The problem and the solution. The advancement of technology in the global workplace is having a profound impact on the roles of human resource development (HRD) professionals. In the past, technology in HRD was primarily educational media used to support training. Current forms of sophisticated technology, coupled with the expanded role of HRD in the global organization, are now used by HRD professionals to support learning at work,enhance job performance,and facilitate organizational development and change. This chapter presents a conceptual framework for thinking about the role of technology in the digital workplace and highlights the challenges faced by HRD professionals in promoting individual and organizational learning and performance improvement.
This article reflects upon a process of curriculum redesign undertaken with an aim to improve the student learning experience of research methods via an activity-based approach. Historically, the way in which research methods were being taught within Southampton Business School did not fully engage student interest, and it was not well applied to further study of the subsequent modules including the dissertation. The article discusses the changes that were made to the module, which led to a developmental and experiential programme. The learners appear to be better prepared for their subsequent research and indicate that this approach better facilitated their understanding of the subject. Future developments will include collecting more empirical evidence to support the offering of this activity-based approach throughout the Southampton Business School.
Assessing participant learning in online environments provides benefits and challenges. Fortunately, the available technology tools allow for a wide range of assessment techniques.
Activity theory (AT) is a powerful tool for investigating 'artefacts in use', ie, the ways technologies interrelate with their local context. AT reveals the interfaces between e-learning at the macro-(strategy, policy, 'campus-wide' solutions) and the micro-organisational levels (everyday working practice, iterative change, individual adaptation). In AT, contexts are conceived of as activity systems in which human, technological and organisational elements are interrelated and largely inseparable. Both the subjects of the activity system (internal) and the wider community (external) mediate their activities through tools, rules and roles. This paper shows how a course management system (CMS) exerts an influence over all three of these mediators, though the exact nature of this influence depends on the particular configuration of each activity system. This is illustrated with reference to two case study programmes, both of which used Moodle as their CMS, but which had activity systems structured in quite different ways; the programmes also had different relationships with their external organisational environment.
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