Agile Approach for E-Learning in Digital-Leadership Training for Small and Medium Enterprises

Abstract

Training for small and medium enterprises, especially in the context of leadership and digitalisation, has been traditionally carried out in form of presence workshops. Like other learning and training offers, this type of training needed to be carried out virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing advantages as well as disadvantages. Furthermore, the purpose of such courses is typically to convey a curriculum of preselected content and skills previously deemed useful. This paper presents the experiences from a mini-course on digital leadership carried out virtually during the pandemic that aims to incorporate SME needs in an agile manner. The presented mini-course is being developed using action research approach and aims to provide input for designing training in this context beyond the current crisis. The findings show high acceptance by the participants for the 100% virtual format and the effectiveness of the pilot run was proven to increase the digital skills of the participants. Engaging participants in order to reflect their needs has proven challenging and will be considered in the next action iteration.