in this issue

Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance

2007 PCD Awards

3rd Annual Innovations in E-Learning Symposium

CHI 2007 'User Centered Design and International Development Workshop'

Fast, Cheap, and Good Usability Methods

Enterprise Information Architecture: A Semantic and Organizational Foundation

Designing Web Applications for Use

Riding the Waves of "Web 2.0"

Technology Foundations for Computational Evaluation of Software Security Attributes

Jay Cross

Amazon's book description:

Most learning on the job is informal. This book offers advice on how to support, nurture, and leverage informal learning and helps trainers to go beyond their typical classes and programs in order to widen and deepen heir reach. The author reminds us that we live in a new, radically different, constantly changing, and often distracting workplace. He guides us through the plethora of digital learning tools that workers are now accessing through their computers, PDAs, and cell phones.
 

Performance Optimization through Quality Analytics for Knowledge Workers

Optimizing performance requires different strategies to address specific business challenges and drivers. You know the story: Workers interact with five to twelve computer systems per day to get the job done, most of which are the behemoth enterprise systems. The systems change frequently. Employee turnover is 25% or more. Business processes are misaligned with the features and functions of the various systems. In all such cases, a conventional learning/training paradigm will not yield a level of performance necessary to claim organizational competency. Things simply change too quickly and there is too much to master. And let's face it: Time-to-competency is the key metric that informs the business case.

Organizations keenly aware of the so-called "learning-doing" gap can address these problems in a manner similar to how the manufacturing world addressed similar woes in past decades. Thought leaders such as W. Edwards Deming invented quality principles and methods that are applicable to knowledge work if the right measurements and analytics are applied. What are these measurements? They are the check sheets, Pareto charts and histograms that represent which computer controls knowledge workers touch in their enterprise applications, how long it takes them to accomplish units and cycles of work, where processes are broken and when workarounds are applied. Such "stealth capture" of knowledge worker actions provides a wealth of knowledge about how to make the transition from learning to performance. It tells us how the human factors apply in terms of distributing knowledge artifacts appropriately so that workers are able to consume, apply and perform as close to the time of need as possible.

From such analysis emerges a clear picture of which are true prerequisite tasks, which require "training" and which are best supported through embedded just-in-time support. And the task distributions can be startling when it becomes clear that only a very small number of tasks and concepts require learning in advance, where eLearning or classroom training can be safely limited to a day or less and where the vast majority of what is required on the job is delivered at the time of need. A recent case study demonstrated how such measurement and analysis reduced four weeks of classroom training to a blend of 4 hours of eLearning, one day of training and mostly embedded support. Time-to-competency was reduced to one week from over four weeks. What did this mean to the organization? A $4 million return - on a $160,000 investment. Remarkable. In this sense, performance-centered solutions are linked to key strategic business drivers. As such, performance support is an imperative -- not an option -- for ensuring business performance through human performance.

Regards,
 

Gary J. Dickelman

EPSScentral is participating in the User Centered Design and International Development workshop. Click here to view the international cast of particpants:
CHI 2007 Workshop Papers


Take a look at our paper:
Fast and Effective Contextual Analysis for ICTs in Education: User Centered Design Fills the Gap