Addressing Global Labor Needs Using E-Training

Abstract

Given the increased globalization and 24/7 business operations, can we reasonably expect to rely on etraining to address a forecasted worldwide shortage of skilled workers? To answer this question, we will examine the key supply and demand determinants of the global worker shortage and analyze the critical systematic requirements that tend to favor the use of asymmetric, interactive, e-training technologies. Recent meta-studies of distance education conclude that distance education delivery is both cost-effective and is superior to face-to-face instruction, when controlling for several important intervening variables. Further, such studies conclude that when organized, systematic student discussions are employed the benefits are substantially enhanced. Give some of these identified benefits, can Internet technologies be used to somehow enable learning/training to take place, across different cultures and languages, as opposed to traditional training/educational systems which use “live” trainers/teachers in this process? To address this proposition, we will expand the discussion of tutored video instruction (TVI) by reviewing the recent research on some alternatives, regardless of whether the students taking the course are discussing the course materials at the same time