Challenges of an Online Training Programme: An Experience Report from Agro-based Entrepreneurs in a Sub-Urban Area
Ahmad Lutfi Anis1, Vloreen Nity Mathew2*, Adeline Engkamat3, Zalina Ibrahim2, Mohd Ariff Zabidi Manja4, Lau Sie Hoe3
1 Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
3 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
4 Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 September 2022 | Published: 1 October 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ajress.2022.4.3.9
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Abstract: It is well known that the education landscape changed immensely since the pandemic COVID-19 outbreak. Though the shift of traditional method to online method has been widely researched in schools and universities, the utilization of knowledge transfer using ICT as mediums among micro, small, and medium companies (MSMEs) training still lacked attention.
This paper reports on the experiences from a group of agro-based entrepreneurs in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia who participated in an online training programme. Using qualitative methods, the findings revealed that the participants agreed that the online training is interesting despite the challenges they faced. Among the challenges found are issues involving basic infrastructure like limited internet connectivity and personal issues like distractions due to multiple roles at home. The findings of the study have given insights on factors that require thoughtful attention when opting to use online training in the future.
Keywords: Online learning, digital economy, agro-based entrepreneurs, education, ICT, technology
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1. Introduction
In the past, the debate on using technology in education contributed to vast literature in determining the future direction of learning methods. The investment in the adoption in education technology ranging from education apps to various software reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 with a projection to increase to $350 Billion by 2025 (Li & Lalani, 2020). The evolution in Information, Computer and Technology (ICT) today made it possible as online learning relies on network technology for the knowledge transfer to take place. Since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the online learning method takes on the lead in all learning activities. Despite dismay it caused, COVID-19 is the catalyst to the dramatic change on learning methods (Nachmias & Hubschmid-Vierheilig, 2021; Wieland & Kollias, 2020; Zhao, 2020). To date, the use of online learning is experiencing exponential growth in the success of online learning with proven effectiveness. It is also undeniable that it caused so much discomfort and challenges especially to the emerging nation where resources are scarce and
limited technological infrastructure is present. The discussions in the past mainly touched on the implementation in a typical education setting such as schools and universities, but limited focus was given on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs who are involved in training using online methods. It is obvious that face-to-face training programmes in organizations are affected by the change. This paper attempts to fill up this gap and contribute to the existing literature from the agro-entrepreneur perspectives.
In Malaysia, digital economy is anticipated to contribute promising growth to the country’s GDP by 2025, upskilling the workforce and the economic activities towards the digital economy has become a crucial necessity. This digital transformation strategy will enable more MSMEs to compete on a global scale (Prime Minister’s Department, 2021). Sarawak, a state in Malaysia, is also moving towards the same direction. The anchor sectors of Sarawak Digital Economy are Agriculture, Manufacturing – Industry 4.0, Tourism, Smart City, Digital Health, e-Commerce, and Digital Government. These economic sectors, in turn, are powered by six enabling sectors: digital transformation, innovation and entrepreneurship, education, infrastructure, transportation, and utilities (Chief Minister’s Department, 2018). The digital economy initiative can be made successful with diverse talents that embrace digital technologies in the best way, to create a new way of life for the people of Sarawak.
To support Sarawak’s Digital Economy and Malaysia Digital Economy strategies, it is obvious that entrepreneurs must be equipped with the necessary skills to prepare them for the digital transformation. For this project, a series of digital economy training was conducted for a group of agro- entrepreneurs in Samarahan Division, Sarawak. The participants were the agro-based entrepreneurs who operate cottage industry business in Samarahan Division, Sarawak.
Due to the pandemic, the initial face-to-face training planned earlier was replaced with online training instead. Though the e-training is nothing new in Malaysia, a careful assessment is required to depict its effectiveness (Ramayah, Ahmad & Hong, 2012). Some of the vigorous questions to raise are “is online training methods suitable for the agro-based entrepreneurs?”,
“what are the challenges faced by the agro-entrepreneurs?” and most importantly “how do they feel about following the training using this method?”. In a scarce-resource environment in the many areas in Sarawak, identifying these potential obstacles is vital for a successful training outcome. Furthermore, the challenges faced by the online training participants will provide valuable insights and useful in creating an effective online training programme in the future.
