ABSTRACT
Web-based technology has become increasingly widespread in the work-place over the last decade. Driving this rapid introduction are expectations of universal availability (i.e., potential to provide anytime, anywhere access to people, services, and information), and potential for cost-savings. Web-based distance learning is a case in point, where workplace applications have been motivated both by the hope for reduced training costs and by the promise of flexible, just-in-time training. This is particularly true in the U.S. military, one of the largest workforces in the world. The U.S. Department of Defense has embarked on ambitious and broad-reaching revisions to its traditionally classroom-based training processes, seeking instead to bring the training to the trainee by moving the major portion of training to the Web and other forms of computer-based distance learning (CDL). A potential Achilles’ heel for such large-scale transformations is a tacit assumption underlying the expectations of universal availability and cost savings: That those in the workplace (in the training case, the learners and the organizations in which they work) are able to successfully use the application to achieve their work (i.e., training) goals, a process we call employment of the technology. When the technology cannot be successfully employed, the expected benefits are reduced or even eliminated, resulting in an essentially wasted investment.
