The conceptualisation of e-learning at the South African public sector.
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The South African public sector is faced with many challenges and one of the major
challenges is service delivery. This could be linked to not having government officials
who have the necessary skills to carry out their duties. The skills shortage could also
be a result of the public service having too many people to train in a short period of
time. Training face-to-face has its challenges as employees have to be away from their
day-to-day duties to attend training and this not only has an impact on productivity but
also maximises costs. To deal with and to minimise these challenges the South African
government has chosen to introduce eLearning in the South African public sector. This
is aimed at ensuring that larger numbers of government officials are trained at
minimum costs and ensuring that training reaches people with different responsibilities
such as top management and people with families who cannot afford to be away from
home or office for training for long periods of time. This study examined the
advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of eLearning in the public sector;
the importance of strategic planning for eLearning; the challenges faced by the public
sector when it comes to training; how other organisations internationally have
conceptualised eLearning, and; what the public sector is hoping to achieve by
introducing eLearning. Even though eLearning has its disadvantages it is still seen by
many scholars as an ideal way to train government employees and to build capacity.
The gaps in the conceptualisation of eLearning in the South African public sector were
identified and possible solutions including a paradigm shift from a reductionist way of
thinking to a systems thinking way of thinking and doing things was recommended.
Description
Master of Commerce in Leadership Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville 2015.
Keywords
Computer-assisted instruction., Internet in education., Employees--Training of--Computer-assisted instruction., Employees--Training of--Computer network resources., Public administration--Employees--Computer-assisted instruction., Public administration--Employees--Effect of technological innovations on., Theses--Leadership and management., E-learning.