Holistic Personas for Designers of a Context-Aware Accounting Information Systems e-Learning Application

Abstract

E-learning systems have been increasingly used to train and empower employees to take a more active role in the creation and dissemination of system knowledge, when, either new systems are installed, or existing systems are changed due to organizational changes. In recent years, there is a greater demand for information from Accounting Information Systems (AIS). Despite a growing demand for e-learning systems, there is a lack of research on eliciting requirements for design of a Context-Aware Accounting Information Systems e-Learning Application (CAAISeLA). This paper describes how Holistic Personas, archetypical learners and users of AIS, can assist designers to elicit requirements for design of a context-aware AIS e-learning application for employees. We designed AIS e-learning resources using Holistic Personas and empirically tested them. The use of Holistic Personas demonstrates that users’ needs were addressed which otherwise would not have been detected. We present empirical results of 20 employees at an Australian university who participated in evaluating the effectiveness of various e-learning resources. The results demonstrate that learners’ characteristics and educators’ teaching methods influence learners’ choice of e-learning resources and Holistic Personas can be used for design of a CAAISeLA. The novel contribution of this paper is the application of the Holistic Personas to the design of AIS e-learning resources and the empirical findings that extend the multiple-perspectives of the Adult Learning theory, the Self-Determination theory and the Constructivist Learning theory to the design of CAAISeLA.