E-Enabled Performance Support with Ruth Haddon #ICELW Concurrent Session Notes

These are my live blogged notes from the International Conference on eLearning in the Workplace (ICELW), happing this week in NYC.  Forgive any typos or incoherencies.

Ruth Haddon, COO Epic US @epictalkUSA @rahaddon

People use technology interchangeably -- we want to be able to access our information on any device.

We learn by doing. We don't need a formal learning course. We learn by trying and failing. We need to put what we learn in the classroom into practice in our daily lives.

We love to talk. Earliest forms of performance support = ask the guy sitting next to you.

If he doesn't know, where do you go?

It's how we learn, we're social beings.

We also like to search. 6 billion google searches done every day. We google it.

In our personal lives, if we don't know something, we look it up. Expectation is that it'll be at our fingertips. Problem is we don't do that in the L&D world.  

Where do we learn? 70% learn on the job; 20% learn through coaching; 10% formal classroom.

But L&D professionals focus on that 10%. Instead we should focus on performance support to push it out onto the job.

Gloria Geary on electronic performance support: 

• Integrate (we need it to be there at our time of need - use the tech to embed it and it's there), 
• Filter (not too much; don't overwhelm with too much support - need specific answers to specific problems), 
• Represent (needs to be explicit, and people need to be able to understand it. I don't need to know the history of knitting to figure out how to pick up a lost stitch.)

Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson -- 5 Moments of Learning Need:

1. learning for the first time
2. learning more
3. remembering and applying
4. learning when things change
5. learning when things go wrong

Sometimes all you need is performance support (particularly on moments 3-5).

BJ Fogg on how we change behavior:

1. Ability (classroom, e-learning)
2. Motivation (persuasive/social technologies)
3. Triggers (how do I know I need to do this new behavior? job aids, embedded support, etc.)

So how can we foster performance support?

• create resources and videos to help people
• integrate tools right into the software
• portals and integrated software systems to provide searchable information
• make sure these resources are available on mobile, tablets -- the places where we need them

Examples:

1. Short resources:

• More and more clients looking for short, pithy resources to get messages across in a short way (and not asking for courses) -- shifting away from there's a training need to performance support and shorter resources -- e.g. short videos, q&a with experts, animations -- less than 2 minutes pieces that get across a specific short answer to a specific short question. This is what makes it so powerful.
• Quick reference, diagnostic tools, how to guides, job aids. (And these are available across your devices). Glossaries people can access on their mobile phones. Diagnostic tools to help you throughout your day.
• How-to Videos -- short videos on how to use the system.
• FAQs with experts -- taking the conversations you want to have with an expert, to scale it so everyone can get that info.
• Media types: podcasts, videos, infographics, whiteboard animations, screen captures, etc.

2. Embed performance support in the software you're using.

• Integrating information into SharePoint to help people see what's needed at each step of the way.

3. Helping people find resources with support portals and structures.

• Always think about how easy you can make it for people to find it. Can they find it in three clicks?
• Helping people learn and manage large projects. Created a portal that guides people through each stage of the process with example documents and guidance at each stage.  Small training nuggets on each step. Guides them through the journey.
• Providing performance support to help people do their jobs. In a flow chart of your team's process, embed the documents and templates people need to be using.
• Think about gathering existing materials and giving it structure. Put a surface layer on top of all that material. You can drill down by clicking on steps in a process OR search by keywords.

4. Make it mobile

• Design apps that give people the materials they need and when they need them.
• So people can refresh on those questions/info when they need it -- and when they might not be at their desk. 
• Apps help people take things out into the workplace.
• Diagnostic tools that used to be in big paper manuals can go into a mobile app. 
• The tools are out there to make it easy to provide short nuggets of info for multiple devices.

It's all about transferring training to the workplace.  

Performance support helps us prop up the forgetting curve.

Really it's about coming up with an integrated strategy. To use formal training along with performance support. It's not an either/or -- they need to be integrated.

Coming down the pike - the future?

• Contextual performance support -- your phone knows where you are and what your next appointment is and can push info to you that you need -- before you even know you need it.
• Tin Can xAPI -- to gather data and share -- you took this training course, someone else who took that course found this info useful. Making training and info more personal and useful.
• Google Glass -- it knows where you are, it knows what time it is...what about first responders who will have access to an expert right in your helmet.  As a diagnostic tool, could be really powerful. A hands free way of getting information. It's early days but some strong potential to provide performance support in an instantaneous way.
• Smart Watches -- technology that you'll have with you all the time.  

In summary, mobile support is good for:

• Good for: ensuring transfer of training into workplace and supporting new learning on the job.
• Support it with: flexible resources, portals, integration with existing software.
• Consider: Timing, connectivity, tracking (or not), phone features (what can you use that will add value?).