There were six cases in three industries for studying of this research. The

CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter included three sections: The introduction of the cases, the

discussion of data analysis, and the main findings. The introductions of the cases were developed based on the company website and the research findings. The discussion of data analysis was built on the research findings. After data analysis and discussion, there would be main findings of this research.

Introduction to the Case Companies

There were six cases in three industries for studying of this research. The

introduction of the interview cases was collected by the companies’ websites and also from the interviewees themselves.

Insurance Industry

Profile for Company A

A company was headquartered in the Netherlands, recognized worldwide for its stable and sustainable operations. A company launched a branch in Taiwan in 1994.

In 2001, A Taiwan took over AXA Taiwan's in-force business and injected NT$2 billion to transform the branch into a full-flown subsidiary, possessing assets worth over NT$1,000 billion. In order to enhance optimal capacity, A company started to implement e-learning in 2003. A company developed e-learning into five steps:

1.Authoring, 2.Portal, 3.Learning Management System, 4.Database, 5.Live.

Profile for Company B

B company was founded in July 1963 in Taiwan. Until September 2006, total assets of the company are more than NT$ 1,000 billion; total polices in force reached 7.1 million, providing the protection and financial needs for 3.6 million policyholders through an extensive network of 19 branches and more than 340 agency offices. There were 4,387 employees in B company.

B company signed an official agreement with Chunghwa Telegram Co., Ltd. for creating a three win performance to instantly forward company policies and new product information to the agents with zero jet lag. It completed the first innovated high quality and nation-wide e-Broadcast simultaneous learning system across more than 330 locations.

Aviation Industry

Profile for Company C

C company had been established officially in May 21, 1951. It started to fly the navigation: Taipei, Kaoshiung, Hualien, and Taitung to serve passengers. In 1964, C company got into the sky catering enterprise, and in 1995, it started to serve the regular international airway. C company was the second big nationality airline to serve domestic market and has 28% market share. And C company in the important Taiwan-Macao line which was open to navigation in straits serves near 700,000 people every year has 31% market share.

In 2003, C company planed to develop e-learning and implement it in 2004. C

Development in Industrial Development Bureau Ministry of Economic Affairs and won the especially superior prize at the same time. When e-learning system had a great achievement in C company, they started to input m-learning in training in 2006.

Profile for Company D

D company was founded in December 16, 1959. It is forging ahead by expanding its route network for passenger and cargo services. D company has grown rapidly since it launched in 1959 with just two amphibious airplanes. Today its fleet has grown to include more than 50 Boeing and Airbus aircraft. By the year 2003, D company will operate 80 aircraft, the majority of them newly purchased. Meanwhile, D company was expanding its routes to 50 cities in 25 countries around the world.

There were 9,899 employees in D company and 8,275 employees in Taiwan, 1,624 employees stationed overseas.

Because of the mature of the internet environment and the support of the chairman, D company had planed to develop e-learning in 2000. They named it “five years three steps” and started to evaluate needs of themselves and visited the

companies which are successful in e-learning. In September 2003, e-learning in D company officially came into operation.

Manufacturing Industry

Profile for Company E

E company was formally established on May 30, 2001 and categorized as ODM

supplier. Its product development focus was on Information and Communication

Technology products, including Notebook and Desktop systems, Servers and Storage systems, IA (information appliances), Networking and Communication products. E company was among top 20 manufacturing companies in Taiwan and over US$50 billion in revenue.

E company needed to quickly recreate the core competency of one company in each and everyone of its employee in order to sustain the company’s global

competitiveness. Therefore, it developed e-learning system since 1999.

Profile for Company F

F company was founded in November 3, 1983. 2005's sales revenue of F

company posted its fifth consecutive year of record sales, US$353 million. F company set branch office in US, UK, Germany, HK, and China, and the pointing device, camera, keyboard, gaming, audio and headset are their core business.

F company had input e-learning in 2002, but it failed on that time. Until 2004, e-learning was implemented in F company again. This time F company spent half a year to evaluate the e-learning platform and visited some companies which had successful experiences. Then, e-learning was online on Jan 2005.

The summary of companies’ profile was displayed in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1.Companies’ profile

Company Category Year of Creation

Business Area

Number of Employee

Asset or Revenue A Multi-national

Company

1994 Insurance Industry

— over NT$

1,000 billion asset B Multi-national

Company

1963 Insurance Industry

4,387 employees in Taiwan

over NT$

1,000 billion asset

C Local

Company

1951 Aviation Industry

1,200 employees

NT$ 53 billion asset

D Local

Company

1959 Aviation Industry

9,899 employees

NT$ 300 billion asset

E Local

Company

2001 Manufacturing Industry

20,000 Employees

over US$50 billion revenue

F Local

Company

1983 Manufacturing Industry

4,500 employees

US$353

million

sales

revenue in

2005

The Discussion of Data Analysis

This part showed e-learning, the gap from e-learning to m-learning, and m-learning in workforce training statuses and opinions based on the investigation of the companies. The statuses and opinions were illustrated in the sequence based on the companies’ e-learning background and purpose of this study: e-learning input, output, process and feedback, the content of m-learning on workforce traning, input m-learning in workforce training, the needs and difficulties from e-learning to m-learning, the impact of m-learning on workforce training.

