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This article describes a research based case study that identified that organisational culture is significantly influencing e-learning design in the Australian Army. For organisations with hierarchical and authoritarian management and training cultures, e-learning provides opportunities for standardising content, delivery and course management while challenging traditional priorities, beliefs and practices. This case study focussed on the perspectives of key stakeholders in the Army involved in e-learning, including senior training managers, instructors, instructional designers and trainees. Within this context e-learning design was found to be explicitly designed to enculturate learners and to reflect the priorities in organisational culture. An inductive approach was used to develop a model, which maps the sources of organisational cultural influence on e-learning design. Implications of these findings for further research in different contexts are provided.

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This study aimed to improve understanding of the factors influencing e-learning effectiveness, particularly in large, dispersed workplaces and to develop a model based on the understanding of these factors. This study represents the first external research into the Australian Army’s e-learning projects. The study was aimed at the understanding of how the Army’s workplace environment was influencing the effectiveness of e-learning courses from multiple perspectives. Using an inductive Grounded Theory approach provided an established analytical method for developing a substantive model. While the field-based research was limited to a single organisation, it included multiple sites across Australia and a cross-section of e-learning activities and respondents throughout the organisational hierarchy. The main data source was 101 open-ended interviews conducted with respondents at Army bases or by phone or questionnaire. Other data sources included Army documents and the researcher’s observations and participation in e-learning classes. While the Army’s internal evaluation processes had justified the adoption of e-learning courses, it was evident in the study that the interaction of factors within the Army’s culture was influencing perceptions and experiences of e-learning effectiveness. An Integrated E-learning Culture Model (IECM) based on the analysis of stakeholder perspectives in the Army is presented. This thesis proposes that by adopting the perspective that e-learning environments are not value-free, it is possible to identify and align the competing priorities and discourses that influence how e-learning effectiveness is constructed and experienced in an organisation.

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