Abstract
M.Ed.
Information and communications technology (ICT) has an impact on every aspect of our lives. Using ICT has required the development of new knowledge and skills, which also has an impact on facilitators and learners who need many new skills to learn, work and adapt to the ever-changing world. Therefore, successful technology integration into teaching and learning requires learners to have access to an appropriate range of tools and the abilities to analyse, synthesise and present information. Hence, technology integration should be an essential part of an organisation’s learning culture. While ICT has been part of education for over 10 years, its use in teaching and learning, both in educational and corporate environments, often perpetuates instructivist models of education, rather than supporting social tool-mediated knowledge construction. The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of learning technologies as a tool to design, develop and deliver learning interventions within a corporate environment. The study makes use of an acquisition-participation-contribution framework, which is part of cultural historical activity theory, in order to determine how the Training Department at Discovery has designed and delivered learning and to evaluate learner expectations. This case study made use of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The first phase involved the analysis of the organisation’s documents and reports on the strategies deployed within the company. During this phase, the organisation’s annual report, learning strategies, learning technologies strategy and the annual training report were reviewed and analysed. In the second phase of data collection, questionnaires were conducted on 82 participants, who included learners, facilitators and training managers from all business entities within the company. The first part of the questionnaire asked demographical information and the second part was made up of 27 statements relating to the acquisition, participant and contribution framework. These data were analysed statistically to determine how participants rated the importance of each statement in its current state and how they would like to experience it in the future. The last phase of the data collection involved three focus group sessions. Participants in the focus group sessions were from the head office in Johannesburg and a branch in Cape Town. The questions asked in the focus group sessions were designed with the aim of getting a better understanding of the differences in learning expectations of both the Training Department and learners.
These data were analysed deductively against the acquisition, participant and contribution framework. Results from both the qualitative and quantitative investigations found differences in what learners want and what the Training Department actually delivered. The results from the questionnaire and focus groups clearly indicated that learners want to experience learning interventions that are social and collaborative in nature. They want to be able to contribute to the learning process. However, the Training Department designed and delivered learning interventions that focused on the distribution and acquisition of knowledge. These results suggest that in corporate environments, the department responsible for the professional development of employees needs to understand the needs of staff better and that learning is not the consumption of information, but is concerned with knowledge production to support individual and collective transformation.