Our premise.
by Sam Adkins, Principal, Samadico
Recent advances in enterprise technology
from several industries make the “learn first, perform later” process,
inherent in conventional training and elearning, costly and inefficient.
New innovations in enterprise technology can measure performance
skills and provide remediation in real time, on the job, and in
the context of an employee’s workflow.
Enterprise technology is in the midst of an accelerating process
of integration and convergence. Previously distinct product categories
are being assimilated into integrated enterprise application suites.
Learning technology is one of those product categories being drawn
into the suites. SAP, IBM, Oracle, Sun, Siebel and PeopleSoft have
all added new elearning modules to their Enterprise Application
(EA) suites in the last year. They have redefined elearning as a
business process and assimilated learning technology into their
ebusiness suites. Those suites are tightly integrated with business
process management technology.
The consequence of this inexorable convergence and assimilation
is the emergence of next-generation performance improvement technology,
content and services. Large and small enterprise application vendors
from several industries are innovating completely new product lines
that have a direct and immediate impact on performance improvement.
These innovations are characterized by:
- Task-specific, contextual content and simulation embedded
in the workflow.
- Real-time multi-user collaboration in virtual Workspaces
These new technologies are the catalysts for three watershed developments
in the enterprise. They include the:
- Migration away from courseware as a corporate performance
improvement method.
- Adoption of skills, knowledge and affective learning fused
in workflow applications.
- Integration of contextual collaboration and Web Services
technologies with advanced learning technology in the enterprise.
Vendors like SAP, Epiance, Knowledge Impact, Knowledge Products,
eHelp and x.hlp are providing tools that embed performance support
and simulation directly into applications. These tools are not designed
to create courseware. They are designed to create and embed simulation-based
performance support objects directly into business applications.
Business Intelligence (BI), Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
and Business Process Monitoring (BPM) used to be confined to analyzing
system processes. Now they are being used in convergent workforce
optimization applications. Products from vendors such as Cognos,
Business Objects, FileNet and Lombardi now track and interact with
systems and humans in the context of the workflow
in real time.
Business process management is being tightly integrated with learning
technology. Docent’s new workforce analytics product is an example
of this trend. Indeliq and Hyperwave integrated ILOG’s business
rule management technology into their product suites. Hyperwave
has gone a step further and integrated a robust workflow and business
process management functionality into their Hyperwave eKnowledge
Suite.
PeopleSoft’s Intelligent Context Manager “proactively” prompts
sales people in the field with relevant information. According to
PeopleSoft, “contextual information is automatically displayed enabling
users to intelligently navigate through the business process.” Information
provided by employees in the field is used to update CRM and SCM
systems in near real time (field personnel refer to this as “feeding
the beast”).
 Situated
Learning stresses authentic context as the primary design criteria
and challenges the notion that learning takes place as a result
of instruction.
Field-based certification, virtual lab and simulated lab products
are indications of this move away from instructor-led models in
IT training. Simulation-based contextual curriculums and game-based
business simulations such as those developed by Socratic Arts and
games2train.com are examples of this type of product in the broader
education and training market.
Products like these reduce the need for conventional training and
certification, since an employer can assess, train and track employees
while they work. Customers are using these technologies to avoid
a wide range of training expenses, including the cost of instructional
designers. These tools are designed to be used by subject-matter
experts, business managers and decision makers, not courseware designers.
Ironically, the demise of courseware may not be the demise of learning
objects. In fact, it may prove to be the vindication of learning
object standards. The emphasis now shifts away from learning towards
performance. Learning is indeed taking place but as a natural by-product
that results from interacting in the workflow. Workflow, not courseware,
is the “carrier wave” of situated learning,
In the context of real-time workflow applications, the use of single,
granular performance objects becomes practical and efficient.
In this context, they are not used in courseware or instructional
sequencing but in the context of on-the-job asymmetric workflow.
In today’s economic climate, customers want immediate, measurable
and observable workforce improvement results (concepts familiar
to both performance technologists and CFOs). The customer demand
for optimization is driving the demand for real-time technology.
This is what is now known as the Real-time Extended Enterprise (REE). |
Center
for Excellence in Enterprise eLearning