Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Volume 51 - Number 2 - July 2011 - Corporate Sector Practice Informs Online Workforce Training for Australian Government Agencies

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Aldword

Paper outlines government online training practice by examining overlapping research domains across HCI human dimensions, ICT, and instructional design. It investigates how corporate sector and government employees face barriers to web-mediated training adoption, highlighting low enthusiasm linked to ineffective instructional design and resulting motivational effects. While government incentives exist, negative community attitudes persist, especially toward the government sector. The study argues for instructional design principles to strengthen web-mediated learning programs and improve ICT training tool adoption worldwide.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Early concepts of online learning

Aim and research focus

Current research

Government reports

UK national government e-learning initiative

Australian adult literacy and life skills survey

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 51, Number 2, July 2011 Corporate sector practice informs online workforce training for Australian government agencies: Towards effective educational-learning systems design Elspeth McKay and Cenie Vilela School of Business Information Technology and Logistics RMIT University The purpose of this paper is to outline government online training practice. We searched individual research domains ofthe humandimensions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), information and communications technologies (ICT) and instructional design for evidence of either corporate sector or government training practices. We overlapped these domains to investigate primary research outcomes. Corporate sector and government employees encounter barriers to their adoption of web-mediated training. One such barrier is a lack of enthusiasm, possibly due to ineffective instructional design, which in turn affects motivation towards online learning. Although the Australian Government offers training incentives to the general community, a negative attitude towards online training persists in the community, particularly throughout Corporate sector practice informs online workforce training 303 the government sector. Adoption of effective ICT training tools is a critical issue for the corporate sector and government agencies worldwide. This paper presents a compelling case for courseware designers to develop sound instructional design principles to enhance web-mediated learning programmes. Keywords: corporate sector, government agencies, online training, instructional systems design, human-computer interaction, workforce training. Introduction The first concepts of online learning were developed in the 1960sat the University of Illinois through the creation of a computerbased education environment called PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), designed for delivery to university students. Some say PLATO paved the way for much of the online interaction seen today (Woolley 1994), including discussion forums, message boards, interactive testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing and multiplayer gaming. In many places around the world, the online learning environment is now integral to higher education and training sectors. While online learning is yet to reach some countries, the number of institutions and individuals accessing web-mediated learning resources is increasing exponentially (Anderson 2008). Flowing from this connection, one may expect that online training would occur as a natural consequence in workforce skill development practice. The main aim of this paper is to investigate online training adoption in Australian government agencies. To initiate our government-funded research, we examined the literature to provide a critical analysis of current e-learning/training practice in the corporate sector—with a view to inform government agency 304 Elspeth McKay and Cenie Vilela workforce training. The paper unravels similarities and differences between government agencies and the corporate sector. First, we analyse government reports and corporate sector research, before outlining the importance of prior domain knowledge and individual preferences in adult learning. To clarify our use of the term ‘prior domain knowledge’, we simply mean that people may know relevant knowledge within one particular area of the specified learning content. For a full description of the concept of prior domain knowledge and how it may interact with the cognitive performance outcomes of educational-learning systems, see Yu (2007) and Yu, Jan, Simoff and Debenham (2007). We present the crux of our argument through the human-dimensions of human-computer interaction (HCI) (McKay 2008) and instructional systems design. To identify possible barriers to the adoption of e-learning, we examine this concept at an organisation level and an employee level. The p

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the paper?

To outline and investigate government online training practice, focusing on adoption in Australian government agencies and comparing similarities and differences with the corporate sector.

What barriers affect adoption of web-mediated training?

Employees encounter barriers such as lack of enthusiasm, which the paper links to ineffective instructional design and which reduces motivation for online learning.

Why is instructional design important according to the paper?

Because effective instructional design principles help enhance web-mediated learning programs and address motivational and adoption challenges in online workforce training.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Aldword