| The military instituted blended e-learning training programs to reduce manpower requirements and to lower training costs by leveraging technology, but success in this relationship has not been studied specifically. Working within theoretical constructs of motivation, expectancy, and social cognition this quasi-experimental study examined the effect of program format (traditional versus blended) of U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) law enforcement courses on training transfer, metacognition skills use, and course outcomes. A convenience sample of Coast Guard personnel was used, and participants were assigned randomly to either a traditional (n=48) or blended (n=41) course. Training transfer was measured with the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI), metacognitive skills use was assessed with the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), and trainee performance was recorded by comprehensive tests and practical training evaluations. Hotelling's Trace was used to compare groups. Participants in the traditional course scored significantly higher on the cognitive test and performance evaluation than participants in the blended course. No difference was found regarding metacognitive skill use between the groups, but significant differences were observed between traditional and blended groups for metacognitive skill use in regards to performance. Further findings found there was a significant difference between the traditional and blended groups of training transfer, specifically for content validity and transfer design. The implications for positive social change from this study include knowledge useful to educators, psychologists, developers, other researchers, and decision makers that could result in changes to how they analyze, design, implement, and deliver blended training programs within organizations. |
