Category: LRNT 622

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For my Applied Research Project (ARP), the theoretical framework that I am interested in exploring and investigating more is the motivational theory. Understanding what drives people towards a particular goal or outcome is relevant, particularly to all businesses. The reason is simple, more motivated employees are more productive, and more productive employees are therefore more profitable. As easy as it seems, understanding the logic behind human motivation is hard to understand, spark, and use effectively. As stated by Keller & Susuki (2004) “overcoming these motivational challenges can be difficult because of the complexity of human motivation and the vast number of motivational concepts and theories that exist”.       

The purpose of my ARP is to explore the implementation of e-learning strategies that might be used in the automotive industry to train and prepare its workforce. E-learning is convenient, impactful, and offers many benefits to organizations and their learners. Keller (2008) stated that “e-learning systems are being adopted and developed at ever-increasing rates; they have many potential benefits, but they also have challenges” (para. 1). As I study more about motivational theories, it has become clearer the connection between this framework and my research topic. However, some questions that I look forward to investigating are:

• How does motivation affect online learning environments?
• What are some of the motivational characteristics of the learners and how to strengthen the areas that are weak?
• What are some motivational theories that have been proven effective in achieving success?

References

Keller, J. & Suzuki, K. (2004). Learner motivation and E-learning design: A multinationally validated process, Journal of Educational Media, 29:3, 229-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/1358165042000283084

Keller, J. (2008) First principles of motivation to learn and e-learning, Distance Education, 29:2, 175-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587910802154970

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For my Applied Research Project, and after narrowing things down a little bit, I am interested in exploring how digitization and e-learning within the Automotive Industry can be used for training personnel.

At this early stage, I can think of three different methods for disseminating my research:

• First, a brief and concise presentation to upper management with proposed strategies, solutions, and my research findings.

• Second, after receiving feedback and authorization from my organization’s upper management I could potentially disseminate my research findings to all staff members from all our locations as a digital publication within our company staff portal.
• Lastly, If the results were positive within our organization, I could consider sharing my work and findings with a larger audience by contacting our franchise’s (General Motors) District Manager who may be interested to share the information with other regions at the dealership level or possibly across Canada. I am not sure if this is a route I would like to follow, but as my research evolves, I will adjust and deliver as I see doable, relevant, and appropriate.