The paper endeavors to describe the challenges faced and feedbacks from the trainees on the online training implementation amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Literature Reviews
Online learning method has been receiving numerous attentions even before the pandemic outbreak. E-learning certainly plays a major role in the learning process. Friedman and Friedman (2011) suggested that online learning is the ultimate solution to the face-to-face education crisis. The crisis includes issues such as the high cost of education, school dropouts rate and the quality of education. The findings assert the benefits of online learning provide numerous opportunities and unleashing creativities among both learners and instructors. This is consistent with the findings by Nguyen (2015) whereby online learning method provides good opportunities for students to independently manage their own learning, learnt better while being cost saving for the institution. This is due to the flexibility and creative approaches such as using gamification as part of the online teaching tools. It was also discovered that game- based learning not only benefit students’ learning and increased their satisfaction but also leave
positive impacts on students’ learning experience (Sangsawang, 2020; Pellas & Mystakidis, 2020). Learning using a tablet technology for instance, also have provided students exciting experience with a more active interaction (Montrieux, Vanderlinde, Schellens & De Marez, 2015). Furthermore, students have the advantage of time as they learnt faster as compared to traditional method. From these literatures, it is proven that online learning method offer vast opportunities for long term survival in learning innovations.
As online learning heavily relies on technology to function, the key challenges are commonly related to technological setting. Most of the time, insufficient bandwidth refrains online learning to achieve its objective especially for students who are in remote areas. In Malaysia, it was found that students were challenged with poor internet connection, insufficient data, confusion, overloaded assignments, and health concern over long hours screentime. These unpleasant situations were experienced by university students who were in urban and remote areas (Mathew & Chung, 2020). In other findings by Mulyanti, Purnama and Pawinanto (2020) shows that high percentage of vocational students in Java felt that online learning as not attractive. Furthermore, the least advantaged ones were having problems to follow their classes online due to low affordability to own personal computers (Li & Lalani, 2021). Other than that, the key challenges facing online learning for both students and instructors/institutions are often related to technological aspects, digital competency, economic and education level, assessment and supervision, heavy workload among the academics and suitability of the course to online method. The compatibility was for some subjects that required physical interactions such as sports sciences or medical fields such as nursing (Heng & Sol, 2021; Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020).
With regards to online training in workplace and micro, small, and medium companies (MSMEs), the literature is diverse however have similar drawbacks and benefits of online learning. E-training happens when the training is delivered through technology in a form of web-based, computer based and pre-recorded videos. In the assessment of intention to continue using e-training, Garg and Sharma (2020) found that there is a significant relation between the ease of use, course content and user satisfaction. This indicate that if the e-training has good content and user friendly, the participants will be more satisfied. This method is adopted for many reasons especially cost saving initiatives (Hasebrook, 2001). Conducting training programmes always incur higher cost in paying not only the consultants and trainers but also other expenses such as venue, food, and related training materials. On the other hand, the budget dilemma arises on the requirement of setting a technological system for organizations to successfully use e-learning (Cegarra‐Navarro & Sabater‐Sánchez, 2005).
In Sarawak’s scenario, the lack of basic facilities and telecommunication services contributed to the rural digital divide (Vong & Then, 2019). Thus, to bridge the digital divide, many initiatives have been carried out in Sarawak to provide skills development training to rural people, especially ICT training. The training and development programme is the ideal platform for rural small-sized enterprises to make full use of digital technology to enhance their business and to improve their socio-economic status, as well as to overcome the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic (Al Mamun et al., 2019; Cynthia & Nwabugwu, 2016; Islam, Rahman
& Saif, 2021). In the context of agro-based entrepreneurs, Refiswal and Julianti (2021) also outlined technology-based education and training as strategies for the development of young agricultural entrepreneurs, to increase knowledge and use of market information access through ICT.
3. Methods
The study employed the combination of the netnographic qualitative research method and conversation analysis. This method was selected as it could provide a more natural responses, simple, more efficient, economical, and prominent as compared to the ethnographic methods such as focus group interviews (Kozinets, 2002).
The training programme was completed in 4 weeks. To encourage more willingness to participate in the training, longer time was given to each topic covered weekly. This also provided the participants the flexibility of time to join while coping with their daily routines at home. The method of delivery for each topic was recorded videos by the trainers and later uploaded on a private Facebook Page created for the training programme as training medium.
The participants’ learning was facilitated closely by having interactive sessions and discussions using other online applications such as WhatsApp & Google Meet at the end of each training week. The training schedule is available in Table 1.
