E-LEARNING AND CRITICAL THINKING (Pages 242-252) by Ms. Nutan Erathi* and Dr. K. Madhavi Reddy** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

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 e-learning 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. Key Words: paradigm shift, critical thinking, E-learning, metacognition, COBE - Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, virtual classrooms etc.