Improving E-Learning through Feedback : An Approach to Listening to the Voice of the Customer

Abstract

For several years, e-learning has been used increasingly as an electronic means of training and educating employees in business companies. Despite the cost-effective benefits of e-learning, and its use as a flexible method of self-study, there is a need for a customer oriented process for creating high quality e-learning. This thesis is about implementing customer orientated practices in a case organization, which uses e-learning to train its employees and customers. The purpose of this thesis was to find out how to embed the voice of the customer in an improvement process of e-learning in the case organization, firstly, by creating a set of tools for gathering and analyzing qualitative feedback, and secondly, by implementing a procedure for connecting qualitative data into a continuous improvement process. An action research design was used in the thesis in three research cycles. The first cycle was a current state analysis, which built a conceptual framework through the best available knowledge in literature and a survey of the employees of the case company. In the second cycle, theme interviews were conducted with the employees of the case organization and subsequently with the users of e-learning. In parallel with the first and second cycle, a user satisfaction model of e-learning was developed to create a theme interview model. In the third cycle, a quality improvement process was implemented by conducting a workshop to analyze qualitative feedback from the users. The research resulted in a revised process of evaluating and improving e-learning by embedding the voice of the customer through the continuous improvement activity. The research also resulted in the creation of an interview template; a model of the user satisfaction of e-learning, which was found valid for the case organization; and best practice recommendations for e-learning developers of the case organization.