Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2. Online mentoring within an online human services course (McKay & Martin, 2007)
for the human services is further complicated in
the government sector by the multi-disciplinary
mix of expertise.
Usually a new employee or someone who is
recently transferred to a new location will have an
immediate need for learning specific processes.
Typically training courses are scheduled at spe-
cific times during the year, forcing an employee
to obtain one-on-one tuition or learn by trial and
error in the meantime, neither of which is efficient
for an organization. Conversely, an employee
may be placed on a course to meet organizational
mandates or to meet the selection criteria for a
future position. Unless the new-skills learnt are
immediately put into practice, key competencies
achieved during this training are often forgotten.
This results in an unsatisfactory training outcome
for both the learner and the organization.
Often face-to-face training courses have
difficulty catering for the individual needs of
participants due to the training timeframe and
volume of learning material. First time (novice)
learners may become overwhelmed by technical
details, the limitations of the formalized training
timeframe and peer pressure as they endeavor to
understand new ICT systems. More experienced
staff, previously exposed to the learning content
will easily become bored and frustrated by the
presentation of simple concepts and repetition
of familiar instructional content. Neither of these
learner groups will have optimized learning out-
comes for themselves or the organization.
In an ideal online training environment, once
trainees have completed their online training
modules they communicate directly with an online
mentor or facilitator by sending them electronic
versions of their newly created documentation
(Martin et al, 2007; McKay, 2008). Depending
upon the quality of the trainee's knowledge of
the tasks, they either proceed to complete their
training, or they return to relevant instructional
modules to continue their instruction. This in-
volves a blended approach using face-to-face and
online delivery as illustrated in Figure 2.
Training materials are required for all em-
ployees and providers who have access to a
government Intranet. In Australia this means
that training in new procedures or legislative
requirements can be distributed across the nation
in a timely manner. In addition, continuous provi-
sion of training materials means that employees
can access professional development when it is
needed. Different learner pathways allow novice
learners to go through the full learning program
in a sequential (skill-building) order in their
own time. More experienced learners can select
Search WWH ::
Custom Search