Cloud-based Learning Whitepaper

The growth of cloud and mobile technology is changing the use of learning platforms within organizations.  Traditional e-learning applications and learning management systems can no longer meet the training needs of organizations in the private sector, so new learning technologies will need to be adopted. Cloud computing decreases usage cost and increases transmission capacity for information and thus needs to be adopted as a platform by learning & development organizations. Cloud computing is beneficial to learning performance because it allows for anytime, anywhere learning that can be face-to-face or asynchronous. It is also economical because it reduces infrastructure by using datacenters instead of hosting onsite. This report looks at the current state of e-learning, and how cloud-based technologies can be adopted as cost effective learning solutions. I created this technology position paper as the semester project for my ICT in Organizations class, during the Spring 2020 semester.

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What did you learn?
For this class, my research was on the adoption of new learning technology within enterprise organizations, focusing on cloud-based e-learning. I started off with the hypothesis that the nature of technology and technology consumption was changing in such a way that learning and development departments within organizations need to adopt cloud-based technology in order to reach and engage learners. This project was an opportunity further expand on the research I did in Technology Futures, looking not just at mobile-learning, but also how off-premises learning can be made easily available to users working from any location, on any device.

How did you learn this?

The research drew heavily from D. Aggarwal's 2018 conference paper "Leveraging the Power of Cloud Computing for Technology Enhanced Learning", Daft & Lengel's information richness theory, and the book Blown to Bits by Evans and Wurster. I observed over the course of my research that new ICT's are lessening the tradeoff between media richness and reach by allowing for immediate communication that immediately conveys meaning. This in turn led me to explore the impact cloud-based technologies as an ICT solution to deliver learning.

What were some challenges that you overcame?

The biggest challenge I had to overcome with this project was onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the middle of the Spring Term, both Stout and my place of employment were sent all-remote. Dealing with the stress of uncertainty and the changes to routine made doing the work on this paper more difficult than it otherwise might have been. It also greatly influenced my choice of topic, as a I saw a need to make technology recommendations regarding remote learning.

How will you apply this information in the future?

If the Technology Futures forecast was the foundation of my research, this paper was the framing. It brought into more focus the work I started the previous semester. If I could write this paper again, I would take a deeper look at the organizational challenges and disadvantages. I might also focus more on one or two specific types of cloud-based learning, to allow me to take a deeper look at those and make more specific recommendations. However, given the challenges I had to overcome to write it, I am overall extremely proud of this paper.

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