Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 41

Internet Learning
Figure 2. ADDIE Model Steps
need and evaluation completes the cycle by
investigating if the solution has addressed the
original need and where the next need may
be (see Figure 2).
This overall model of learning
development, and its similarity to the decisionmaking
and management models used
throughout the business world, highlights
the extent to which workplace learning is
truly a distributed activity. This distributed
nature lends itself to viewing workplace
learning as an overall organizational strategy
rather than a compartmentalized activity for
a specific department or a specific user group.
To better understand this, the common
elements of training for different groups in
the organization will be explored.
Individual Participation in Workplace
Learning
While workplace learning is an
activity to benefit the organization as a whole,
all of the learning ultimately takes place at
the individual level. In order to effectively
deliver a workplace learning experience
the individual must be addressed. Kyndt
& Baert (2013) explain the development of
an individual’s participation in a workplace
learning experience as starting, “…from a
generally formulated or felt need that evolves
into an educational need, which leads toward
an intention to participate in learning and a
concrete educational demand, resulting in
the actual participation in a learning activity”
(p 275).
This first step in the individual
learning experience matches the first step in
the ADDIE model of workplace development;
recognition of a need. For the individual this
is an educational need. This recognition
of need leads employees to engage in
learning activities for a broad variety of
reasons, including their ability to maintain
performance and retain employment
and also to learn how to operate in the
increasingly dynamic work environments of
today’s organizations (Billet & Choi, 2013).
Employees clearly recognize a need for
learning in connection to their role in the
workplace, but the next step is achieving
the necessary motivation to take action to
satisfy their perceived need.
Motivation for learning occurs on
several different levels: the individual level,
the learning activity level, and the social
context level (Kyndt & Baert, 2013). While
individual motivation is addressed here the
role of the organization in serving the learning
activity and the social context of the learning
will be explored in the following section.
McQuaid, Raeside, Canduela, Egdell, and
Lindsay (2012) found that for low-skilled
workers motivating factors for pursuing
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