What is EPSS? (continued...)

Each day I get more and more excited about learning more about elearning... or guided help... or any of a hundred other terms for Electronic Performance Support. I'm wrapping up the last blog with "How will Process-Embedded Learning Benefit Your Organization?"

Perhaps some of the most interesting statistics on the benefits of process-embedded learning can be found in a 2006 report of IT learning technology trends produced by Ambient Insight, LLC, which arrives at the following conclusions:

• Rapid e-learning is too slow. Process-embedded learning is, by comparison, very fast.
  
• Process-embedded Learning products reduce content creation and maintenance costs by as much as 60-80%.
  
• Average cost of a help desk call in the U.S. is $125 per incident. Process-embedded learning can reduce help desk calls by 60% to 75%.
  
• Process-embedded learning eliminates lost opportunity costs associated with taking a user out of production to attend a training class or complete an e-learning course.

Following are additional benefits that one can expect from a process-embedded, performance-centric approach to worker instruction:

• Reduced learning time
  
• Higher levels of worker productivity
  
• Less reliance on others when completing job-related tasks
  
• Reduction in implementation costs
  
• Increased worker autonomy
  
• Better knowledge retention
  
• Better customer experiences

The majority of this content is available in our white paper "Learning at the Moment of Need" which is available by contacting us at info@transcensus.com.

**************************************************************************************

Daniel Higbee is the Vice President of Business Development for Transcensus, LLC.

Transcensus, LLC, based in Orem, Utah, is dedicated to the cause of improving software usability through the introduction of a new interactive platform for authoring and delivery of performance support and guided help content. The company's solutions embed learning, user assistance and support content directly in the workflow, enabling an unprecedented level of enhanced usability and contextual learning in software applications. The company is developing solutions that will influence virtually every market segment that relies upon software as a critical component of its operational strategy. For more information about Transcensus, visit http://www.transcensus.com/.

Learning at the Moment of Need

Knowledge workers today are required to adapt to ever changing systems and procedures, and the relevancy of this knowledge is often fleeting because of rapid changes in the way companies are doing business in order to remain viable and competitive. From a business standpoint, more important than attaining knowledge for knowledge’s sake is application of knowledge to help workers carry out their job tasks with greater efficiency. As Roger Schank, Director of the Institute of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University puts it, "What you know is trivial. The real issue is what do you know how to do?"

In this short statement, Schank accurately summarizes one of the greatest challenges faced by most organizations today—what do our workers really know how to do? With the substantial technological requirements now associated with most job descriptions, how much knowledge should we realistically expect them to retain? What is the best way to ensure that they are able to gain access to relevant information when they need it to assist them in developing and maintaining their job-related competencies? How do we retain our knowledge pool when there is so much employee attrition, and, therefore, so much need for ongoing training?

An often cited study developed by Dr. Robert Kelley, Adjunct Professor of Business at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University, puts the knowledge retention dilemma into perspective. Dr. Kelly concluded that in 1986, workers could retain in memory as much as 75% of what they needed to know to perform their job tasks. By 1997, knowledge retention dropped dramatically to 15%-20%. In 2006, it was estimated that as little as 8%-10% of what one needed to know to perform their job tasks could, on average, be retained in memory.

Why the dramatic shift in knowledge retention? One could argue that the primary reason is that there is simply too much to know. We are bombarded with the need for application and procedural knowledge to the point that in many cases, we don’t really want to know more. However, an equally compelling argument for the decline in worker knowledge retention is that workers are no longer really required to know everything related to their job tasks because of all the knowledge access tools that are now available to help them find information.

Search engine Google is a prime example. Although the company is only nine years old, many would be hard pressed to imagine life without Google or other search engine tools, like Yahoo and Live Search. Why? Because they have opened the floodgates to nearly instantaneous fingertip knowledge on a massive scale and in ways that were simply unimaginable and unattainable only a decade ago.

Exciting innovation that is specifically tailored to learning and that is designed to address complex knowledge access and retention challenges head on is emerging very rapidly. In some respects, we are witnessing a new frontier in learning, one that will dramatically shift how organizations develop and maintain their knowledge assets. For more than a decade, significant discussion has been centered on a concept called "process-embedded learning," more commonly referred to as "performance support.." Technologies that surround this concept, commonly referred to as Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), have advanced, in quite dramatic fashion, to the point at which effective performance support, once unattainable for most organizations, is now an affordable alternative to traditional instructor-led training and e-learning. The purpose of this paper is to explain the concept of performance support while outlining reasons why a process-embedded solution can bring dramatic positive change to an organization by empowering workers with resources that will significantly improve their performance.

(Exerpt from Transcensus white paper "Learning at the Moment of Need")