Improving e-learning motivation using social software

Trained personnel are crucial for success in a knowledge society. Unsurprisingly, e-learning is expected to provide more than operational efficiency in organizations, which it did in the academic context, but did not in the corporate context. This research proposal argues that human motivation is the key difference between the two contexts. Social software seems to positively impact motivation, but how and which social software features to implement in a corporate e-learning context is still unknown. Hence, this research hypothesizes and analyzes the impact of social software features on user motivation to participate. It develops a model explaining why social software impacts motivation and ultimately uses experiments embedded in a design science approach to explain how and which social software features to implement in a given context. This proposal details this approach and provides intermediate findings in the quest for personnel motivation and corporate e-learning success.