One of the goals of the Office Systems Research Association (OSRA) is to ascertain the competencies needed by an information systems professional charged with organizational and personal performance technologies. This model curriculum, a major update of OSRA's 1986 Model Curriculum, emphasizes the technical aspects of multimedia desktop…

American Colleges and Universities are continuously challenged to increase access to higher education, improve the quality of student learning, and control or reduce the rising cost of instruction. These challenges are interrelated. As tuition costs continue to rise, access is curtailed. When high failure rates prevent students from successfully…

Evaluates an interactive, instructional Web site that teaches the basic tenets of human performance technology. The methodology, based on a combination of heuristic and formative evaluation techniques, involved measuring attitudinal reactions to the Web site, learning gains from performance scores on practice exercise, and content, navigation, and…

Discussion of performance technologists' contributions to improving public education highlights 10 essential components of an educational system, including family and community, business and industry, government agencies, and higher education. Implications of the systemic perspective for the professional development and training of performance…

Although typically applied to entire enterprises, the concept of business models applies to training and performance improvement groups. Business models are "the method by which firm[s] build and use [their] resources to offer.. value." Business models affect the types of projects, services offered, skills required, business processes, and type of…

This article addresses an important need--the dissemination of information relating to technology as a public relations tool--and the associated exigency for administrator and teacher technology training. Specifically, we identify the increased expectations for the performance of school leaders and teachers, as well as unresolved issues in public…

This paper outlines the main findings of research about online portfolio information systems. This research focused on the educational integrity of these educational systems and the maximisation of value across all stakeholders, in particular the value gained from the automation and interaction potential of the online environment. The findings and…

The measure of performance improvement potential (Gilbert, 1978) in human performance technology uses an exemplary performance as a criterion against which to measure the potential improvement in the performance of a workforce. The measure is calculated based on the performance efficiency which compares expended resources to productivity. The same…

Sense and nonsense is abound in human performance technology (HPT). There is no single cause of the abundance of nonsense. However, there is a reason that nonsense is more abundant than sense. The reason is that any principle has a specific domain of applicability. Within that domain it is sense. Outside that domain it is nonsense. Some…

How many times have you attended a marathon training class only to return to your job and promptly forget what you learned? How many times have you programmed your VCR, only to find yourself searching for the manual six months later? The reality is that humans accumulate a vast amount of life experience and knowledge. Adult learning theory…

The increasing availability of inexpensive computer applications has become a major force in promoting the infusion of technology into the counseling field, yet the extent to which counselors and counselor educators use these resources is largely unknown. This Digest describes a survey to assess how competent counselor educators are in the…

The authors update an article on intervention, discussing career development, communications, feedback, financial, human development, information, instructional, labor relations, measurement and evaluation, quality improvement, resource, reward and recognition, and selection systems; documentation and standards; ergonomics and human factors;…

The University of Kentucky Engaging Differences (UK-ED) project focused on developing, evaluating, and disseminating a web-based performance support system (WPSS) to enhance accommodations provided by personnel at the University of Kentucky (UK), the Lexington Community College (LCC), and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System…

This case study illustrates the application of Mega--adding measurable value for all stakeholders including society--as the central and ultimate focus for needs assessment. In this case, two needs assessment studies were conducted within a five-year period (1999-2003) with the State of Ohio's Workforce Development (WD) program. An initial needs…

This symposium on organization development (OD) consists of three presentations. "A Study of Gender Management Preferences as Related to Predicted Organizational Management Paradigms for the Twenty-First Century" (Cathy Bolton McCullough) reports a study that found that access to diverse management preferences and the manner in which the…