Online Learning as a Workplace Safety Answer to the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Introduction

The corona virus has quickly found its way to a large number of countries around the planet and caused numerous social and economic problems. It was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 but this pandemic is much more than a health crisis. It is also an unprecedented socio-economic crisis, which is changing the personal and professional life of the people and which will have both a short-term and a long-lasting impact on societies, healthcare systems, workplaces, and individuals alike (Burdorf, Porru & Rugulies, 2020). This fact makes the pandemic even more complex as the organizations did not have time to prepare themselves for the crisis that is unlike any before. The additional difficulty for organizations was the fact that person-to-person transmission had been confirmed, so social distance was found to be one of the most important measures to be implemented. Organizations needed to react immediately and take all the necessary precautions, but also to be ready to promptly implement any new ones. The worldwide lockdown of businesses and industries was unique, creating completely new circumstances and a new environment both for employees and for organizations, thus necessitating the adoption of and adaptation to the new working conditions (Blyznyuk, Budnyk & Kachak, 2021).

Running a competitive business organization depends on the ability to adapt to the new technologies and working conditions, so it is important to provide up-to-date knowledge to employees (Crnjac Milić, Krpić & Sušac, 2020). As social distance has become the daily rule, the traditional training was no longer feasible, as it became a potential means of spreading the infection. Therefore, introducing online learning as a business response was imperative, and current technology made it possible for electronic learning (e-learning) to be the core method of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Savić, 2020). The requirement of online learning was imposed abruptly as a wave, with the urgent need for learning to implement it in business organizations (Binshebab & Ingle, 2021). This type of learning was not new, but COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for reinforcing it (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). In fact, online learning during the COVID-19 crisis was given the opportunity to show its potential, which is built on the ability to expand and facilitate the participation of any place at any time, to reduce costs, save time, adjust, increase consistency, and facilitate the recognition of the existing set of skills in business (Jokić et al., 2012). Although the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education in unprecedented ways, it has also brought online learning into focus (Rhim & Han, 2020).

The aim of this paper is to point out the new circumstances, limitations, and possibilities for developing e-learning that have arisen as a consequence of the pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to point out the possibility that the existing situation can be used to a great extent in the period of ‘normal’ business that is expected to follow after the stabilization of the epidemiological situation. In practical terms, the lessons of the pandemic period can help with the improvement of e-learning systems, which, under normal circumstances, will ensure cost-efficiency while achieving high effectiveness. The probability of realizing such a scenario is also possible by using the effects of the learning curve. This will especially make sense in a situation where the budgets of many companies will be burdened by the pressure to cut costs.