Table 1: Digital Economy Training Programme for Argo-based entrepreneurs in Samarahan Division, Sarawak.
Data was collected from the all the 19 training participants utilizing a few online applications like WhatsApp, Google Meet and Facebook at the end of the training programme. The questions enquired to the respondents are as follows.
1. What do they think of the digital economy online training implementation?
2. What are the challenges encountered by participants throughout the digital economy online training implementation?
Upon receiving the responses, the data was analyzed accordingly. Validation by language experts was also done to secure consistent meanings after language translation. This step is necessary as the responses were in local language and needed vigilant translation works.
Themes emerged from the analysis were validated from various sources from the literature using content analysis to maintain trustworthiness of the terms used to describe the findings.
4. Results
The respondents’ background
The results are reported herewith. A total of 19 respondents participated and shared their experiences on the online training programme. Table 2 below summarized the respondents’
background.
Week Training duration
Training Topics
1 7 days • Basic Word Processing
• Creating Business Logo Using Microsoft Power Point 2 7 days • Creating Business Poster Using Microsoft Word 3 7 days • Basic Business Template Using Microsoft Excel 4 7 days • Digital Marketing Strategies
• Digital Marketing Trends
Table 2: The respondents’ background
Variable n %
Gender Male Female Age
20-29 30-39 40-49 50 and above Academic Qualification
UPSR SPM Certificate Marital status
Single Married
Monthly Income (RM) Below 500 501 – 1000 1001 – 2000 2001 – 3000 More than 3000
Family Size 2 – 5 persons 6 – 9 persons
1 18
2 8 7 2 1 16
2 3 16
7 1 3 7 1 12
7
5 95 10 42 36 10 5 85 10 16 84 37 5 16 37 5 63 37
Based on the table above, majority of the respondents are female and only one male participated in the study. In terms of age group, 42% are from the 30 -39 years while the lowest 10% came from two age group category, the youngest and the most senior age group. For the academic qualification, 85% are qualifiers for Malaysian Public Examination level called the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers. 84% of the respondents are married and 16% are single/single parents. Regarding family size, the majority of 63% are responsible for minimum two persons and maximum five persons in the family.
The categories of products/ services are shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: The types of products/ services offered by the agro-based entrepreneurs
Feedbacks from the online training participants
This section reports on the participants’ feedback. The comments covered on the online training materials, the online training mediums, the trainers, the schedule, and the training assignments.
On top of that, the participants also shared their views on the digital platforms for business derived from the training contents. The category of feedbacks from the participants are presented in Table 3 below.
Table 3: Categories of feedbacks on the online training implementation.
Online training materials • Hands-on and good
• Easy to understand
• New knowledge learnt
• Useful input for business
• Enjoyed the video contents Online training mediums
(Facebook, WhatsApp & Google Meet)
• Easy to use (WhatsApp & Facebook)
• Flexible
• Convenient
• Unstable line, difficult to join Google Meet Trainers • Suitable topics chosen
• Encouraging talk by successful entrepreneurs Views on digital platforms for
business
• More profitable than conventional ways
• Willing to try
• May not work in poor network areas The training assignments • Beneficial practice
• Hands on
• Different than the ones attended before
• Required use of laptop instead of just phone The Schedule & timing • Flexible training schedule
• Easy to fit in
• Busy time for business Other general feedbacks • Good method
• Interesting new experience
• Still prefer face-to-face training for better focus
For the first category of feedback, participants are having positive attitude towards the training materials provided in the online training. The materials were described as hands-on in nature and good for their business. Participants who have had attended similar training previously and made comparison on the training materials whereby the online training was more in depth though conducted online. It was seen beneficial among the participants because of the new skill learnt i.e., producing a simple transaction record using Microsoft Excel. Overall, they agreed that the training inputs are useful for their business. Secondly, the feedback was on the online training mediums. Throughout the training, three main mediums were used namely Facebook, WhatsApp and Google Meet. Participants mentioned that the mediums selected were user friendly and flexible except for Google Meet. This was due to the limited internet connection and low bandwidth in their respective locations. It was easier for them to discuss via WhatsApp as it was simpler to use and required less data to operate. The recorded videos on Facebook provided them with many flexibilities as they could watch the training video at any time within the week.
