You may have heard the line that, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." This session focuses on practice. Harvey Singh has lots of it. Harvey developed a sophisticated Real-time Workflow Learning System leveraging his background in building commercially successful learning object management systems, real-time collaboration systems, Web Services architecture, simulations and learning games. From this cornucopia of experience, Harvey will use examples to model Workflow Learning that incorporates mobile learning, contextual collaboration, business process, real-time feedback, and bottom-out change management. Kevin Tsurutome will share examples and experiences of this new wave of learning technologies.

Harvey Singh opened the session by reminding us, “Traditionally, work and learning don't commingle. They live in their own silos, which requires knowledge workers to stop what they are doing in order to learn. We have come to a brick wall in terms of what benefits we can derive from that approach.” He then asked THE question. “What if learning was not a side activity? How could it become a part of the way work is done?”

Content is relevant only within a specific context. A procedure is relevant within a task. The task depends on the customer, the equipment, the part, the location. It's all context driven, real time. Just in time is a pull – you go looking to find what you need. Real time is a push; it's proactive. Our challenge is to find a way to push. Think of it as making the shift from courseware to “performance-ware” from instructional monoliths to task sensitive information. From learning objectives to performance objectives, from the LMS to business workflow. In the catalog of courses, I may find the one thing I need to know on page 27. People don't have the time or the patience to wade through courses. IT structures are driving our business processes.

The components of workflow learning include portals and web portlets, jobs, tasks, tools.

Internet and mobility – how to distribute information and make it available ubiquitously? Our knowledge repositories need to be granular, not monolithic. The “course” model is not conducive to workflow learning. Instead, we need to provide: job aids, procedures, data sheets, references, case studies, short tutorials, simulations, peer profiles and locations.

Workflow automation – focuses on not just the task, but how the tasks are performed in the entire process. Insurance claims are entered, approved, validated, people are notified. The business processes are embedded in the business enterprise applications, so why not embed the learning around the workflows which are already defined in the ERP..

Simulations – for example, we now have interpersonal simulations. Equipment simulations can show us what the pieces of a machine are and how they are put together. Interpersonal simulations can be used by a sales person before he or she visits the customer. Smart simulations.

Business processing and performance monitoring – we can capture in real time what's happening in the workflow, aggregate the data and report it to management so they have the right information at the right time. ROI becomes part of the process.

How to design for work-learning convergence?

•  Define the context: the process flow, the time, location, context, performance criteria, knowledge and skills in the workforce, user profiles and performance gaps

•  Define the tasks and sub-tasks: the skills, knowledge, and affect needed to perform them. The output is NOT a course – the output is linked to the workflow and the knowledge repository.

•  Define the content – knowledge, peers, network – and link it to the task/workflow.

•  Integrate with portals, content model, user model, task model, Knowledge & skills model, enterprise workflow models

Example: field service technicians who have mobile access to a portal with procedures relevant to the customer equipment, branching, task criteria, etc. Tech references knowledge while performing task, adds new notes – what did we really do? Aggregate data tells management, are we charging enough? Are we responsive enough? Where are the gaps in our current training program?

Harvey : another application: the call center customer service simulation. Learner is looking at an appointment screen and listening to an audio “interface with customers” – an interactive voice and speech recognition program – and has access to online help that suggests responses. It's workflow based learning in a pre- work environment.

Could the expert advice be available in the real world too? Ideally yes, the content would be available in both the training and workflow contexts. In earlier applications, we've achieved a dramatic decrease in downtime, an increase in execution speed, reduced errors by as much as 90%, resulting in increased business agility, increased market share, and increased profitability.