E-learning Input

The data of investigations showed the input of e-learning was almost described into four categories: scheme/planning, planner/responsible department/trainer, teaching material, and cost. Reducing the training cost was the main idea of the half of investigated companies. The coding list with the investigated information was shown in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2.Coding list of e-learning input

Issue Category Item Concept Company

1-1-1 Reducing training cost A, C, E 1-1-2 Establishing their own

learning platform

A,C, D, E, F

1-1-3 Renting platform B 1.

How to introduce E-learning?

1-1

Scheme/Planning

1-1-4 Visiting other

companies which with successful e-learning experience

D, F

Table 4.2.(Continued)

Issue Category Item Concept Company

1-1-5 At beginning learning from compact disk

A, C, D

1-1-6 Executing e-learning with many promotions and getting support by company owners

A, B, C, D, E, F

1-2-1 Training Department A, E

1-2-2 Project group B, D

1-2-3 HR B, F

1-2-4 Other department C 1-2

Planner/

Responsible Department/

Trainer 1-2-5 Internal trainer A, C, D, E, F

1-3-1 Video streaming A, C 1-3-2 Power point +voice D, E, F 1-3-3 Producing by trainer A, C, D, E,

F 1-3

Teaching Material

1-3-4 Buying package B, D 1-4-1 Time-1 to 2 years

(2005~)

B

1-4-2 Time-3 to 5 years (2003~)

C, A, F

1-4-3 Time-above 5 years (1999~)

D, E

1-4-4 Money-within 1 million A, B 1-4-5 Money-within 5 million F 1-4-6 Money-within 10

million

C

1-4-7 Money-above10 million E, D 1-4-8 Workforce-1 person B 1-4-9 Workforce-1-2 HR and

10-20 trainer

F

1-4-10 Workforce-beginning-39 people, in 2006 only 10

C 1-4

Cost

1-4-11 Training and MIS Dept. A, D, E, F

Scheme/Planning

All the investigated companies needed the support from the company owners and managers when they input e-learning into their training system. All of them did a lot of efforts to promote e-learning before it executed. Case A, C, D, E, and F companies developed their own e-learning platform but case company B rented the platform from Chunghwa Telegram Co., Ltd. Case D and F companies had visited other companies which with successful e-learning experiences since they started to plan e-learning.

Case A, C and D companies started e-learning with the compact disk. In the aviation industry, their first e-learning material was all from the plane manufacturers which would put instruction into the compact disk and it became the first step of e-learning of Case C and D companies. Case A company developed e-learning into five steps, 1.Authoring, 2.Portal, 3.Learning Management System, 4.Database, 5.Live, but now it only developed on step 3. Three cases A, C and E companies had the same reason to implement e-learning, they believed it could reduce the training cost.

Planner/ Responsible Department/ Trainer

The training departments of case companies A and E were the responsible department for e-learning. Case D company established a project group to be in charge of e-learning for company. In case B company, HR was responsible for

employees who worked in the office and project group was for sales. Case C company was the special one, Flight Operations Division was the main planning department for e-learning. Except case B company, other companies had their own e-learning

trainers.

Teaching Material

Ltd, but other companies produced the teaching material by trainers. The curriculum of case A and C companies was video streaming; however the curriculum of case D, E, and F companies only showed by power point and voice without video. The

interviewees of case D, E, and F companies believe the image was helpless for attracting the attention from learners because the content illustrated by lecture was enough. Case F company also hired the professional person to dub the curriculum if the trainer’s voice was not stable enough.

Cost

Case D and E companies input e-learning more than five years and spent above

$NT 10 million because of the immature of the internet environment. Case C company had invested a group-39 people and $NT 9 million including the

compensation of the group in e-learning since 2004, however, there only remained 10 people in the e-learning group in 2006. The Training and MIS department were the main workforce cost in Case A, D, E, and F companies.

E-learning Output

The data of e-learning output process was described into three parts: trainee, the

time for employees to get used to e-learning and learning place. The coding list with

the investigated information was shown in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3.Coding list of e-learning outpout

Issue Category Item Concept Company

2-1-1 All employees A, D, E, F 2-1

Trainee 2-1-2 Parts of employees B, C 2-2-1 Above 1 year A, C, E 2-2

Time to get used to e-learning

2-2-2 Within half a year B, F 2.

How is e-learning output?

2-3

Learning Place

2-3-1 Any place A, B, C, D, E, F

Trainee

All employees in case A, D, E and F companies were trained by e-learning.

