Competence Development of E - Government : A Study Circle Approach

Effective implementation of e-Government demands the likelihood of appropriately incorporating all the multi-dimensional socio-technical factors in its design strategy. These socio-technical factors may involve, apart from the technological penetration and adoption, the different attitudes and competencies that may influence e-Government uptake. In this chapter, an interview study of a Web-based course for issues related to the implementation of e-Government is described and analysed. The design of the course was inspired by a study circle pedagogical approach. The respondents were especially positive to the group discussions of the studied course. Group-discussions and follow-up activities contributed to integrate learning outcomes into work practice. This study opines that there is a need to combine both development-oriented approaches with adaptive-oriented approaches in order to link different theoretical and practical aspects of the changed work-situation in the community of practice. There is also a need for pedagogical learning of producers and organisers of Web-based education in public organisations, in order to make them to be conscious about the importance of different pedagogical approaches, and the importance of making a thorough problem analysis before the design of the course. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1740-7.ch008