Exploring diversity of learning outcomes in e-learning courses: results of a qualitative study in a French multinational company

The implementation of e-learning by companies in France is ongoing. One of their issues is to improve the learning experience of their employees. From our point of view, this implies that they must better understand the learning experience of the employees. This paper suggests a qualitative approach to learning in order to identify the diversity of learning outcomes achieved in a given e-learning course. Four e-learning courses were studied in a French multinational company. Forty-two interviews were conducted. Results showed that employees reached different types of learning outcomes even if they completed the same e-learning course. Finally, eight learning outcomes are identified: procedural information acquisition, declarative information acquisition, skills acquisition, skills automation, content understanding, understanding of the work environment, understanding of oneself and no perceived learning.