Case B company only trained employees who worked in the office by e-learning.

Employees in Flight Operations Division, Maintenance and Engineering Division, Customer Services Division, and Cabin Crew Department of Case C Company were trained by e-learning in 2006, and interviewee of Case C Company expected to reach the target of implementing e-learning through all the employees in 2008.

Time to get used to e-learning

Case A, C, and E companies spent more than one year to let employees get used to learn online. However, case B and F companies only spent less than half a year to let their employees get used to learn in e-learning.

Learning Place

Employees in all the Case companies can use e-learning to learn in everywhere

and any time as long as they have internet and staff code.

E-learning Process

During the learning process, all the case companies met a lot of difficulties; it might be the problem of technical or human resources. This part would discuss the problem they met and the solutions they found. The coding list with the investigated information was shown in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4.Coding list of e-learning process

Issue Category Item Concept Company

3-1-1 Company-technical problem

C, E, F

3-1-2 Company-trainer developing

D,F

3-1-3 Company-Manpower insufficiency in producing curriculum

F

3-1-4 Employees-inspiring learning interests

B, E

3-1-5 Employees-lack of computer skill

B, C 3-1

Difficulty

3-1-6 Employees-buying new computers

D, C

3-2-1 Company-communicating with supervisor and trainer

D, F

3-2-2 Company-outsourcing or hiring part time worker

F

3-2-3 Employees-enhancing the comprehension of the platform

B 3.

Are there any difficulties during e-learning process?

What are the solutions?

3-2 Solution

3-2-4 Employees-offering technical aid

B, C

Table 4.4 (Continued)

Issue Category Item Concept Company

3-2-5 Employees-offering public computers or signing the contract with computer company

C, D

3-2-6 Employees-designing the curriculum by employees’

needs

E

Difficulty-company

At the beginning of inputting e-learning, case C, E, and F companies faced the problem of technical, especially the digitalized environment, for example, the company server system needed to offer a huge bandwidth for hundreds of people getting online at the same time. For case D and F companies, it was hard for them to develop trainer in the companies. In case D company, the trainer was afraid to be displaced by e-learning; in case F company, some of the supervisors were not support their subordinates to be the trainers and the manpower of producing curriculum was not enough, either.

Difficulty-employees

For case B and E companies, they needed to inspire the interests of e-learning for employees. In case B company, it was difficult for HR to popularize this kind of training method because the employees did not understand why they needed to learn online. At the beginning, in case E company, employees resisted e-learning because they felt bored to learn online and absent from it, this situation was hard for training department to manage the effect of e-learning.

The employees needed the assistance of computer skill in case B and C

companies. In the aviation industry, case C and D companies faced the same problem of having new computers for employees because they did not want to buy computers only for e-learning; it was an unnecessary cost for them.

The researcher had done the literature review about the challenge of e-learning in chapter two, and the discussion here was the data analysis after interview. There might be some the same points between the opinion of Dunn and the reality in corporations in Taiwan. The data would be arranged in Table 4.5 as below.

Table 4.5.The comparison of the challenge of e-learning

Reality in Corporations in Taiwan The Challenge of E-learning

(described by Dunn, 2003):

Company Employees

Resources---primarily, having enough people to allocate to the task.

It was hard for them to develop trainer in the companies.(D and F)

n/a

Having students complete the courses they start.

n/a Resisting e-learning

and absent from it.

(E)

Keeping student engaged. n/a Did not understand

why learning online.(B)

There were really some challenges in inputting e-learning in companies; however, every company had their own solutions for the difficulties. The data was arranged as following paragraphs.

Solution-company

Case C, E, and F companies would buy more bandwidth to offer a fast

e-environment for employees to take courses and test online. The training department for case D and F companies needed to communicate with the supervisors and trainers, let them understand how important of e-learning for companies and they would not be displaced by it, then, teach the trainers to produce and get used to e-learning. Case F company would hire the part time workers or outsourcing to finish the post-producing of the curriculums.

Solution- employees

For lacking the computer skill of employees, case B and C companies would offer technical aids. Case B company rented the platform from Chunghwa Telegram Co., Ltd; therefore, employees could ask help from the IT officers of Chunghwa Telegram. Case C company established a service hotline and consultative mailbox to help employees solve the computer problems.

For inspiring the motivation of e-learning, case B company not only enhanced the comprehension of the platform but also held some activities for employees attending online; case E company interviewed the supervisors of every department to analyze the needs of employees and produced the curriculum by the needs.

In the aviation industry, case C and D companies both signed the contract with computer companies to assist employees in buying new computers. Case D company also offered a lot of public computers to let employees can learn online in the

company.

