Five learning technologies and implications for training designs.

 

Learning Management System (LMS).

A learning management system (LMS) refers to a technology used to automate the administration, development, and delivery of training programs. LMSs can provide employees, managers, and trainers with the systems support to manage, deliver, and track learning activities. Some features of LMS include tracking and reporting learners’ progress, authoring skills for consistent content creation, discussion boards for interaction and trainer feedback, being able to assess learners, providing a great deal of personalization, and supporting professional development.

LMS is a great tool for integrating employee training with all aspects of the human resource function (e.g., performance evaluation, human resource planning) to determine training cost and impact on business goals. It provides a central system for managing all employee's learning activities, tracking compliance, and measuring individual and team performance.   The long-term implication of LMS is providing a comprehensive measure of the strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s workforce. Linking LMS to performance management systems automates and supports employee development and ensures improved performance (Noe, 2020).

 

Electronic Performance Support Systems

An electronic performance support system (EPSS) is an electronic knowledge and skill support technology that captures, stores, and distributes individual and corporate knowledge assets throughout an organization to enable employees to achieve required levels of performance in the fastest possible time and with a minimum of support from other people.

An EPSS can be used to help transfer training and to provide just-in-time training that is needed to get done with a specific task accurately. It is a checklist delivered by an application or guides in proposing customers' products through customized devices. Delivery of the just-needed knowledge helps reduce employee training time and cost for infrequently performed tasks than train employees on infrequently performed tasks.

To use EPSS as a substitute for training, trainers must assess whether problems and tasks require employees to acquire knowledge, skills, or abilities (learned capabilities) and whether periodic assistance through an EPSS will be sufficient ( Noe, 2020).

 

Mobile Technology 

 

Mobile technology allows learning to occur anywhere, at any time. Mobile technology allows for the wireless transmission of information without an internet connection. Mobile devices used for learning include smartphones, tablet computers, iPods, iPads, global positioning system (GPS) devices, and radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.

Besides the benefits of having learner control, self-pacing, and sequencing, as well as all other advantages of e-learning, trainees can use a greater variety of devices to access instructional resources. Also, mobile learning offers the opportunity to customize the learning environment depending on the needs of the learners.  Mobile learning can involve both formal and informal learning. Formal learning might include e-learning courses, podcasts, or videos on the mobile device. Informal learning includes communicating and messaging with other employees or experts via Twitter, blogs, or Facebook. Mobile learning will continue to be an essential learning tech because of its ease of information transmission to learners, tracking follow-up, allowing for content generation by learners, and fostering interaction between learners, instructors, experts, and other peers.

One aspect to consider when delivering training with mobile tech is ensuring learners have compatible operating systems with the mobile tech, or it may become a costly learning experience to customize different devices. Distractions from calls, texts, and alerts may result in disengagement and ineffective learning. Also, determining whether learners have the required skills to manipulate the mobile device's features is crucial. A lack of such skills may result in demotivation to engage with learning.

Designers need to remember that courses must be short, easy to use, and meaningful for effective mobile learning. Ensuring that the screen layout works with or without graphics. Images should be used only where relevant to the content because download time may be slow due to bandwidth limitations. Images should be sized so the user can see them without scrolling horizontally or vertically. Technical requirements due to screen size, web browsers, and mobile operating systems need to be considered, as well as the availability and ability to use plug-ins such as Flash, Java, and Portable Document Format (PDF). Also, simply repurposing lectures by digitizing them and distributing them to employees will not facilitate learning (Noe, 2020).

Blogs

A blog is a webpage where an author posts entries, and readers can (often) comment. There are many different types of blogs, including personal blogs written by one person, company blogs used for marketing and branding purposes, topic blogs focusing on a specific topic area, and blogs based on media (video blogs) and devices (mobile device blogs). There are several considerations for effectively using blogs in training. For a blog page to be useful for training, it should be related to the learning objectives; otherwise, learners will find it “busy work” and fail to see its benefits. Blogs can be especially useful for trainees to analyze and synthesize information, for learners to reflect on the lesson or course content, and to share ideas and applications of learning content. Instructors need to provide timely and relevant feedback on blog entries. Also, instructors must provide guidelines regarding how blog entries will be evaluated or what types of blog entries are desired (e.g., new ideas, application-related, “What did I learn?”). Blogs also can be useful for training courses involving group work, such as projects and cases. Blogs provide a way for team members to share comments and insights and even get involved in brainstorming (Noe, 2020).

 

 Automatic Speech Recognition Technology (ASR) 

This involves the use of computer-based learning to practice speech and language skills. Interactive applications based on virtual dialogues attempt to replicate authentic interaction with an interlocutor. It entails working with a CD ROM on a laptop with a microphone and a headset. The learner chooses from a limited set of question prompts at the bottom of the screen to interrogate a virtual character (e.g., a prisoner, a pilot, or a patient). Depending on which question the trainee utters into the microphone, a different portion of video is played, and a new set of relevant questions becomes available, thus creating the illusion of a videophone conversation. 

The virtual interactive ASR is a software package with digital audio and video databases and a speech recognition component installed on a laptop computer. In the context of training for English language skills in health practitioners, Walker et al. (2011) said, “the system simulates a medical history interview between a healthcare professional and a patient. Upon launching the software, a video of an English-speaking male patient appears in the center of the screen. Under the video, there is a text prompt with a medical history question in English next to a button labeled recognize. To activate the system, the learner simply clicks the recognize button and reads the question (e.g., Are you here for the medical history interview? What is your blood type? Do you have high blood pressure?).

Figure 1 shows an image of a user interacting with a virtual patient.

 

 

The system displays a feedback panel after each successful recognition, providing feedback
on recognition confidence ratings and pronunciation scores associated with each word and
the whole utterance (as seen in Figure 2). Pronunciation scores for words that fall below a
threshold of acceptability are displayed in red, otherwise in green. The learner can thus get
a sense of which words he or she needs to say more clearly. If the learner’s utterance falls
below the system’s confidence acceptance threshold, a video clip is triggered in which the
patient asks the learner to try again. Help is provided to the learner in the form of another clickable button that activates an audio recording of a native speaker reading the question
at a natural rate. If the learner subsequently pronounces the question acceptably, a video
clip plays with the patient providing the requested information, and the learner is prompted
with the next in the series of medical history questions.
 
Figure 2
The graphical user interface of the virtual interactive ASR : (1) video of patient, (2) feedback pane toggle, (3) words in the utterance, (4) pronunciation and confidence score, (5) difficulty setting, (6)
numeric and graphical representations of recognizer confidence scores for each word in the
utterance, (7) question prompt, (8) the “Recognize” button, (9) the speaker icon that activates
the audio model of the prompt”.

 

This technology combines meaningful interaction, feedback, simulation, and asynchronous access.

To effectively design and deliver training using virtual interactive ASR, it is crucial for the designers to determine whether trainees will easily use the software and whether it impacts trainees' pronunciation or overall learning objective.

 

References.

Noe, R. A. (2020). Employee training and development (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Walker, N. R., Trofimovich, P., Cedergren, H., & Gatbonton, E. (2011). Using ASR technology in language training for specific purposes: A perspective from Quebec, Canada. CAlICO Journal, 28(3), 721-743.

Mobile device photo. Retrieved at: Images og mobile devices - Google Search