An online asynchronous software training strategy to improve knowledge absorption capability and end-user satisfaction

The continued and increasing use of online asynchronous training raises the question of whether the most effective training methods applied in live instruction will carry over to the online environment.; Three general training methods have been compared experimentally in the face-to-face setting using live instructors: Instruction-Based—teaching software characteristics; Exploration-Based—teaching through practice on relevant examples, and Behavior Modeling (BM)—teaching through demonstration. Simon, Grover, Teng and Whitcomb (1996) and Compeau and Higgins (1995) found that BM is the most effective of these three methods. Since the nature of online asynchronous training is that it does not use live instructors, it is possible that an Instruction-Based or Exploration-Based training approach may be more effective than BM in this environment. The dissertation compares the three primary software training methods delivered in a web-based format, and uses a “live instructor” BM format as a control.; Previous research suggests that software training methods be tailored to the learning styles of trainees. These assertions have not been tested in an online asynchronous environment. The association between learning styles and training methods as they affect online training outcomes needs to be analyzed further.; A quasi-experiment was conducted with undergraduate students who were taking a spreadsheet course in a university in Taiwan. Four methods (as noted above) were compared to see which produced the best performance (as measured by near- and far-transfer knowledge absorption capacity), and whether there were interactions with learning styles (as measured by the Kolb Learning Style Instrument). Satisfaction with training was also measured.; The results of the experiment indicate that during a short duration of training instructors should employ an Instruction-Based approach to improve students' knowledge absorption and to employ a BM approach to improve end-user satisfaction. The study does not validate the hypothesis that there is a correlation between learning style and training approach. Neither was the study able to replicate the recommendations of Bostrom et al.'s and Simon et al.'s frameworks in the online asynchronous environment.