Feedback of E-learning

There were some advantages and disadvantages of e-learning, this part would

describe the feedback of companies and employees after implementing e-learning and

investigated information was shown in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6.Coding list of feedback of e-learning

Issue Category Item Concept Company

4-1-1 Company- reducing training cost

A, B, C, D, E, F 4-1-2 Company-trainers

enhance self-skill

B

4-1-3 Company-lasting the core competence

E, F

4-1-4 Employees-learning flexible, repeated,

segmenting with working time

A, B, C, D, E, F 4-1

Advantage

4-1-5 Employees-saving traveling cost of learning

A, B

4-2-1 Employees-Lack of interaction

A, D, E, F

4-2-2 Company-internet congestion

D, E

4-2-3 Company-hard to

evaluate result of learning F

4-2-4 Company-employees ask for overtime because of diversity of culture

D 4-2

Disadvantage

4-2-5 Employees-employees miscarry because of insufficient digital skill

C

4-3-1 Saving time, money, workforce cost and solving problems of arranging trainers and classrooms

B, D, E

4-3-2 Enriching the content of curriculum

C, D

4-3-3 Improving the problem of absence

E, F 4.

What are the feedback of the company and employees after implementing e-learning?

4-3

Improvement

4-3-4 Lasting know how E, F

Advantage-company

Although only three companies input e-learning for reducing training cost, it became the biggest advantage for all case companies. For case B company, the trainers might enhance self-skill for preparing teaching material and producing e-learning. In the high-tech manufacturing industry, like case E and F companies, e-learning platform was a good method for them to store know how and last the core competence in their companies. It would not be any knowledge gap when employees resigned from the companies.

Advantage-employees

All the case companies found out the same advantage for their employees which like they could learn flexible, repeated, and segment with their working time. In the financial insurance industry, like case A and B companies, the employees needed to take training courses by traveling around the big city of Taiwan. When e-learning was input in companies, employees did not need to spend traffic time, money and leave home several days to take training courses.

There were a lot of benefits of e-learning which had discussed in chapter two.

Table 4.7 was a comparison of literature review and the real advantages for companies.

Through table 4.7, the information could tell what kinds of the advantages the

companies of Taiwan most paid attention on. Most parts of companies considered the

cost saving was the first one advantage for them and it was also the reason for

inputting e-learning in companies. The second one was the knowledge saving for

high-tech manufacturing industry.

Table 4.7.The comparison of the benefit of e-learning

Reality in Corporations in Taiwan Benefit of E-learning (arranged in

chapter two)

Company Employees

Substantial cost savings due to elimination of travel expenses.

Reducing training cost.

(A,B,C,D,E and F)

Saving traveling cost of learning. (A and B) 1. E-learning helps the corporation

reuse retirees’ expertise.

2. A range of people with different skills are involved, including expert trainers, facilitators, champions of e-learning and specialist Web and graphic designers.

Storing know how and core competency.

(E and F)

n/a

Disadvantage-company

The company with a lot of employees like case D and E companies might have problem similar to internet congestion. For case F company, if the managerial system was not good enough, it would be hard to evaluate the result of e-learning. There was a special situation in the international aviation company, like case D company.

European employees might ask for overtime because of diversity of culture, they believed use their free time to learn was a kind of overtime. Therefore, if they got the approval of the manager, they could learn in working time or only took two hours lessons for one month.

Disadvantage-employees

Case A, D, E, and F companies agreed that the biggest disadvantage of e-learning for employees was the lack of interaction. Since employees could use their free time to learn online, the relationship between them was not so close like before. If they got problem, they needed to write e-mail to ask trainer, not a group discussion in the classroom, it lacked immediate feedback. In case C company, employees might felt miscarried at the beginning because of the insufficient digital skill.

There was a very weird finding after interview. In literature review, Elearn Frame (2001) mentioned e-learning could improve collaboration and interactivity among learners. However, there were four investigated companies believed lack of

interaction was the biggest disadvantage of e-learning for employees. The data would be showed in Table 4.8 as below.

Table 4.8.The opposite point from literature review after interview Benefit of E-learning (literature review) ★ ★ ★ ★Disadvantage of E-learning

Improving collaboration and interactivity among learners.

Lack of interaction (A, D, E and F)

Source: Arranged by researcher

Improvement of the traditional learning

For case B, D, and E companies, they believed e-learning saved more time, money, and workforce cost for training and solved problems of arranging trainers and classrooms.

For the aviation industry, e-learning enriched the content of curriculums. In case C company, e-learning with video let the course livelier and employees could

understand deeply with the virtual reality of airplane. In case D company, e-learning

saved much time of trainers, they did not need to repeat the lesson again and again,

employees could learn at home first, then, the time in classroom became the opportunities of experience sharing and case study; there would be more time for interacting together.

For the high-tech manufacturing industry, e-learning could improve the problem of absence and store know how in the companies. In case E and F companies,

employees were often absent from class because of busy on business or having business trip, e-learning could let them learn anywhere with internet, no limit with place and time. Then, storing“know how”was very important issue for case E and F companies.

