An Investigation towards E-Learning at the Workplace: A Case Study of UNEP Staff at Gigiri

A Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Executive Masters in Organization Development (EMOD)The purpose of the study was to investigate the adoption and use of e-learning at the workplace with a focus on UNEP staff members working in Gigiri. The study addressed the following objectives. Identify the perceptions towards e-learning initiatives; highlight the organizational challenges faced in adopting and using of e-learning practices and finally identify factors that mostly influence the adoption of e-learning in work places The research design used was descriptive survey in nature where the total population was 250 out of which a sample size of 80 respondents was drawn to participate in this research. The probability method was used to select the employees from senior management, administration, finance, human resource, programme management and information technology departments across the organization. A stratified sampling technique was used to come up with categories as indicated above. Questionnaires specifically designed for the employees were adopted for data collection. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were dispatched and sixty two (62) responses were received, giving a response rate of 75%. This research adopted the descriptive survey design which was used to investigate e-learning at UNEP. The descriptive survey design is concerned with studying subjects that have already been exposed to the independent factor and those who have not. On the other hand, the descriptive technique helps in measuring who, what where, when, or how much of an activity. The research design adopted in this study used both quantitative (use of graphs & charts) and qualitative techniques to aid in accomplishing the set objectives. Quantitative approach in this sense was designed to come up with numerical data and results. The collected data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed with the help of SPSS and presented using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data collected was analyzed using content analysis approach and reported in a narrative Other areas of concern in qualitative approach include individual views of the respondents and human phenomena such as attitudes and emotions. The findings regarding the first research objective on the assessment of perceptions towards e-learning initiatives indicated that (90%) of the interviewed employees said that they agreed that e-learning is the most effective tool for undertaking training and development programmes for the organization. (58%) of the respondents felt that e-learning practices should be designed to cater for organizational issues that e-learning could address while another 54% of the respondents rated e-learning programs as very important in in the day-to-day work activities of the organization, (39%) indicated that they felt that it was moderately important while 5% indicated that it was not important. The findings regarding the second research objective on organizational challenges facing the adoption and use of e-learning practices revealed that (55%) of the respondents were of the view that work place e-learning applications fail to meet the needs of learners hence not motivating employees to learn, while 45% disagreed. Regarding people interaction (76%) of the respondents said that they felt that e-learning cuts on the social and cultural interaction of people while another (81%) did not agree that e-learning should be replaced by human instructors. Regarding factors mostly influencing the adoption of e-learning in work places, the findings showed that 53% of the employees interviewed attributed the lack of interactivity as the single-most important factor to overcome learner resistance to workplace e-learning, while only 6% attributed the same to assumed poor quality irrelevance. Concerning financial implications of implementing e-learning practices, 65% of the staff members said that they agreed that initiating e-learning programs is an expensive affair which has financial implications on the organization. The study acknowledges the importance of using e-learning in the workplace as such; it recommends the following to the organisation on the perceptions of e-learning initiatives; future development of e-learning programs should focus not only on technical issues of design but also on organizational issues. The study also recommends that the e-learning research should be based on the context of use and application at workplace instead of formal courses in educational institutions. In addressing some of these challenges, UNEP can then seek to maximize the consistency and efficacy of delivering on UN projects as part of its efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). E-learning at this point can be benchmarked at the preferred tool to advocate for these MDGs and demand that the UN development system increases coherence and effectiveness of its operations in different countries. The end goal will be to work towards developing a UN e-learning system that delivers efficiently and provides more for its poorest and most disadvantaged