The influence of multimedia training on users' attitudes: lessons learned

  • Authors:

  • David S. McDonald

  • Affiliations:

  • Georgia State University, Robinson College of Business, Department of Computer Information Systems, 35 Broad Street, Room 934, Atlanta, GA

  • Venue:
  • Computers & Education
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

The workforce within the US is increasingly culturally diverse and mobile. Rapid technological changes, coupled with cultural diversity and employee mobility, have created the milieu for critical issues in organizational training methods. Effective learning systems enable employees to adapt more easily to change, thereby increasing their effectiveness. Multimedia systems can be the solution to enhancing performance effectively and efficiently by accelerated learning. This paper examines such a system developed by Holiday Inn Worldwide for the implementation of a new information system. Individuals' performance and attitudes were tracked for two primary groups: those receiving training on a new information system using traditional training methods and those using a multimedia CDROM to acquire mastery of the same system. 826 employees participated, 467 of them were trained by the multimedia system. Attitude measures included attitudes toward self: job, training, and technology. Individual performance was measured by standardized tests on employees' knowledge of the new information system. Our findings demonstrated that users' attitudes were consistently poorer when trained at sites which employed multimedia training when compared with users trained in using a more traditional approach.