The Content of M-learning on Workforce Traning

The data of investigations showed the content of m-learning on workforce training was described on the issue of from e-learning to m-learning. The coding list with the investigated information was shown in Table 4.9.

Table 4.9.Coding list of the content of m-learning on workforce traning

Issue Category Item Concept Company

5-8-1 According to the character of job of employees.

B

5-8-2 If the security is mature enough, it can download any kind of content.

B, E

5-8-3 It is similar to e-learning in training.

C

5-8-4 Immediate message. F 5-8-5 Searching information F From

e-learning to m-learning?

5-8 Content &

Condition

5-8-6 Assistance in learning. F

Case B company believed the content and condition of m-learning was according to the character of the jobs, if employees often worked in the office, m-learning was unnecessary for them. Then, security was another concern for the financial insurance industry.

The only concern of Case E company was the security, if the security was no doubt for m-learning, the content and condition would not be the problem. If company wanted to input m-learning, there was still some worries on security, the curriculum on PDA might be conducted as general lesson, like managerial course.

Case C company believed the content and condition of m-learning was almost the same with e-learning. There was no problem to train in m-learning and the design of software was user friendly if only familiar with it, it was easy to use. The needs of skill of trainer were the same with e-learning.

Case F Company assumed m-learning was the immediate message and searching information, helping for learning but not the main point. M-learning was more like e-book, employees could use it to search the knowledge of work, and therefore, the immediate message was the most important for m-learning. Employees could use it to communicate if they were out of office because the technology was very portable.

However, the limited screen was hard for learning, only for assisting learning.

There were five opinions for the content of m-learning, however, only case C

company input m-learning in their workforce training, according to the experiences,

case C company mentioned the content and condition of m-learning is almost the

same with e-learning. The answer was equal to the Quinn’s (2000) explanation of

m-learning. In the literature review, Quinn believed the definition of m-learning was

that e-learning through mobile computational devices and a lot more. It was beyond

the traditional e-learning view, including performance support and emphasizing

Input M-learning in Workforce Training

The data of investigations showed input m-learning in workforce training was also described on the issue of from e-learning to m-learning. The coding list with the investigated information was shown in Table 4.10.

Table 4.10.Coding list of input m-learning in workforce traning

Issue Category Item Concept Company

5-1-1 m-learning C

5-1

Next Step 5-1-2 KM A, E, F

5-2-1 No consideration A, F 5-2-2 According to character

of jobs, but having no plan to input m-learning

B

5-2-3 Have considered but not yet

D, E 5-2

M-learning in training

5-2-4 PDA is the learning tool of m-learning and offers managerial functions

C

5-4 Cost

5-4-1 Spend less time, money, and workforce than e-learning

C 5.

From e-learning to m-learning?

5-5

Reason for implementing M-learning

5-5-1 Short-time learning is suitable for employees who have business trip or flight crew.

C, E

Table 4.10.(Continued)

Issue Category Item Concept Company

5-6-1 PDA makes employees feel technologic and accomplishable; it is more acceptable for employees.

C 5-6

Advantage/

Better than e-learning

5-6-2 It is convenient for people who work in aviation industry.

D

5-7-1 Continuing to enrich the content of e-learning.

B, D

5-7-2 Tool of m-learning is the burden of cost.

A, D

5-7-3 External environment is not mature and it is not cost effective for company.

D

5-7-4 Insufficiency in security E 5-7-5 Training budget does not

plan to m-learning.

E

5-7-6 M-learning is

information searching not learning.

F

5-7-7 It will be more successful after KM.

F

5-7-8 High cost for inputting m-learning, the character of job of company is unnecessary.

F

5-7-9 Screen of PDA is limited.

A,D,F 5-7

Reason for not

implementing M-learning

5-7-10 Capacity of PDA is limited.

A

Next Step

Case C company was from e-learning to m-learning in 2006. Case A, E, and F companies would input KM for next step. Case E and F companies believed there would be many know how when employees communicated with customers, but they did not write it down and the intangible asset disappeared in the minute. For that reason, Case E and F company wanted to launch a system to store know how and employees can search the experiences of others by database.

M-learning in training

Case A and F companies had no consideration to input m-learning in training.

Case B company believed that inputting m-learning was according to the character of jobs, but it had no plans to input it. Case D and E companies had considered m-learning once, but the time was not yet for it. For Case C company, PDA was the learning tool of m-learning and it offered managerial functions for company.

Cost of m-learning

Case C company spent less time, money, and workforce than e-learning. Case C company started to plan m-learning at the beginning in 2006, the total budget was approximate $NT2.5 million, and there were 10 people in the project group. Since there were limit on learning with PDA, the curriculum could not to be too fancy, then, the cost would not be too high. The biggest reason for saving the cost of m-learning was to copy the successful experience from e-learning, therefore, having e-learning experience before m-learning was very important.

