E-Learning at Work: Towards a Participative Approach

Abstract

A case study focusing on learning outcomes from a web-based course and integration of new knowledge into work practices at the County Administration of Sweden is analysed. The study has a process-orientated longitudinal character combining different methodological approaches. The current work situation of the workers was studied using interviews. A questionnaire was distributed to the first hundred learners after they had passed the course. Telephone interviews were then made a month after the course. The respondents were more positive with respect to the usefulness of the course for their work immediately after completing the course, compared with their interview responses a month later. When they answered the questionnaire they also thought it was easier to get time for the course, than they indicated later in the telephone interviews. Likely reasons for this discrepancy are considered. The study shows the risk of obtaining inflated positive judgements of a course when the evaluation is made immediately following course completion. Instead, a process-oriented evaluation is recommended, evaluating both the work situation before the course, the comprehension of the course immediately after the course has been passed, and evaluation a month after the course has been passed. Although a majority of the learners had an overall positive judgement of the course, about half of them had not applied the new knowledge to their work, a month after the course. A participative approach with discussions in local work groups before and after the course, supported by local management, is proposed in order to facilitate integration of knowledge from the course into the work practices.