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Pilot study of humanitarian e-learning shows promising signs of performance improvements and impact

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Humanitarian Leadership Academy
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Humanitarian U, the Humanitarian Leadership Academy and MEDAIR, have today (23 January) launched a new report looking at the impact that e-learning has on humanitarian aid. The report ‘Pilot evaluation to assess the impact of e-learning on humanitarian aid work’, is the first of its kind to research the impact e-learning has and enables us to improve e-learning for humanitarian workers and improve aid delivery.

The report has found that humanitarian organisations and aid organisations need to:

  1. Ensure that appropriate training is available that will strengthen and support a learner’s experience.
  2. Better educate funders regarding the essentiality of supporting and strengthening organisational capacity to manage and coach learning processes.
  3. Commit to the individual learning process if transfer of learning is to successfully contribute to changes to the individual learner’s quality of work.
  4. Ensure greater value of donor support not only by increasing investment but also assuring greater influence by donors to strengthen the sector for training & evaluation.

The need for continued learning has been recognised, and now the humanitarian sector needs to take a consistent approach in training their staff and volunteers.

Kirsten John, CEO, Humanitarian U said:

“I am pleased that after having envisioned this project over five years ago, we are finally able to produce this novel, rich and innovative report on the impact of e-learning on humanitarian aid work. We have made several recommendations based on our findings that should generate some reflection and discussion as the sector looks towards standardized competencies and assessment strategies for professional development and certification.”

Paul Gunaratnam, Head of Strategy, Planning and Impact, Humanitarian Leadership Academy said:

“With the disastrous effects of climate change leading to conflicts over arable land and water resources, the need for strengthened capabilities to respond to crisis grows stronger in the Global South. The work of Humanitarian U and the Academy responds to this need through the provision of online and blended learning to engage humanitarian workers on the ground, understanding the impact of this type of training became paramount and of vital mutual importance to both organisations.”

In summary:

This study serves to better understand how competency-based e-learning training programs are having an impact on humanitarian work. Not only ‘how’ these have an impact, but specifically in ‘what ways’ the transfer of learning from these training program experiences are ultimately contributing to strengthening and/or improving coordination and service delivery in the system of humanitarian field work. Specifically, the study aimed to develop a system of measurement tools that can support the assessment of the level of impact that competency-based e-learning training programs are having on humanitarian work in the field.

The scope of this study specifically addressed areas of inquiry that target ways the training is having successful results on the work of the learners and their organizations. These include but are not limited to perception of:

  • Level of competency from learners engaged
  • On the job performance
  • Impact of training on programmatic effectiveness
  • Impact of training on programmatic efficiency
  • Feelings of personal well-being and security
  • Perception of professionalism
  • Future career advancement
  • Greater impact (lives saved)

The full report can be found here: http://bit.ly/HUpilotstudy