Reason for implementing M-learning

For case C and E companies, short-time learning was suitable for employees who

had business trip or were flight crew. Case C company considered with the character of flight crew, PDA was better for them to carry; they did not need to find the PC or notebook to learn in their waiting time on the ground, they could learn on PDA no matter where they were.

Case C company also developed digital flight time report system to combine with m-learning; the pilot could fill many forms on PDA and saved time for them. If PDA was only for m-learning, the reason was not strong enough for the planner to persuade the company to execute the program.

Advantage/ Better than e-learning

For Case C company, PDA made employees felt technologic and accomplishable;

it was more acceptable for employees than e-learning. Employees were happy to have PDA given by company and they could learn anytime in everywhere without PC. The technology was automatically to download the curriculum for employees, therefore, they might feel m-learning was more user friendly than e-learning.

Case D company supposed m-learning was convenient for people who work in aviation industry. For case D company, there were a lot of employees worked mobile, they did not have the stable office to stay, not only the pilot and cabin crew, but also the maintainer in the airport. Therefore, m-learning would be more convenient to take courses for these employees than e-learning.

Reason for not implementing M-learning

For case A company, the screen and capacity of PDA were limited and the tool of m-learning was the over cost for company.

Case B company needed to continue to enrich the content of e-learning, and

For case D company, the external environment was not mature enough, m-learning was not cost effective for company because the oil price was getting higher these years, the loading was very heavy for aviation industry, and the tool of m-learning would be the burden of cost for company and the PDA’s screen was limited for learning. If e-learning was not as good as expectation, inputting m-learning would be resisted by employees. Therefore, case D company decided to continue to improve the content of e-learning.

For case E company, the security was insufficiency of PDA and the budget was not planning for m-learning yet. Case E company considered to input m-learning, but it worried about the secret information might be leaked out

Case F company considered the character of their jobs was not suitable for m-learning and the cost was too high to input m-learning. Case F company believed m-learning was a kind of information searching but not learning because of the limited screen was not suitable for learning. If m-learning was needed, it was better after inputting knowledge management system.

There was only one corporation, case C company which had input m-learning in workforce training in the six interviewed corporations. The reason for case C

company inputting m-learning was similar to the idea of O’Keefe and Koschembahr.

In the literature review, O’Keefe (2002) mentioned m-learning was adapting

e-learning to new devices would enable learning on the fly, potentially increasing

productivity by making learning available anytime and anywhere. M-learning makes

the concept of just in time learning a reality. O’Keefe made the example was the

mobile workers which like those in an automotive dealership, there were numerous

applications given by O’Keefe in chapter two. Koschembahr (2005) also modified

that m-learning could address all challenges of the retail industry which like cost

saving, enhancing customer service, and having better selling opportunities.

For case C company, the mobile workers, like pilots took training courses through mobile technology was more cost effective for company and the pilots also could increase the productivity by doing the short-time learning.

However, the reasons for not implementing m-learning in workforce training of other five case companies could make a comparison of the barriers of the mobile technologies. The data would be arranged as Table 4.11 as below.

Table 4.11.The technology barriers for not implementing m-learning The barriers to using handhelds

(Lockitt, 2005)

Reason for not implementing M-learning

The cost The cost concern (A, D, E and F)

Small screen size Limited screen (A,D and F) Limited functionality Limited capacity (A)

Source: Arranged by researcher

According to Table 4.11, the reason for not implementing m-learning was most based on the barriers of the technologies. Several investigated companies believed if the technology was going to improve and more user friendly for learner, they would consider input m-learning in their workforce training in the future.

The Needs and Difficulties from E-learning to M-learning

There was only case C company input m-learning in workforce training, based on its experience; there were some needs and difficulties from e-learning to

m-learning. Then, case D and E companies also supposed some points in this section.

The data was showed in Table 4.12.

Table 4.12.The needs and difficulties from e-learning to m-learning

Issue Category Item Concept Company

5-3-1 Make allowance of company owner to input m-learning

C

5-3-2 The platform of e-learning and

m-learning can not be integrated

C

5-3-3 PDA is not popular but high digital skill is necessary for trainees, so it causes training

problems

C

5-3-4 Limited capacity of PDA C, D 5-3-5 High developed cost of

m-learning

C, D

5-3-6 Short battery life of PDA C 5-3-7 Distrusting on PDA, it’s

recognized for searching not learning

C, D

5-3-8 Insufficiency in security E 5-3-9 Special system controls

PDA automatically to download learning content, it can make up limited capacity.

C

5-3-10 Curriculum design needs to be suitable for PDA; it can make up the problem of limited screen.

C

5-3-11 Equip with PDA by company

C 5.

From e-learning to m-learning?

