Monitoring Online Training Behaviors: Awareness ofElectronic Surveillance Hinders E-Learners

摘要

Web-based training programs commonly capture data reflecting e-learners' activi-ties, yet little is known about the effects of this practice. Social facilitation theorysuggests that it may adversely affect people by heightening distraction and arousal.This experiment examined the issue by asking volunteers to complete a Web-basedtraining program designed to teach online search skills. Half of participants weretold their training activities would be tracked; the others received no informationabout monitoring. Results supported the hypothesized effects on satisfaction, per-formance, and mental workload (measured via heart rate variability). Explicitawareness of monitoring appeared to tax e-learners mentally during training,thereby hindering performance on a later skills test. Additionally, e-learnersreported less satisfaction with the training when monitoring was made salient.