Scenarios of everyday life can be incorporated in training programs to bring awarness about the need to follow business ethics and make the right decisions

1. E-LEARNING AND CRITICAL THINKING
NUTAN ERATHI
Ph.D Scholar, JNTUH
&
Instructional Designer, Excelsoft Technologies
Hyderabad
nutanec@gmail.com
8885407626
Supervisor – Dr. K. Madhavi Reddy
Associate Professor, NIT Warangal
I am Nutan, currently working as Senior Instructional Designer at Excelsoft Technologies,
Hyderabad. I’ve pursued a degree in M.A. (literature) and professional teacher training in
education and have a vast teaching experience of 16 years to my credit. Currently, I’m pursuing a
doctoral degree (Ph.D) from JNTUH in English. Teaching field has given me opportunities to
explore the various platforms in which learning can take place – the traditional classroom
teaching, online and e-learning environments. I have presented articles on e-learning at
Confluence (The Vth Annual International Conference on Teaching and Learning English as a
Second/Foreign Language, Nagpur -Due for publication) and ICERI (6th International
Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Spain- published). The passion for exploring
the modes of teaching using technology has driven me to where I am today. Mobile learning and
tablet learning are viewed by most researchers to be the immediate descendant of e-learning and
are likely to be the future learning platforms to transfer knowledge at any place and at any time.
Getting myself updated to meet the changing requirements of the student community is what I
believe to be my greatest achievement.

2. Abstract
E-learning goes beyond the latest tools and technologies in raising intellectual curiosity, creative problem solving,
and posing authentic challenges, for encouraging ‘anywhere’,‘anytime’ learning. It aims at providing personalized
learning experience in a real world context and hence is designed to address diverse learners, taking into
consideration their cognitive, social, cultural norms and attitudes which requires critical thinking skills. This paper
intends to provide an overview of critical thinking skills required to develop e-learning courses with special
reference to train employees of Dr. Reddy’s laboratories, one of the clientele of Excelsoft Technologies (an elearning company). The organization develops and designs e-learning courses for corporate employee training
programs that are into financial/banking sector, Agriculture and Engineering sectors apart from content
development services, mobile learning solutions, open source technology solutions, etc.
Dr. Reddy’s has earned a reputation for doing what is right by adopting a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.
The Company approached Excelsoft for training its people on these ethics and help them make informed business
decisions and to act on them with integrity. The web-based modules that were developed used specific scenarios to
address issues on conflicts of interest, anti-bribery and anti corruption, work place harassment, etc. These scenarios
aimed to develop in the learners critical thoughts of the responses they would make under specific situations while
carrying out business processes which in turn would ensure smooth execution of policies to bring profits to the
organization and safe guard its reputation. The end objective of the training was achieved as the modules received
good client appreciation. The modules were effective as the learners developed and made use of critical thinking
skills while making the right decisions in conflicting situations.
Supervisor Details:
Dr. Madhavi Kesari
Assistant Professor of English
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Email Id: madhavik24@nitw.ac.in
Mobile number: 8332969522

3. Introduction:
The changing need of learners to use technology as a means of educational tool has brought a
paradigm shift in the way knowledge is transferred. Learning today is not limited to classroom
alone, but it is happening at different places and at different times. In the real world, people are
busy with their jobs and the budgets to bring people together to teach/train them in the
organizations are limited. This is when the organizations felt the need of technology to overcome
the limitations, distance and resources in training their employees to meet their business
requirements. E-learning goes beyond the latest tools and technologies in raising intellectual
curiosity, creative problem solving, and posing authentic challenges, for encouraging
‘anywhere’,’ anytime’ learning. It aims at providing personalized learning experience in a real
world context and hence is designed to address diverse learners, taking into consideration their
cognitive, social, cultural norms and attitudes and all of which requires critical thinking skills.
As a general tendency, human psyche is confronted with conflicting situations and
indecisiveness while dealing with clients, stakeholders, business partners and their colleagues in
an organisation. At many times, the decisions made by self thinking results in biased, distorted,
partial, uninformed or prejudiced decision. Therefore, an awareness of approaching a problem
systematically following the teaching strategies enables the learners think and perform discreetly
which is the focus of the employers. Predominantly in the context of globalization, it becomes
imperative, for the instructors to take seek the aid of technology to teach and develop critical
thinking skills in the learners (here, adult learners). According to Reynolds (2011), an individual
or group engaged in strong way of critical thinking gives due consideration to establish:
•
Evidence through observation
•
Context skills
•
Relevant criteria for making the judgment well
•
Applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment
•
Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand

4. Halpern’s Framework on different kinds of critical thinking skills enables instructors to make
learning fun and engaging, for example, creative thinking, decision making, problem solving,
etc. Halpern’s Framework on different kinds of Critical thinking is shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1
Critical thinking involves questioning. It is important for instructors to develop the art of asking
good questions, to think critically, in order to continue the advancement of this skill in the
learners too. "Every field stays alive only to the extent that fresh questions are generated and
taken seriously" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996a ). The list of core critical thinking skills
includes observation, interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and
metacognition. More specifically, "metacognition is being aware of one's thinking as one
performs specific tasks and then using this awareness to control what one is doing" (Jones &
Ratcliff, 1993, p. 10 ). Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria
such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, and
fairness.

5. Context:
This paper intends to provide an overview of critical thinking skills with special reference to
train the employees of Dr. Reddy’s laboratories, one of the clientele of Excelsoft Technologies.
Exclesoft Technologies is an e-learning company that develops and designs elearning courses for
corporate training programs that are into Financial/Banking sector, Agriculture and Engineering
sectors apart from content development services, mobile learning solutions, open source
technology solutions, etc. Excelsoft for developed an e-learning course on Code of Business
Conduct and Ethics (COBE) for Dr. Reddy’s to train its people on these ethics and help them
make informed business decisions and to act on them with integrity. As a value-based, socially
responsible organization, Dr Reddy’s is bound to the highest ethical standards in their operations
and behavior. They have earned the trust and respect of customers, shareholders, business
partners, and the authorities because of their reputation for doing what is right by adopting the
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.
The web-based module used specific scenarios to address issues on Conflicts of Interest, Gifts
and Hospitality, Work Place Harassment, Insider Trading, Confidential Information and Asset
Protection, etc. A scenario-based learning strategy has been used to address each of the issues.
These scenarios, which are discussed in the paper below, aimed to develop critical thoughts of
the responses that learners would make under specific situations while carrying out business
processes which in turn would ensure smooth execution of policies to bring profits to the
organization and safe guard its reputation. The scenarios used ambiguity (a part of critical
thinking skill) in which the learners were not provided with clear cut material, but given
conflicting information in which they must think their way through (Strohm & Baukus). The
module used text and multimedia tools like images, illustrations, graphics, audio and animation,
to make the course appealing and effective. A level 2 inter-activity was used, in which the
learners could interact with resources such as clickable animated graphics, smooth navigation to
menus, glossary, etc. Simple drag–and- drop, multiple select, single select type of exercises used
as formative assessment helped to making learning effective. Each screen used limited text and
audio in sync with the text and relevant images to convey the desired information.
Disucssions:

6. Some of the questions that instructors framed were:
Ask Questions about
For example
The purpose
Why?
The context of the text
Why?
Where?
When?
Who?
The structure of the text
The scenarios
The evidence used
How relevant?
Do the parts fit together logically?
Is there a clear transition from one screen to next?
Are they fair?
Do they leave out perspectives of certain groups?
Is evidence given to support the view point?
Is the evidence evaluated from different perspectives? (In terms of
The language used
culture, attitudes, etc of learners)
Is the language persuasive, simple, crisp and clear?
Does the language check for technical jargons and fancy words and is
it gender neutral?
The course first introduced the values and principles of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories which the staff
required to adhere and comply with. After gaining knowledge on this, they were provided with
scenarios, (Screen shot of e-learning module as shown in figure 2), similar to those faced in real
life situations. The scenarios, presented in the form of questions with multiple options required
the learners to use critical thinking skills to address the problem at hand and make the right
decisions. A constructive feedback was provided after the learner chose an option which
reinforced the existing knowledge. The course used the branding guidelines as given by the
clientele for colors, fonts – style and size, and screen resolution. The use of logo and style
guidelines had been maintained consistently throughout the module.

