Lessons Learned from Online Learning at Scale: a Study of Exemplar Learning Organizations

• Published in: TechTrends Vol. 67; no. 1; pp. 84 - 97
• Main Authors: Li, Siyuan, Craig, Scotty D., Schroeder, Noah L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Collaboration; Competence; Distance learning; Education; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Higher education; Infrastructure; Innovations; Institutes (Training Programs); Learning and Instruction; Learning Experience; Online Courses; Online instruction; Organizations; Organizations (Groups); Original Paper; Pedagogy; Scaling; Student retention; Taxonomy; Technological change; Training; Web Based Instruction; Case study; Scaling-up; Online learning; Interview
• ISSN: 8756-3894; 1559-7075
• DOI: 10.1007/s11528-022-00761-6

As the areas of education and workforce training tend more toward online training, they have emphasized the rapid setup and expansion of online environments. This scaling-up and scaling-out of training programs can be difficult, but there are examples of success available for us to learn from. To capture the lessons learned, we conducted semi-structured interviews across academic, public, private, and non-profit organizations. Using deductive thematic analysis, three major groups of determinants were identified: technological infrastructure, human infrastructure, and governance. A framework consisting of three actionable recommendations was created to facilitate online learning organizational scaling-up including learner (learning experiences and user-friendly design), technical (technical competencies and the use of integrated data), and management (technical competencies for both learners and instructors as well as the use of integrated data) factors.