Next, participants commented that the trainers for the training have provided suitable topics for the training. It was a good attempt by the researchers to conduct early studies on the needs of participants before setting up the matching topics for the training. The topics delivered were suitable to their needs as they covered the basics of what were needed in moving towards using digital platforms in their business. The sharing session by the successful local entrepreneurs contributed significantly to the training program. Participants felt highly motivated and encouraged to try using digital platforms in selling their products and services. Some
mentioned that during MCO, they have started selling their products online, the input received from the successful practitioners gave them more encouragement to continue selling online besides the traditional methods used. Some expressed that selling online during the MCO period was more difficult. Products ordered by customers outside the division could not be delivered, hence the order had to be turned down. A few more participants mentioned that they are still comfortable to sell their products offline. Nevertheless, the participants said that despite the obstacles, they are still willing to try selling online in the future, provided internet connection are improved. The trainings they received have indeed equipped them for better knowledge and participation in digital business.
In terms of online training schedule and timing, majority of the participants showed positive attitude. Participants commented that the longer span of time stretched for each module allowed the participants to fit in more comfortably. On the opposite end, some felt that the time was not suitable for them as their business was at peak during fasting month. Lastly, is on the training assignments. The participants agreed that the assignments given to them in the training were different than the ones they attended before. By producing the assignments, participants felt that the practice is useful and beneficial for their business. Other than that, participants described that the online training adopted was a good method and has given them a whole new experience. However, they indicated their preference to have a face-to-face training for better self-focus and concentration. It is found that despite some negative comments received, it can be concluded that most of the participants showed positive attitude about the online training implementation. Table 4 and 5 are some positive and negative comments from the participants.
Table 4: Positive Comments from participants.
No. Responses
1. “I really like this type of training, it helped me a lot in gaining new ways to conduct my business.”
2. “The sharing sessions by the invited entrepreneurs encouraged me to sell my products online.”
3. “The training materials are good, I can watch the videos again and again when I do not t understand.”
4. “I used to attend another training programme on digital marketing, but I learnt more hands on in this training. It is good for me.”
5. “After this training, I realized using digital platform for business is more profitable.”
Table 5: Negative Comments from participants on the online training.
No. Responses
1. “Not really suitable for me.”
2. “I dislike online training, I prefer face-to-face so that I can focus more.”
3. “I cannot focus because I am busy baking for my business.”
4. “My internet connection is bad, sometimes I cannot open the videos.”
5. “I think selling using the traditional methods give me more profit than online because of poor internet connection.”
Challenges faced during the online training
When it comes to challenges faced during the online training, further analysis was established.
The challenges faced during the online training are discussed as follows.
Technological Issues
Online training relies heavily on internet connection for its delivery. Due to that, one of the most pressing issues faced by the participants was poor internet connection and internet stability. This is evident by the challenge of having real-time follow up session via Google Meet medium between the trainer and the participants. Some participants were not familiar with setting up of Google Meet and needed assistance. Though the participants were willing to
participate, most of the real-time follow up sessions logged poor attendance due to instable internet connection in their respective homes. Some participants said they needed to be at the farm or somewhere outside their homes to have a stable internet connection. This situation had affected the participants’ motivation to join the training and wasted a lot of time trying. For those who had to be outside their homes, their possibility to participate also depended on the weather. When it was raining for instance, not only the connection was affected, to proceed in the open space was just impossible. However, when another online medium that required minimum data to operate such as WhatsApp was used, the real-time discussion was seen more successful. This indicated that the selection of medium used to conduct online learning needs to address the technological issue such as the internet connection availability and stability.
Other than that, due to poor connection, participants spent longer time to download the training videos successfully. Even so, the participants were still able to have the pre-recorded training videos as they were given ahead of time on a weekly basis. This arrangement allowed the participants to manage their training accordingly.
Conflicting roles at home
Another crucial encounter faced was ability to focus on the training. This was due to the roles conflict experienced by the participants at home. Juggling between business and family and other disruptions at home diverted their attention from the training. The online training schedule was carried out within the period the government enforced the Movement Control Order (MCO). Therefore, all the participants were at home. For participants who are having kids around, they needed to assist the children’s learning from home. Otherwise, other participants juggled equally with their daily work distractions. The MCO have affected their business operations and running business normally is tough. More efforts are demanded of them to sustain steady income for the family. Some participants could only manage to follow the training videos at their free time when work and home commitments were done. These distractions became the reasons behind the difficulty to focus entirely on the training provided.
Socio-economic
With regards to socio -economic challenge, the participants expressed their difficulty to have another device to complete the assignments. As the training module prepared were in depth and hands on, participants were expected to produce works by using computer applications.