5-3

Need/Gap/

Difficulty

5-3-12 Company needs to have good experience in e-learning before m-learning.

C

Need/Gap/Difficulty

This part showed the experiences of case C company which had input m-learning, and the interviewee described the needs, and difficulties they met. Case D and E companies also gave some opinions about m-learning.

Need

Although m-learning was suitable for the character of jobs in case C company, the planner needed to make allowance of company owner to input and support it.

According to the limited capacity of PDA, case C company needed a special system to control PDA and downloaded learning content automatically every day.

Case C company collaborated with MINE LAB of TamKang University. Mine LAB designed an m-learning platform, and it could go by the learning habits and the capacity of PDA to download learning content of this time and deleted the curriculum which the learner had done before. Furthermore, PDA combined with the pilot check in system; pilot could login when they check in the company. When pilot put PDA on the transmission, PDA would get in the internet to renew the learning content

automatically.

Curriculum design needed to be suitable for PDA; it could make up the problem of limited screen. There was no complaint of limited screen because this problem could be avoided when trainer produced curriculum. If the curriculum was for PDA, the word needed to be clear and small, the picture could not be too big, and the frame required operating easily.

Case C company equipped PDA for employees; therefore, there was no

resistance of buying it. Case C company believed it would be better to have great

experiences on e-learning before inputting m-learning because the content of

design of learning content and employees might accept m-learning faster than e-learning.

Difficulty

Case C company found out there was a gap between e-learning and m-learning because the platform of e-learning and m-learning could not be integrated. For case C company, m-learning was off-line learning and test, as long as the learning record synchronized with e-learning, the record of employees on e-learning would be completed.

Actually, it was not so difficult for integrating in technique; however, the

executive team was different in e-learning and m-learning. Although they could share the experiences and information often, they were not the full time employees for e-learning and m-learning projects; they also had their own work in the corporation.

Then, e-learning was a program which needed to continue investing in developing the content of the courses and provide the best service for employees;

m-learning was also a program which could not be waited anymore, consequently, case C company still tried to conquer the problem of the platform.

Case C company believed PDA was not as popular as notebook and PC, however, it was necessary for trainees to have high digital skill, therefore, it might cause

training problems. Employees who could use PC and notebook was uncertain to use

PDA, they might need to re-educate with it. Case C company believed short battery

life of PDA was a difficulty for m-learning. If the PDA run out of battery, the

information in it would disappear for a moment. This is also a big issue for case C

company to solve. However, the finding was different with the opportunities of

mobile technology in chapter two. The data would be showed in Table 4.13.

Table 4.13.The opposite point from literature review after interview The opportunities of using handhelds

(Lockitt, 2005)

★Difficulty of m-learning in workforce training

Long battery life Short battery life of PDA (C)

The researcher supposed long battery life mentioned by Lockitt compared with the notebook which only had three to four hours electricity without plug in. Therefore, handhelds could operate more than ten hours meant long battery life. If the PDA could not store the information when it run out of battery, the battery life was certainly a important issue for case C company.

For case C and D companies, limited capacity of PDA, high developed cost of m-learning and distrusting on PDA were tough problem needed to overcome.

Furthermore, PDA was still recognized for searching not learning. These difficulties were also the barriers of mobile technologies mentioned by Lockitt (2005). The data was showed in Table 4.14.

Table 4.14.The barriers of using mobile technology The barriers of using handhelds

(Lockitt, 2005)

★Difficulty of m-learning in workforce training

The cost High developing cost (C and D)

Limited functionality Limited capacity of PDA(C and D)

Future proofing Distrusting on PDA (C and D)

Case E company considered with the security of PDA. Technique for high-tech

manufacturing industry was very significant, if the information lost, it also meant the

company lost the competitiveness.

The Impact on M-learning on Workforce Training

This part gathered the suggestion of all interviewees for this research; it showed in three sections, suggestion for the research, m-learning equal to m-training, and PDA online learning. The coding list with the investigated information was shown in Table 4.15.

Table 4.15.Coding list of the impact on m-learning on workforce training

Issue Category Item Concept Company

6-1-1 The popular and choice of the tool for

m-learning is very important.

C

6-1-2 Financial insurance industry is more suitable for m-learning.

B, D

6-1-3 Cognition between Taiwanese and European is different, Taiwanese dose not believe searching knowledge is a learning model.

D

6-1-4 The spread of

e-learning is relative to the basic education. If m-learning starts from enterprises not school, employees may not believe getting

information is learning.

D 6.

Suggestion

6-1

Suggestion for the Research

6-1-5 M-learning will definitely become a trend in the future.

E

Table 4.15(Continued)

Issue Category Item Concept Company

6-1-6 M-learning is the complement to e-learning and classroom learning.

F

6-1-7 The function of

database for m-learning is needed to be very friendly and human nature.

F

6-2-1 The mindset of learner is different.

