Technologically Enhanced Learning Experiences for Workforce Development
Abstract
Local and global economies face serious economic and social costs in lost productivity as a result of the mismatch between workers’ skills, employers’ needs, and cost effective training programs for workforce development. Technologically Enhanced Learning Experiences (TELEs), online training modules providing initial and long-term support for workers wishing to upgrade their occupational and interpersonal or people skills to regain lost earnings, reintegrate into the workforce, and increase the supply of skilled workers employers need to remain competitive in the current economy, are a training tool for workforce development which incorporates a cost-effective, flexible learning solution approach. TELEs, designed to teach behavioral skills through virtual electronic interactions between students and instructors or facilitators, are grounded in “design-based research which blend[s] empirical research with theory-based design of learning environments” (Swan, 2012). The framework for the development of TELEs is based on the principles of adult learning theory, training transfer and its assessment, the design of competencies that link specific skill performance with specific curricula content and job descriptions, and continued support once formal training ends. The impact of TELEs on learning relies on the assessment of learning outcomes through quantitative and qualitative metrics which assess the effectiveness of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) acquisition as evidenced by a pilot study I conducted in 2010 with fourteen displaced workers, thirteen of whom reintegrated back into the fulltime workforce.
Location
Rooms 113 & 115
Recommended Citation
Walker, Marquita R., "Technologically Enhanced Learning Experiences for Workforce Development" (2015). SoTL Commons Conference. 94.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2015/94
Technologically Enhanced Learning Experiences for Workforce Development
Rooms 113 & 115
Local and global economies face serious economic and social costs in lost productivity as a result of the mismatch between workers’ skills, employers’ needs, and cost effective training programs for workforce development. Technologically Enhanced Learning Experiences (TELEs), online training modules providing initial and long-term support for workers wishing to upgrade their occupational and interpersonal or people skills to regain lost earnings, reintegrate into the workforce, and increase the supply of skilled workers employers need to remain competitive in the current economy, are a training tool for workforce development which incorporates a cost-effective, flexible learning solution approach. TELEs, designed to teach behavioral skills through virtual electronic interactions between students and instructors or facilitators, are grounded in “design-based research which blend[s] empirical research with theory-based design of learning environments” (Swan, 2012). The framework for the development of TELEs is based on the principles of adult learning theory, training transfer and its assessment, the design of competencies that link specific skill performance with specific curricula content and job descriptions, and continued support once formal training ends. The impact of TELEs on learning relies on the assessment of learning outcomes through quantitative and qualitative metrics which assess the effectiveness of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) acquisition as evidenced by a pilot study I conducted in 2010 with fourteen displaced workers, thirteen of whom reintegrated back into the fulltime workforce.
