How to include the job aid in an activity. Often we’re told, “Put this information into a course.”
But what happens if we put the information into a job aid instead, and then design mini-scenarios that help learners use the job aid? This approach not only keeps boring blather out of our elearning, it can also make our activities more memorable. Here’s how it could work. Example Let’s say we’re designing a course on needle safety for a hospital. Instead, we’ll plunge our learners directly into an activity that somewhat simulates real life and that includes real-life job aids. We’re tempting the learner to respond without thinking, but we’ve also given them access to more information.
But our sample learner thinks, “Everyone knows you pour Betadine on that kind of wound,” and they choose that without looking at any other information. Here’s the feedback we give them. The feedback describes the results of the learner’s choice, letting the learner conclude that they were wrong. Why did we do this? Upcoming webinar for Australasia. Book: Job Aids and Performance Support. The Fall and Rise of Performance Support by Marc J. Rosenberg. “Performance support is all around us, from the apps on our phone to the GPS in our car; from a demo on YouTube to that little card we all carry in our wallet that tells us how to retrieve messages from our answering machine.
Performance support is a growing part of life and work. It’s time to make it a central part of our workplace learning strategy. No, better yet, it’s time to make it a central part of our business strategy.” “We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.” – Pogo Then In 1989, I was working with consultant Gloria Gery and a great team of learning technologists at AT&T to figure out our next step in electronic training. We already had a project on the table: create a CBT course on test design and development for instructional designers and SMEs. The project was both a success and a disappointment. But enthusiasm didn’t fully translate to real traction – a disappointment. Now Fast forward to today. This turns everything around. Work is learning; learning is work. Product & Process Specs for a Damn Good Job Aid.
Here are the all time most popular from the 2433 Posts and 120 Pages of this site… and the number of views of each since 2007.
Click on the red image above to link to the post... 1. What Guidance for Approaching Learning Is There From Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? 27,919 2. The Big 5 in Human Personality Assessments: CANOE 18,693 3. 5. 7. 9. Description of an interactive job aid. Several years ago, a Fortune 50 consumer goods company that is known for recruiting the most talented marketing executives to promote their products throughout the world asked my company to create a unique workflow tool for those top-level marketers.
They required a tool that would not only do away with the need for a separate training program―for which this elite group had little time or attention―but also a tool that would improve itself iteratively through their collaborative input provided via social polling. The result was an online template that guides the marketers through a new task with all of the required training hidden in the margin, training that unfolded itself with a single click on demand. each user decides when and how much is needed. In context with the task that is being performed, a wealth of potential supportive information and collaboration is available, revealing itself in the margin as the user moves the mouse from point to point on the screen.
Sample interactive documents. Bret Victor / March 10, 2011 What does it mean to be an active reader?
An active reader asks questions, considers alternatives, questions assumptions, and even questions the trustworthiness of the author. An active reader tries to generalize specific examples, and devise specific examples for generalities. An active reader doesn't passively sponge up information, but uses the author's argument as a springboard for critical thought and deep understanding. Do our reading environments encourage active reading? Explorable Explanations is my umbrella project for ideas that enable and encourage truly active reading. This essay presents examples of few initial ideas: A reactive document allows the reader to play with the author's assumptions and analyses, and see the consquences. An explorable example makes the abstract concrete, and allows the reader to develop an intuition for how a system works. 1. Ten Brighter Ideas was my early prototype of a reactive document. Drag The way it is now: Analysis: Examples for improving results at work.