Feedback on E-learning at a Telecommunications Company in Malaysia

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 e-
learning 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 e-
learning 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. (Authors' abstract)