7. Figure 2
Here’s a quick reflection of the some of the scenarios on various ethical dilemmas encountered
by employees in their businesses:
1. Using Company Asset (Figure 3): Sherman works as a system administrator who has
access to the company’s usernames, passwords, and software licenses. One day, his
friend approached Sherman and asked if he could install the company’s licensed copy of
the latest MS-Office in his personal laptop. Sherman installed the company’s licensed
software to help his friend. Do you think Sherman should use the company’s asset for
personal use? (Yes/No)
Figure 3

8. 2. Information Security (Figure 4): David works in a company which plans to acquire
another publicly traded firm. Post this acquisition, the company expects a boom in its
share price. David called his friend and informed her about the plan suggested her to buy
the company’s share. Do you think David can disclose such confidential information to
an outsider? (Yes/No)
Figure 4
3. Work Place Harassment (Figure 5): Brian’s supervisor Joseph, is a short tempered
person. He regularly bangs his fist on the table, yells and blames Brian, for things that he
has done wrong. His outbursts become more frequent and on one occasion, throws a
paper weight across the cabin. Do you think this is work place harassment? (Yes/No)
Figure 5
4. Gifts and Hospitality (Figure 6): Sam received a gift voucher of Rs. 500/- from one of
the company suppliers on the occasion of ‘Diwali’. Should Sam accept the gift? (Yes/No)

9. Figure 6
5. Confidential Information and Asset Protection (Figure 7): Joe works in the HR
department. After completing all formalities pertaining to full and final settlement of an
ex-employee, he destroys the employee’s personal file. Has Joe done the right thing by
destroying the file? (Yes/No)
Figure 7
Other scenarios that were drafted were for issues related to Conflicts of interest, IT policy,
Insider Trading, Anti- Bribery and Anti-Corruption, etc.
Note: The names of characters have been changed in the paper for each scenario and the images
shared above are close to those used in the module to respect and maintain confidentiality and
privacy of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.

10. Constructive feedback had been provided for each of the issues based on company policy and
norms. The feedback was motivating and reinforced learning. The summative assessment was
given in the form of ten multiple choice questions in which the learner’s scores and
understanding of COBE were tested.
Findings:
Creating such scenarios required critical thinking by the instructor to analyse and provide
accurate guidance on the data given by the clientele and then draft the content and address the
issues in the form of scenarios:
•
•
•
to provide evidence to challenge a point of view
to evaluate the validity and importance of a text/ position
to develop reflective thought and a tolerance for ambiguity
The module was a product of collaborative team work that included instructional designer,
project manager, graphic designers, illustrator and programmer. Since, the learners could easily
navigate through the respective screens to gain information on the business conduct and ethics;
they found the course to be interactive and engaging. The look and feel, graphics and text and
audio narration suited diverse learners from all age group, culture and experience. The findings
also revealed that the learners applied the skills of problem recognition; problem solving,
addressed unstated assumptions and values, and reconstructed their patterns of beliefs based on
their experience and conducted themselves with integrity and precision while attempting the
questions.
Conclusion:
The module enabled learners to gather and assess relevant information, understand the
importance of COBE and act with confidence to keep up company’s reputation. Since learning
was self – directed, motivating, interesting, engaging, and the learners could move ahead at their
own pace and time, they could grasp the concept well while applying reasoning and critical
thinking skills to achieve the end objective. The learners with below average scores were
suggested to retake the course. The module received good client appreciation and offered
development of each scenario into individual modules with several scenarios addressing each
issue. Hence, technology driven e-learning courses are exploring, self navigating, self-directed

11. and informing, connecting people and content to bring the real world experiences in virtual
classrooms.
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking
2. Oliver, H. & Utermohlen, R. (1995). ‘An innovative teaching strategy:
Using critical thinking to give students a guide to the future’.(Eric
Document Reproduction Services No. 389 702)
3. http://www.utc.edu/walker-center-teaching-learning/faculty-development/onlineresources/ct-ps.php
4. http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/documents/learning_centre/critical.pdf
5. www.utc.edu/walker-center-teaching-learning/faculty-development/online-resources/ctps.php
6. Wade, Carole, and Tavris, Carol (1995). ‘Critical & Creative Thinking: The
Case of Love and War. Harper Collins College Publisher. New York. NY.
7. Strohm, S. M., & Baukus, R. A. (1995). Strategies for fostering critical
thinking skills. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 50 (1), 5562.
8. Facione, PA, (2010). ‘Critical Thinking: What It is and Why it Counts
‘http://www.insightassessment.com