Browsing by Subject "työnantajan tuki"

This study has been carried out in the form of an article. Objectives. Previous research has shown that the reasons for employees attendance on MOOCs differ from other participants. There are multiple reasons for this which vary from course to course. Participants also experience the effects of the courses in differently, but many participants have described them professionally useful. Utilization of the skills learned in the MOOC course are also influenced by the extent to which the employer and work community support the application of new skills. The purpose of this study was to find out why people in the working life attend MOOC courses in the ICT-field and what kind of impacts participants report on the courses. In addition, the way in which employer support is related to the reasons for attending the course and the perceived benefits of the course was also investigated. Methods. The data collection of the study was carried out with an online survey in 2019. The respondents were employed course participants (n = 589). The analysis of the data was carried out by qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis of the open-ended answers to the questionnaire was performed with a theory-guided content analysis. From the answers to the multiple choice statements of the form, five factors were formed by exploratory factor analysis, which described the reasons and effects of participation in the course. Further analysis of the data included two-stage cluster analysis and analysis of variance. Results and conclusions. The reasons for participants to attend the course were divided into six categories: interest, understanding, benefit for work, promotion of studies, recommendation from others, and flexible execution. The effects experienced by the participants were also divided into six categories: increased understanding and learning of new skills, benefits in current work, benefits in studies, increased study of the topic, career benefits, and increased interest. A quantitative analysis of the data showed that the participants could be divided into a profile of the four beneficiaries through clustering. Widely supported and recognized by the work community, the effects were felt to be more significant than those that utilized working time and were not supported in relation to career advancement, career plans and work or study.