Hence, the need to use a personal computer or laptop was required. The training videos, however, could be downloaded through their smartphones. With the current pandemic situation and the average monthly income to support the family size among majority of the participants, the economic situation among the participants is greatly challenged. Some participants were using the children’s laptop and could only use them after their children completed their online schooling session. While others who did not have other available laptop or personal computer, made do with their smartphones. This is a great barrier to the success of the online training because the participants could not afford extra equipment to facilitate their learning. Unlike the traditional face-to-face training where resources would be provided and conducted in a computer lab. Even though the government has provided for each participant’s community a community centre that has computers and internet access, unfortunately due to the MCO, the participants were not able to use the facility. Therefore, future online training needs to pay attention to this factor especially the agro-based entrepreneurs. Without a good support on technology facilities and equipment, the success of online training will be seriously affected.
ICT Skills and competency
All the participants owned and used smartphones with internet connection. This indicate that the participants do have basic knowledge and are eligible to be the participants of the online
training. In the current situation, digital competency is required when working from home (Nachmias & Hubschmid-Vierheilig, 2021). The participants possessed very basic ICT skills and were comfortable with simple smartphone applications. When required to produce work after each training module has ended, the participants found it difficult to complete the work.
This was one of the challenge due to the participants’ limited digital competency in using other technological devices such as personal computer or laptop, besides their smartphones. For instance, in one of the assignments given was to create a business advertisement poster using applications in the Microsoft Word. Prior to the assignment, the trainer provided a step-by-step lesson and closely facilitated the participants to produce their individual poster. Another challenge derived from this is time issues. Longer time was needed to finish the work. The participants believed that it would have been faster if they attended the workshop face-to-face instead as they can complete the work using the right equipment and be directly monitored while doing the work. The training was designed to equip the participants with beginners’ level of using selected computer application programmes and software. Therefore, it is understandable that participants found it difficult as the face-to-face facilitation would work best to match their level of competencies. Table 6 below shows some comments highlighting the different challenges faced by the participants described earlier while following the online training.
Table 6: Comments from participants on challenges faced during the online training.
No. Responses
1. “Because of MCO, my kids are schooling from home. I have to assist them and cannot commit fully to the training”
2. “My internet connection is really bad, I have to go to my farm outside, underneath a tree for a stable connectivity”
3. “My internet line is unstable, takes very long to load. ”
4. “I have a lot of distractions such as my family and my job as a fisherman. I need to go to the sea.”
5. “I cannot really focus, I don’t have enough time.”
5. Discussions and Conclusion
The results highlight several vital findings. First, the challenges faced by the participants evident the presence of technological issue. Though the participants of the training came with basic knowledge on ICT to run their businesses online, they are restricted by the line stability in their locations. Secondly, it was also found that the agro entrepreneurs agree that digital business is the best option facing the pandemic, however in this case of this group involved in the study, it is not showing the same benefit. It can be concluded that the participants welcomed the idea of online training, hence the positive feedbacks regarding the online learning materials shared via social media platforms, the practical hands-on assignments, and sharing of other entrepreneurs’ success stories. The challenges identified are technological issues, such as poor internet connection and coverage, alongside low digital skill competencies, and the socio- economic problem. The digital divide still exists in Sarawak, specifically, the poor access to digital technologies. This affects the technology adoption by agro entrepreneurs in Sarawak. It is strongly recommended that the decision for online learning method in the future needs to consider these factors:
• the environment the learners are in
• the stability of internet connection
• the availability of technological infrastructure
• choice of platforms to be used
Consequently, more implementation of programmes or courses related to digital knowledge in business and technology transfer may help ensure a more effective technology adoption among agro entrepreneurs in Sarawak. The readiness of agro entrepreneurs in adapting to the digital environment is crucial in increasing their sustainability and competitiveness in the online businesses, thus realizing Sarawak’s Digital Economy initiatives.
6. Limitations
The scope of the paper is limited only to reporting findings from the initial stage of the digital economy research on a group of agro entrepreneurs in Samarahan, Sarawak. Therefore, the findings are unique may not be generalized to other group in similar studies. More respondents from various backgrounds are recommended to be included in for future study for a better generalization quality.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Sarawak State Government and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Sarawak through the Sarawak Digital Economy (SDEC) research grant 600-IRMI/PBT 5/3 (025/2019).
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