strategies in research have been in application since in the 1960s. The question of these strategies being biased has been on discussion over the past years. It is therefore be necessary to think of the ignorance that may be portrayed by the interviewing of a given population, and also the nature and dynamic of the population the researcher is out to explore and investigate. There is must be something more to do with it.
It would thus be necessary to realize the nature of human perception on how the perception can be extremely selective (Rosett, 2002, p. 45). This is so because different people will have different and dependent opinions on a given subject, their individual interests, their backgrounds and biases. Those people who engage in observational researches should therefore be expected to research beyond the ordinary and achieve the systematic achievement and analysis. Therefore, both the qualitative and quantitative strategies have a similar manner of data and the same data may be collected in a similar way. It should therefore be necessary for every individual to realise that all the perspectives will differently give different kinds of insight on the question being investigated (Anderson, 2004. p. 33). Qualitative strategies will therefore be preferably applied in business and in any other social science practise.
It is also necessary to carry out research together. When working together and engaging in communicating in the research process, the researcher will attain the necessary knowledge that he would otherwise not have been able to discover. Truth is usually known to be created with dialogue since the researcher is capable of observing the people's reactions when it comes to a specific question or occurrence (Anderson, 2004, p. 45). Through use of language, human being can be able to handle situations, different surroundings, and even themselves, plus their relations. For instance, classroom teaching brings an articulation of ways and methods by use of language as a social relation tool. Research strategies will therefore be classified to be loose if they do not at all give justifiable results.
In summary, any kind of business research work will makes use of these two major research strategies, which are quantitative and qualitative strategies. A quantitative research strategy will thus make use of accurate measurements on the data being collected, the data analysis, and at the very time adopting a deductive approach which is necessary in determining the existing relationship between practise and theory by the quantification analysis. This may tend to apply hypotheses, which are the theoretical approaches, and have to be answered by the research through hypotheses testing. This will link the truth between the theory and the practise, and see the existing relationships (Babbie, 2009, p. 35). On the other hand, qualitative research strategies will tend to make of use of words, rather than using quantification through data collection, and engaging in data analysis. It therefore adopts an extremely inductive approach, which is usually interpretive in the way, and the nature a theory is derived from the ongoing research. These strategies are mainly identified through using depth interviews.
As more and more researches continue to be done today, it has been necessary to come up with strategies, which integrate the two: qualitative and quantitative. This nature of mixing the two strategies to form one research technique has been commonly known as the mixed method approach. It is therefore defined as an approach to analysing data through the employment of major aspects of both the two strategies and procedures. This mix of strategies and methods is preferred for this research because it is construed to result in an excellently validated and substantiated finding with both quantification measurements and inductive interpretations of the obtained findings.
3.2 Sample and sample selection
A sample of 95 workers from London borough of havering was selected by use of systematic random sampling scheme. First the authorities in London borough of havering was contacted using a formal letter with well explained intentions of the survey requesting them to allow this study .After much deliberation in the firm, a permission was granted by the authority but on condition that confidentiality will be maintained, the authority agreed to give the survey team all the cooperation necessary.
To begin the sample selection, the boroughs authority was requested to avail the list of all the employees from the human resource office, which they did without qualms. Each employee in the company (in the list) was assigned a three-digit serial number from 000, this was to hide their identity. After the construction of this sampling frame, systematic random sampling was carried out to determine the employees that were to be included in the study. In this method, a random number is generated from the random number generator in the calculator say m, (in this study m=7) then one employee was identified at random to be included in the sample and his/her assigned serial number is noted. To get the next employee to be included in the survey, (m-1) employees in the serial number list were skipped and the mth the employee after the first serial number was the next one to be interviewed. This process is repeated, after every m-1 employee (identified by serial number), the mth student is picked for the study. The procedure was repeated until a sample of 95 employees was obtained. This method of sample selection eliminates any bias that might arise due to the choice of people to be considered in the study. The number 95 was picked due to financial restriction since a large sample is costly and further more 95 is a large number enough for a sample going by the standard definition of a large sample, which is usually defined to be one that is above 30.
The methodology used here was an interview with the officer in-charge of staff training and development in order to give out the major organisational issues that have been faced by different sections of the Organisation. Such an interview was quite applicable because it gave the researcher an opportunity of getting first hand information, which was not in any case distorted. There was also an interview with one of the past staff trainers in London Borough of Havering. The main question of discussion was the issues that were affecting the effectiveness for all the staff training sessions and operations in the organisation. Why is the use of an interview very important? Looking at it, it is quite likely that first-hand information will be gathered which will give the situation the way it is thus being able to note some of the weaknesses and obstacles faced in both e-training and organisational issues (Anderson, 2004, p. 32).
