Abstract:

Technology Enhanced Learning (eLearning) has evolved over the last number of decades resulting in the emergence of powerful tools, capable of supporting the delivery of education in the workplace. Enterprise performance optimisation is critical for organisations to survive and prosper in today’s competitive global market-place. While this is true for all organisations, the need is even greater for the Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) sector. Effective enterprise performance optimisation requires the implementation of continuous improvement and change management programmes based on the Lean philosophy. Lean is a continuous improvement methodology where waste is systematically identified and eliminated and value is created from the customer’s perspective. Empowering employees at all levels throughout the organisation is central for the effective implementation of Lean. They must be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to support enterprise performance optimisation endeavours.

This paper explores the potential of eLearning or to be more precise, blended leanring as an enabler of individual and organisational transformation through Lean thinking and thus enterprise performance optimisation. A framework is proposed as to how blended learning can be deployed as an effective mechanism to facilitate and support continuous improvement and change management programmes within organisations. The framework supports the current drive in education to move from tutor centred approaches to learner centred approaches. The framework also takes the relevant pedagogical and technological considerations into account and implications for the design of future programmes are posited based on feedback from the current programmes. The framework has been extensively evaluated through 4 consecutive cohorts of students from industry over a 2 year period. Evaluation results have been incorporated into the framework and are summarised and presented as part of this paper.

Keywords:

e-learning, Blended Learning, Workplace Project, Lean, Enterprise Performance.