E-Learning as a Socio-Technical System: An Insight into Factors Influencing its Effectiveness

Abstract

Effectiveness of e-learning systems is a matter of debate in corporate and academics alike, with researchers viewing it from course content and instructional design perspective, learner / teacher perspective or delivery medium and technology perspective. We argue that e-learning systems should not consider either of these perspectives in isolation. We analyze the e-learning systems using the socio-technical systems approach, which treats a work system to be made up of two jointly independent, but correlative interacting systems - the social and the technical. The technical system is concerned with the processes, tasks, and technology needed to transform i nputs to outputs. The social system is concerned with the attributes of people such as attitudes, skills, values, the relationships among people, reward systems, and authority structures. Outputs of the work system are the result of joint interactions between these two systems. We use Leavitt's model to analyze e-learning systems as socio-technical systems. The model suggests that organizations form multivariate systems consisting of four interacting components - task, structure, actor, and technology. We observe that an e-Learning system can fit the definition of a sociotechnical system, as they involve teachers and learners (actor), the organization and the environment (structure), the knowledge and skills being imparted (task) and the technology used for elearning (technology). In this research, we measure variables that represent these four components and understand their significance individually and their combined effect on effectiveness of e- learning systems. The outcome of this research tries to understand factors that influence the effectiveness of e-learning systems.

Analysis of Selected Aspects of Students’ Performance and Satisfaction in a Moodle-Based E-Learning System Environment

“…in Wang et al, 2003). Moreover, in the e-learning process there are also many specific factors involved (Chien, 2012;Frydrychova Klimova & Poulova, 2013;Haverila & Barkhi, 2009;Kim & Kim, 2013;Ozkan & Koseler, 2009;Park & Choi, 2009;Saba, 2012;Upadhyaya & Mallik, 2013) that are not directly connected with the ICT but importantly influence the students' performance (Lopez-Perez et al, 2011), sometimes also in a negative way (Berge & Huang, 2004;Frankola, 2001;Willging & Johnson, 2004).…”

The impact of demographic factors on selected aspects of e-learning in higher education

“…Despite the popularity of online education, attrition remains a problem faced by many institutions (Hart, 2012;Saba, 2012;Upadhyaya and Mallik, 2013). The effectiveness of e-learning systems (Hart, 2012;Hassanzadeh et al, 2012;Islam et al, 2011;Mbarek and Zaddem, 2013) and students' perceived satisfaction (Al-Adwan et al, 2013;Joo et al, 2014;Kassab et al, 2015;Liaw, 2007;Lim et al, 2013;Ozkan and Koseler, 2009;Sun et al, 2008) 1 IJILT 34,2 have been important subjects of research in the last few decades.…”

In Mergers and Acquisitions—IT: Results of the Absence of CIO in Ex-ante Planning and the Absence of Key IT Staff in Ex-post Integration

“…This form of research signifies the correlative relationship between the social and technical components of a company or organization (Aehnelt, Ebert, Beham, Lindstaedt & Paschen, 2008). The basis of this nomenclature is that optimizing either technology or social culture alone is detrimental to the whole; rather, the only way to optimize the unit is to work with both systems in tandem (Upadhyaya & Mallik, 2013). The pioneering philosophy behind sociotechnical methodology relies on analyzing the unit or society as a whole instead of the individual (Whitworth & de Moor, 2009).…”