Feedback on E-learning at a Telecommunications Company in Malaysia

Abstract

The prospects for e-learning have grown at a tremendous rate, both in the educational area and in the training area. According to the research firm IDC (International Data Corporation), in the year 2004, the training industry was valued at US$60 billion worldwide, with US$6.6 billion coming from e-learning. By this year, the e-learning market is expected to reach US$23.7 billion. Many organizations and learning institutions have slowly begun adopting elearning as one of their learning tools complementing classroom-based or instructor-led training (ILT) to enhance the effectiveness of the learning or delivery of the training. Despite the enormous amount of money being spent on e-learning, this learning approach is not yet proven to be completely effective. There is a need to evaluate to what extent corporate e-learning is as effective as traditional classroom based learning. With this in mind, this research was conducted to examine employees’ perceptions towards e-learning in a local publicly-listed telecommunications company. An empirical investigation was undertaken by using a sample of 82 employees. Overall, the results indicated that the employees were generally satisfied with their experience of utilising the e-learning courses provided by the company based on instructional design, content, navigation, graphical presentation and audio presentation, with simulation learning being ranked with the highest satisfaction amongst the available types of elearning offered. Feedback on the utilisation of the e-learning based on level of designation and tenure of employment showed significant differences, while gender, department (except in ‘navigation’), and academic qualification, showed no significant differences. Results also indicated that there was no significant association between computer-proficiency level, English-proficiency level, ease of accessibility and usual locations of accessing e-learning and the respective variable(s) of their utilisation of the e-learning courses.