This exploratory study contributes to the understanding of self-confidence as a predictor of self-efficacy, ease of use, and usefulness of eLearning platforms in corporate training. The present research explored the relationship among the employees’ beliefs regarding self-confidence, grit, ease of use, self-efficacy, and usefulness of eLearning platforms in their workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 307 responses from Romanian employees who used eLearning platforms in corporate training (females = 60.3%, males = 39.7%, age range of less than 24 years (12.1%) to over 55 years (6.2%)) were exploited for research. Data were analyzed through a path analysis model. Results indicate that grit (i.e., consistency of interest), self-efficacy, and perceived ease of use of eLearning platforms were considerably directly influenced by the self-confidence variable. Usefulness was directly influenced by the ease of use and was indirectly influenced by self-confidence. Mediation analysis indicated that full mediation occurs only through the ease of use of eLearning platforms variable in the relationship between self-confidence and usefulness. A unit increase in self-confidence will increase the expected value of grit by 0.54 units (t = 8.39, p < 0.001), will indirectly increase the expected value of usefulness through ease of use by 0.15 units (t = 2.39, p = 0.017), and will increase the expected value of self-efficacy by 0.53 units (t = 6.26, p < 0.001). In addition, perceived ease of use of eLearning platforms in corporate training fully mediated the relationship of usefulness regressed on self-confidence (β = 0.20, t = 2.51, p = 0.012). These novel results reveal the contributions of self-confidence, consistency of interest as a grit dimension, and ease of use of eLearning platforms in predicting lifelong learning solutions, which improve business outcomes. The related investigation and consequences were further considered.

The reasons for introducing Web 2.0 tools into the business area are multiple, from efficiency to better time management. The provision of online services by companies develops the computer skills of team members, and the materials provided through Web tools 2.0 can be accessed by a larger number of end users and their quality can be permanently evaluated. This chapter proposes to investigate the motivational factors of the usage of Web tools 2.0 by companies' team members. In particular, the research is focused on e-learning based on Web 2.0 tools for training sessions organized by companies in Romania. The in-depth analysis revealed that this generally positive perception of using the e-learning course is founded on a series of objective aspects, identified in a multiple linear regression model, ranging from the perception of the benefit of professional development to the subjective character given by user experience (UX).

The current day smart-phone is packed with a great assortment of sensors (ambient light, proximity, GPS, accelerometer, compass, gyro) and input modalities (touch, camera, microphone). This set of capabilities has spurred tens of thousands of developers to publish hundreds of thousands of mobile applications. The apple app store and the android market sum a total app download count of over 20 billion. How many of these apps have an mLearning focus and what sort of capabilities do they currently employ? What are some successful use cases extracted from this short market analysis? Considering the rapidly expanding mobile software and hardware space e-learning also has to adapt and move to this new medium. Most of the highly interactive desktop e-learning content has been traditionally developed using Adobe Flash. Does Flash still hold up in the mobile context or do the developers have take up HTML5 and/or native development for this type of content? This paper strives to give an answer to these questions by performing a short app markets analysis and developing an example app for a highly interactive use-case using three combinations of platforms and tools: flash/air, native and a mixed solution. The stumbling blocks encountered, and trade-offs made are expanded upon. Factors like the relative use of implementation, the speed of deployment, multi-platform reach and app performance are also analyzed and trade-off points identified. As a final step conclusions are drawn as to the best path to choose for present day vs future development of highly interactive mLearning experiences.

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