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This chapter provides an overview of two generally applicable frameworks relating to the use of technology-enhanced learning – ‘affordances’ and multimedia learning effects. First, the concept of ‘affordances’ as action potentials of technologies is identified as a way to think through technology-enhanced learning design possibilities, so as to help make technology selection decisions. Second, multimedia learning effects including the multimedia effect, the modality effect, the redundancy effect, the split-attention effect, and the personalization effect are presented as a scientific basis for understanding how to create cognitively effective learning experiences using text, images, sound, and video. Both affordances and multimedia learning effects are characterized as ongoing areas of research that are somewhat related, with the successful utilization of each depending on critical application by the designer.

Learning theory explains how organizations change as a result of experience, and can be used to predict the competitive strength of individual organizations and competitive pressures in organizational populations. We review extant learning theoretical propositions on how competitive strength is affected by experienced competition, founding conditions, and observed failures of other organizations. In addition, we propose that niche changes are an important source of learning. We test these propositions on data from the Norwegian general insurance industry. We find that historical density increases failure rates, contrary to some earlier findings, and also that the effect of founding density supports the density delay rather than trial-by-fire hypothesis. We find that failures of others before and during the lifetime of the organization reduce failure rates, and niche changes reduce failure rates for joint-stock companies but not for mutual firms. Overall the findings suggest that organizations learn more cheaply from the failures of others than from their own experiences, and that the stresses of competition can overwhelm the learning effects of competition.

Teachers have recently started to introduce wikis into their courses. However, comparatively few studies have looked at the actual experiences of students who are engaged in building a wiki community for a particular course. To address this limitation, this exploratory self-report study examined student experiences with using a wiki in an upper-level undergraduate course on media effects, their reflections on functioning as a member of this wiki community, and their overall satisfaction with taking this kind of a “hybrid” or “blended” course. Results show that students enjoyed learning about media effects by collaboratively building their wiki community, but were critical about the structure of the hybrid course.

Project ventures are an increasingly prevalent organizational form in many industries. The management literature has stressed their flexibility and adaptability advantages. This chapter focuses on the learning implications of the source of flexibility most essential to project ventures: the ability to switch partners during project formation and execution. This partnering flexibility creates opportunities to respond to new knowledge about characteristics of project tasks and project partners. Partnering flexibility, however, also creates learning challenges. The short-term nature of relationships between project partners and the disintegration of the project team after project completion challenges the accumulation and transfer of knowledge to future projects. Beyond the introduction of related learning opportunities and challenges, we identify potential contingency factors in the project context that shape when partner flexibility will have beneficial versus harmful effects. On the organizational level, we propose that project-governing permanent organizations can support project-venture learning. On the industry level, we highlight potential learning benefits of standardized partner roles and coordination practices. Thus, our chapter introduces a multilevel contingency framework for the evaluation of both learning opportunities and challenges of partnering flexibility in project-venture settings. We formulate testable propositions focused on partner-project fit and project performance.

Purpose – We explore two characteristics of groups in today's work environments, membership dispersion and geographic dispersion, and the effects that these conditions have on group and organizational learning.

Approach – We integrate findings on group membership dispersion and geographic dispersion and develop predictions of dispersion's effects on group learning, incorporating the literature on knowledge transfer, transactive memory, turnover, and communication.

Findings – Members in multiple work groups, while exposed to knowledge from different areas, have weaker group identities and are more adversely affected by time constraints than members who belong to only one group. Group members can be dispersed sequentially through turnover, which creates more knowledge-retention problems than those experienced by stable groups. Members of geographically dispersed groups are in positions to integrate novel knowledge. The necessary use of technology to communicate, however, reduces the ability of geographically dispersed group members to convey ideas as effectively as their collocated counterparts. Geographically distributed group members experience less common ground and more difficulty in transferring knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, than their collocated counterparts.

Originality/value – We discuss how membership and geographic dispersion pose challenges to and provide opportunities for group learning. We suggest how learning within dispersed groups can be supported as well as what the future holds for the role of these groups in the new economy. The chapter concludes that although membership and geographic dispersion pose challenges to learning at the group level, these conditions enable learning at the level of the organization.

Learner control is a widely touted and popular element of e-learning, both in the educational and organizational training domains. In this chapter, we explore the concept of learner control, highlighting its multidimensional and psychological nature. We examine the theoretical basis for the effects of learner control on learning and engagement. Next, we provide the reader with empirically based recommendations for designing learner-controlled training. We conclude by discussing how learner control research may be adapted to accommodate a variety of instructional methods, such as textbooks, mobile learning, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Faced with the outbreak of the pandemic, Chinese government quickly postponed the opening of schools and advocated “classes suspended but learning continues” project through online learning. In order to understand the teaching effect of online learning and explore a possible transformation of the application of educational information technology in the future, questionnaires have been used in this study to collect data of students, principals, and teachers across China. Most students and principals are satisfied with online learning, while teachers suggest that it is considerably difficult to teach online. Meanwhile, students, schools, and teachers are facing problems, including insufficient adaptation to online learning methods, poor learning quality, imperfect information infrastructure, insufficient learning resources, and so on. Based on the results, the authors propose to explore systematic solutions to guarantee a fair and high-quality development of online teaching. For one thing, the whole education system must ensure the fairness of learning conditions, encourage all-round development, and promote school–home cooperation. For another thing, it is necessary to clarify the connotation of online learning, guarantee the construction of information infrastructure, provide training in information technology and classroom management capabilities, and improve the evaluation system of online learning activities.

The literature on post-completion reviews (PCRs) either does not deal with the tying of PCRs to extrinsic rewards or provides scant theoretical reasoning or empirical analysis to back up its recommendations.

Based on research from psychology and empirical studies, the present chapter proposes that several effects of a PCR, which must be deemed rather dysfunctional, will increase when extrinsic rewards are linked to such a review. At the same time some possibly functional effects, however, are likely to remain constant. The propositions, therefore, call the usefulness of tying PCRs to rewards into question and call for further investigation.

The impact of environmental sustainability and knowledge dynamics on entrepreneurial growth and internationalization could do with added research focus. However, the rising importance of corporate sustainability and social responsibility in global business and entrepreneurship increasingly requires that these interdependencies be assessed. We assess these dynamics empirically through both quantitative and qualitative analyses. With the former, we employ a cross-sectional sample of Finnish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to illustrate the impact of learning orientation and environmental sustainability on their growth and internationalization. Specifically, we find that their impacts on entrepreneurial growth depend on the stage of their internationalization: Learning orientation predicts first foreign market entry among the enterprises, while environmental orientation predicts the subsequent performance among internationally operating enterprises. In addition, we find no moderation or mediation effects between learning orientation and sustainability, suggesting that their impacts are distinct from each other. We conclude by discussing these results and their implications on international entrepreneurial growth, and knowledge and sustainability dynamics in the entrepreneurial context.

We investigate the relationship between job complexity and skill development of adult workers in Europe using the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs Survey. ¹ The results suggest that challenging workplaces in which jobs are designed to include complex tasks that place high demands on workers’ skills also stimulate skill development. Increasing the degree of job complexity has positive and robust effects on the degree of skill development. Skill development is also positively linked to job tenure. The analysis stresses the importance of on-the-job learning and contextual workplace characteristics for adult workers’ skill development.