FACTORS AFFECTING THE ONLINE LEARNING EXPERIENCES OF FRONTLINE COMMUNITY SERVICE WORKERS IN ALBERTA

Abstract

The training and education of frontline workers in Alberta’s Persons with Developmental Disabilities sector are critical given the sector’s complexity, workforce pressures, and high-risk service environment. This study used a pragmatic mixed-methods exploratory case study design to examine frontline workers’ online learning experiences within community-based service-providing agencies in Alberta’s PDD sector. Guided by Lewin’s Force Field Analysis, data from 103 frontline workers were used to identify the micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors shape online learning under real-world workforce conditions. The findings show that online learning experiences were shaped not by technology alone, nor by individual motivation in isolation, but by the interaction of structural pressures, organizational conditions, and personal capacity. At the micro level, education, digital confidence, and language proficiency functioned as enabling forces, while mental health strain, disability-related barriers, financial precarity, and workload burden acted as restraining forces. At the meso level, leadership support, professional development structures, innovation culture, and delivery design influenced whether online learning was experienced as accessible and worthwhile. At the macro level, accreditation, COVID-19, funding pressures, and increasing caseload complexity shaped the broader conditions within which learning occurred. This study extends Force Field Analysis by showing that these forces interact across the field of frontline workers’ online learning experiences. It also identifies a solution–burden paradox in which online learning can function as both enabling and constraining depending on surrounding conditions. Overall, the study offers an evidence-based foundation for policy, practice, and future research.