Integrating learning and performance in Vocational Education and Training

The project...
My 2004 Flexible Learning Leader project is to explore how VET providers can use learning management systems and other performance support technologies to manage their training and development function. I am identifying key models and tools for integrating learning and performance and looking for examples of leading practice and innovation in VET.

Which LMS?

Selecting and implementing a Learning Management System (LMS) has become a key investment decision for larger businesses, including training and education institutions. Free references like Edutools  have been joined by specialist consultancies such as Brandon Hall and Bersin to provide the complex comparative analysis of features required – at a price.

But there’s another catch. VET providers taking this journey find that the corporate-world reports on “enterprise level” and “integrated” systems seem to be talking a different language. They are not just about course delivery features – they are about workforce development tools; not just tracking assessments, but monitoring performance improvement; not just recording learning outcomes, but calculating return on investment; not just about students as clients, but about staff as employees.

In short, the corporate LMS is increasingly viewed as a strategic tool to improve organisational performance. It is part of the growing convergence of learning and working, with communication technology the enabler and catalyst. The LMS products currently favoured in education and training (Blackboard, WebCT, Janison) are essentially course management systems — so are providers-as-enterprises missing out?

1. Learning and performance: some models
   Here are some of the more useful approaches to the ‘convergence’ of learning and performance.
    
   From training to blended learning: changing roles for training professionals
   In Beyond the Podium: Integrating Training and Performance in the Digital World (2001),  Rossett and Sheldon describe the changing role of training professionals in business and industry. As well as the traditional instructor-led training, they report that in many companies the training and development function now includes a range of new strategies, including systems and tools to support:
   
   • informal learning
     
   • knowledge management
     
   • performance improvement
     
   • communities of practice
     
   • elearning.

Rossett sees this blending as ‘an integrated strategy for delivering on promises about learning and performance’. A common thread is the enabling technologies delivering new services and resources through the employee’s desktop. Is this how our HR units are viewing their role?

Rossett Model

2. From training to performance: training as return on investment
   Human Performance Technology (HPT) is perhaps best described as a ‘movement’, centred on the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). It encompasses a rich collection of tested models, tools and techniques for getting better results in organisations. Using a systems model, HPT provides detailed guides to analysing performance gaps, identifying causes, and designing solutions. Key features of the approach include:
   
   • describing current v desired performance (the ‘performance gap’)
     
   • obtaining objective data to identify causes
     
   • identifying the ‘drivers’ (the real causes of behaviour)
     
   • considering all solutions to improve performance (training is one of several options)
     
   • aligning the solutions implemented
     
   • measuring results/

Should VET organisations use HPT?

For a rapid introduction, see Rossett’s First Things Fast. Certificated HPT training is available online from ISPI.

3. From e-training to e-performance: the virtual organisation
   From lessons learned in setting up a cross-national training consultancy, Mariano Bernardez [www.expert2business.com/Docs/] has identified three overlapping developmental stages for organisations in adopting learning and communication technologies:
   • e-training
   off-the-shelf individualised courseware, focus on information recall (for compliance, product knowledge)
   • e-learning
   instructor-supported, active and interactive web-based learning for performance outcomes (for competence)
   • e-performance
   integration of learning and communication tools into the business processes of the organisation (for results).

Bernardez defines e-performance as ‘the capacity of an organisation, teams and individuals to generate measurable performance improvement through the integrated use of online practices and technologies.’ He has developed a useful audit tool to assess where your organisation sits on the journey.

Are VET organisations e-performance organisations yet?

4. From intranet to web services: workflow learning
   • Finally, Jay Cross and Sam Adkins at the Workflow Institute are pushing the frontiers of integrated systems to support learning and performance. Their focus is on describing the enabling systems and technologies.

These are challenging ideas — unfortunately accompanied by buckets of jargon and hefty price-tags for more information.

And some tools

New tools are appearing to integrate learning with work.

• Integrated Learning Management Systems (ILMS)
  The ‘enterprise-level’ solutions from vendors such as SumTotal boast performance-focused features such as competency/skills management, certification and accreditation registers, performance management, blended learning support, and knowledge management.
  
• E-portfolios
  These personalised web-spaces for developing (and distributing) CVs and learning records could be a key tool in workforce development in VET — and much too useful to restrict to the students.
  
• Performance tracking
  Fort Hill’s online tools provide inobtrusive, collaborative ways to monitor and boost staff performance: their Friday5s tool tracks outcomes from professional development events, encouraging uptake of new skills and support from managers and colleagues, for a time commitment of 5 minutes per week (and on Fridays!)

Conclusion

The emerging generation of web services and performance support tools offer challenging new possibilities for the professional development of knowledge workers in VET. It’s partly a matter of putting our learning management systems to work.