In order to ensure that we supplemented our information obtained, it was necessary to come up with an open questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire was to carry out a survey in seeing the major effects of organisational issues that have been affecting staff e-training in the institution. The use of a questionnaire has been used in very many research works for a number of reasons, and the reason it was necessary for us to use the questionnaire strategy. One thing with questionnaires is that they can reach a number of people in a given population target. Once that has been done, different people will have different opinions and therefore the obtained information will not be biased. This ensures there is a bigger perspective and data variation, which can be useful in giving the researcher the exact situation on the ground (Anderson, 2004, p. 41).
In order to be in a position of determining the organisational issues that may have been affecting e-training in the institution, the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis is usually very vital because it ensures that the data obtained is varied. It can be realised in coming up with major developments which can positively address the problems faced in the organisation. This was the main reason for using the two approaches of questionnaires and interviews. This was meant to give the researcher a greater depth and clarity in the various factors that surrounded the adoption and use of e-training facilities in the organisation. From the research strategy, a sample of 95 workers from London Borough of Havering had been selected with Systematic Random Sampling Scheme. This would ensure that the data obtained would be randomized and not in any way biased since the larger the sample, the better the results (Anderson, 2004, p. 43). So that relevant information could be obtained, it was necessary to include in the questionnaire issues to do with computer literacy, access to the internet connections, the nature of the learning schedules and their convenience, the modes of transfer of the training material and how convenient these learning modes are (Swanson & Holton, 1997, p. 23). There was also the need to rate the respondent giving information about the trainers in the institution. Finally, the questionnaire sought to get information on the language used during the training.
Conclusion
The research revealed that most of the existing e-learning facilitates had a long learning curve with complex user interfaces that discouraged most of the users. Most users perceived most of the systems as being complex for absolute beginners to use and required some instructors for guidance; a service, which was in most cases not available. It was also discovered that most of the e-learning facilities lacked technical support, which frustrated users in most cases. Most employees were also used to traditional learning and development methods and since e-learning was optional, most of them opted for the easy traditional method which seems to be the widest used. There was also lack of incentives for e-learning and most of the e-learners were rarely recognized. These factors greatly affected the e-learning process. Therefore, any implementation of a new e-training facility has to follow an interactive and holistic approach involving all the stakeholders on different factors such as technological issues, end user support, effective user interface design, organisational culture and the content delivery as well as appraisal techniques. Easy to use e-learning Information Systems must be made available and let the instructors to be committed to offer maximum benefits to the learners. Also, it would be necessary that special support and suitable instructions are given to those employees who have physical disabilities so that they can as well benefit from the training.
Bibliography
Anderson, V 2004, Research Methods in Human Resource Management, Londoin, CIPD.
Anderson, D, & Williams, T 2009, Statistics for business and economics, New York, Cengage Learning.
Babbie, E 2009, The Practice of Social Research, London, Cengage Learning.
Creswell, W 2003, Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches, New York, SAGE.
Laube, D, & Zammuto, R 2003, Business-driven information technology: answers to 100 critical questions for every manager, Edinburgh, Stanford University Press.
Lewis, R, & Whitlock, Q 2003, How to plan and manage an e-learning programme, London, Gower Publishing Ltd.
Rosett, A 2002, The ASTD e-learning handbook, Toronto, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Silberman, M 2007, The handbook of experiential learning, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons.
Swanson, J & Holton, K 1997, Human Resource Development Research Handbook, USA,
Berret- Koehlers Publishers Inc.
Uwe, F 2009, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, New York, SAGE Publications Ltd.
Stone, E & Coskinen, C 2002, Planning and design for high-tech Web-based training, Irwin, Artech House.
APPENDIX 1
INTERVIEWS
1. Interview the officer in-charge of staff training and development.
Question: What are the Organisational issues faced by your section?
2. Interview with one of the past trainers of staff in London borough of havering.
Question: What issues affect the effectiveness of staff training sessions?
APPENDIX 2
QUESTIONNAIRE
PART A: PRELIMINARY
The purpose of this questionnaire is a survey to see the effect of Organisational issues affecting staff training in your institution. The information that you provide will be treated with highest confidentiality.
PART B: PPERSONAL INFORMATION
Serial number (provided by questionnaire administrator) …………………. Age…… Sex Male Female
PART C:
(Tick where appropriate)
1. Are you computer literate? Yes No
2. Do you have access to internet connection? Yes No
3. Is the learning schedule in place convenient? Yes No
4. What are the modes of transfer of training material and how convenient are they in this mode of learning.(Explain)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
5. Rate the performance of staff training administrators in this institution. Good Bad
6. Comment on the language used in training sessions (spoken or written mode)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
7. Is the mode of assessment during training convenient? Comment.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
8. Are the disabled people fully incorporated in staff training and development?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
PART D: APPRECIATION
Thank you for you time and contribution. The information that you have provided will be kept confidential.