This study investigates differences in instructional and learner factors between two groups of learners exposed to online only and blended delivery formats, respectively, in an effort to compare learning outcomes and other instructional variables between online and blended delivery methods. Findings indicated that no significant differences existed in learning outcomes; however, significant differences existed in several instructional and learner factors between the two delivery format groups. Discussions about improving online or blended delivery method are presented based upon the research findings.

The multidimensional nature of training transfer presents a formidable challenge to organizations. Corporate America has continued to spend billions of dollars annually on training, yet much of it either failed to transfer or has been extinguished over time (Broad

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This case study examined employees' perceptions about the types of information management could pro ductively communicate through electronic communication to augment facetoface contact with employees. The benefits of effective facetoface communication between managers and staff are widely app reciated; however, the costs associated with this mode of communication require organizations to make decisions about when scarce resources should be allocated for facetoface communication and when the alterna tive, less costly resource of electronic communication could be substituted. The study determined that employees perceived human resource information that is private (confidential), personal, or sensitive as critical to receive through facetoface contact. Employees perceived that information not deemed confidential-meeting times, training times, policy changes, system problems, and information with numer ous details-were just as productive and some even critical to receive through email.

This ethnographic study extends the findings of earlier research that examined the impact of workplace design features on newly acquired communication skills back on the job. The qualitative nature of this earlier study, however, limited quantitative measurement of the design features and learned skills. The present study examined supervisor perceptions about the relative importance of organizational factors affecting transfer, measured relationships between learned skills and workplace design features, and prioritized the importance of the design features to support learned communication skills. Participants in this case study held nonacademic supervisory positions at a major land-grant university. The supervisors had attended a communication skills training workshop and had been applying their learned skills for about 6 months. The findings indicate that workplace design appears to play a vital role in facilitating as well as impeding communication skills transfer in face-to-face interaction with employees. As a case study, organizations should not infer that these findings apply to all work settings as it may depend on the relevancy to the particular work situation and circumstances.