eLearning Strategy Development

Summary

MLA invests in high quality learning and extension activities to ensure producers are aware of and have the opportunity to adopt the outcomes of research and development within their farm businesses. MLA develops, sometimes in conjunction with other industry organisations, information and training resources that are utilised in awareness events, workshops and farmer-directed group activities. The modes of delivery are usually face-to-face, mentoring and self-directed learning. eLearning has the potential to provide another mode of delivery and deliver benefits over and above some of the current delivery models. Its effectiveness as an approach will depend on target audience demographics, such as how they like to learn and their information technology and communications (IT&C) infrastructure, and the marketing effort to make them aware of the learning resources. It is the purpose of the proposed eLearning Strategy Research Project to undertake research to determine a future strategy for MLA's eLearning activities The eLearning Strategy is informed by an examination of the issues related to people, platforms and processes in MLA (and its stakeholders) and addresses the key areas of business context, learning culture, technical infrastructure and implementation. Our research methodology uses a qualitative approach, involves a mix of face-to-face and phone meetings with key internal stakeholders; a phone survey of MLA-nominated external stakeholders and desktop research on MLA current training options and proposed content.