C

6-2-2 M-learning is hard to become training because of tool, it is fragmental learning.

F 6-2

M-learning=M- training?

6-2-3 KM should before m-learning.

F

6-3

PDA online learning

6-3-1 According to the wireless environment.

C

Suggestion for the Research

Case C company believed the popular and choice of the tool for m-learning was very important because PDA was not as popular as mobile phone. If PDA was not for learning, its function would be very limited and becomes a burden to carry out anytime. If the tool was the mobile phone PDA, it would be easier to accept by employees and the future of m-learning would be more prosperous.

Case B and D companies believed this issue of research, m-learning was suitable

for financial industry. The interviewee of case D company pointed out a particular

concern, Taiwanese was different with European; we might not consider that fast

the channel of knowledge source and it would inspire them follow-up learning.

Case D company also believed the spread of e-learning was relative to the basic education because students were used to find information and do homework on the internet. If m-learning started from enterprises not school, employees may not believe getting information was learning.

Case E company believed m-learning would definitely become a trend in the future. When the problem of bandwidth and security of PDA were solved and the price of hardware was getting lower, m-learning would have more chance to become master stream. Because of the improving of technology, the possibility became more and more, m-learning was really practical for traveler, it must be a trend in the future.

The opinion of case F company showed m-learning was the complement to e-learning and classroom learning. M-learning was an experience sharing or database searching. The function of database for m-learning was needed to be very friendly and human nature.

M-learning equal to M-training

Researcher wanted to define if m-learning in training would be the same with m-training or not. Case C company supposed the mindset of learner was different between learning and training. Learning was active, but training was passive. Case C company hoped learner could learn happy and active without strain.

For case F company, m-learning was hard to become training because of the tool;

it only could call fragmental learning. There would better be implementing KM before m-learning in company.

PDA online learning

If the employees could use PDA to learn online or not in case C company, it was

according to the wireless environment. Case C company would renew the PDA after two years, until then, it was hard to tell what kind of tools for m-learning was better.

Actually, PDA could get online in the office because there was wireless internet in every terminal, but it was not sure to get wireless internet out of office.

According to the investigated data, m-learning would be the trend in the future;

however, its impact on workforce training was not a big shot for corporations, it was more like the change and influence unobtrusively and imperceptibly. Nevertheless, m-learning had its own limit, for example, it was more suitable for employees who needed to travel on work, and therefore, it might not be as popular as e-learning for corporations in Taiwan. Technology would improve everyday on nowadays; the panorama of m-learning might be different in few years.

Main Findings

Based on the discussion of data analysis, there were some important findings in this research. The main findings would be shown as points as following.

1. There was only case C company to introduce m-learning for the company.

The implemented situation of m-learning in case C company would be arranged in table 4.16 as fallowing.

Table 4.16 The really situation of m-learning in case C company M-learning in case C company

Case C Company Aviation industry

Time 2006

Department Flight Operations Division / 10 people in the project group

Trainee Pilots

Table 4.16(Continued)

M-learning in case C company Technology PDA ( with GPS system)

Cost Approximate $NT2.5million

Reason for implementing m-learning

Short-time learning is suitable for flight crew, like pilots.

Advantage Technology of m-learning was more user friendly than e-learning and made trainees feel technologic and accomplishable.

Content It was similar to e-learning.

Condition Implementing e-learning before m-learning.

Off line learning According to the wireless environment, m-learning in case C company was the off line learning.

Based on the experience of implementing m-learning, case C company also found out some needs and difficulties from e-learning to m-learning. The data was arranged in table 4.17 as following.

Table 4.17 Need and difficulty from e-learning to m-learning

Need Difficulty

Get agreement of the company owner Limited capacity of PDA Special system to control PDA

automatically to download the learning content to make up the problem of limited capacity of PDA.

PDA is not popular but high digital skill

is necessary for trainees, so it causes

training problems

Table 4.17(Continued)

Need Difficulty

Curriculum design should be suitable for PDA learners; it can make up the problem of the limited screen.

Distrusting on PDA, it’s recognized for searching not learning

Equip with PDA by company. High cost for developing m-learning Have successful e-learning experience

before m-learning.

Platform of e-learning and m-learning can not be integrated.

Security insufficiency Short battery life of PDA

2. Case A, E, and F companies believed the next step of e-learning would be KM.

They wanted to develop a huge database to store know how for the company.

Case F company also assumed it would be easier to introduce m-learning in company after KM.

3. The biggest reason for not implementing m-learning was about the barriers of the mobile technology.

The case companies believed the barriers of the mobile technology, like the high

cost, limited capacity of PDA, limited screen, and distrusting on PDA, etc, would be

problems for introducing m-learning in corporations. They supposed if the difficulties

of the mobile technology could be conquered in the future, they would consider

introducing m-learning to companies because they believed m-learning was more

convenient for their employees who worked out of the office all the time.