Self-Efficacy, Social and Cultural Issues in Designing Online Technology Skills Transfer Programs: A Mexican Context

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a successful design for online transfer of
technology skills to a developing nation. Our technology skills transfer
program entailed a cost effective online delivery mode from the United States
to Mexico and explored mechanisms to counter the non-social aspects of
online learning in cultures which are highly collectivist, have a high power
distance, and have a high level of uncertainty avoidance. Our study also
investigates the potential of online technology skills transfer programs to
impact the entrepreneurship of participants in a developing economy by
raising their self-efficacy scores and by integrating their learning with the
entrepreneurial context of small businesses. A total of 60 vocational Mexican
students and 115 Mexican small entrepreneurs were identified as participants
in this study. 30 of these students and 15 of these Mexican companies
participated in the online technology skills transfer part of the study which
involved two online courses in database design and development as well
as implementation while being integrated with the real-life context of a small
entrepreneurial venture. The remaining 30 students were used as a control
group to assess their self-efficacy scores. The remaining 100 small
entrepreneurs were used as a sample to assess the level of self-efficacy in
Mexican entrepreneurs. The paper reports the details of our design for the
technology skills transfer program, methodology for assessment and
monitoring, and results and experiences for online technology skills transfer
to developing countries, in particular Mexico. Our study showed that online
programs need specific mechanisms to counter not only the non-social
aspects of online learning but also the specific cultural dimensions such as
high collectivism in cultures such as Mexico. The results showed significant
improvement in the self- efficacy scores of participants.