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There have been many attempts to design online communities of practices (CoPs) as social contexts in which teachers can work together for their professional development. In practice, however, the realization of such a community is far from what is promised in theory. One of the most significant reasons for online community failures is our general lack of understanding of the potential influences of teachers' of-fline cultures. Thus, this study explores the interaction of online and offline teachers' cultures to better understand which offline cultural influences might affect teachers' participation in the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), an online community of practice hosted by the Center for Research on Learning and Technology (CRLT) at a mid-western university. Using a qualitative case-study approach, data were collected by conducting document analyses, holding online and face-to-face meetings, and conducting interviews with designers, researchers, and teachers. Weidentified seven cultural influences that negatively affected the teachers' rate of participation in the ILF: (1) lack of time, (2) their isolated working culture, (3) lack of reflection on their practices, (4) lack of technological support, (5) pressure from state-mandated standards, (6) pre-existing mistrust directed at the university, and (7) preferences for face-to-face interaction. These findings will inform future designers, so that they may continue to improve the utility of online CoPs for teachers' professional development.

In the context of Autoparts, a multinational manufacturer for automotive electronics, Lotus Notes was employed to create an e-learning system. This system was titled “Using Notes for Case-based Learning Environments” (UNCLE). The UNCLE project attempted to encapsulate knowledge and understanding of those organizational factors that might influence e-learning development and implementation in a corporate context. Based on the findings of this study, and our reflections on these findings, we define that an e-learning system consists of four critical components: (1) corporate learners with certain prerequisites (people) to carry out (2) learning tasks (process) using (3) e-learning technology (technology) in an (4) organizational context (organization). This study further suggested that e-learning is a sociotechnical change process like any technology adoptions, and proposed a systemic framework for exploring and making the most of various sociotechnical factors. Further studies are suggested to investigate the interrelationships among these four components and various sociotechnical factors.

Since the 1990s we have seen an increase in consideration of social and cultural aspects of learning as a way to foster organizational learning and human performance. Despite strong interest among practitioners and scholars, the study of organizational learning is lacking in empirical research. The study described here calls attention to the importance of informal learning in designing effective learning environments for the training of professionals. The study examines how people share and construct their knowledge in a Public Defender's Office and conclude that there are six attributes of communities of practice (CoPs) that serve as scaffolding for organizational learning. The attributes are (1) a group of professionals, (2) development of a shared meaning, (3) informal network, (4) supportive culture-trust, (5) engagement in knowledge building, and (6) individuals' negotiation and development of professional identities. Implications for education and training in relation to the concept of CoPs are discussed.

We identify literature that argues the process of creating knowledge-based system is often imbalanced. In most knowledge-based systems, development is often technology-driven instead of requirement-driven. Therefore, we argue designers must recognize that evaluation is a critical link in the application of requirement-driven development models because it provides the information that keeps the iterative developmental process on track. In this study we took a closer look at the decision-making in the design of a complex performance system in a non-profit organization. The purpose was to gain insights into the roles and functions of evaluation during the process of building a performance support system. This study adopted an exploratory case study as its inquiry method. Findings suggested that effective communication is as important a function to evaluation as is decision-making, and that the implementation of evaluation seldom follows the textbook guidelines. That is, evaluation practice is a patchwork history of the designers' knowledge and experience. Further, neither complexity nor the informality of the evaluation protocols seems to influence the quality of decision-making.

The complexities of the digital age pose challenges to existing instruction technology theory as it applies to a distance learning environment. Research in distance education especially lacks rich qualitative information or holistic analysis that would lead to improve the effectiveness of distance learning environment (Mclsaac & Gu-nawardena, 1996). Through the lens of activity theory, this study took a broad view of an online course and examines the socio-cultural mediators affecting the success of a distance course as well as the systematic tensions that characterize the culture of an online course. Recommendations were provided at the group and organizational levels to balance local tensions that emerged in the implementation of a distance course.

Knowledge management (KM) in the U.S. Navy is championed as a strategic initiative to improve shipboard maintenance and troubleshooting at a distance. The approach requires capturing, coordinating, and distributing domain expertise in electronics and computer engineering via advanced information and communication technologies. Coordination must be achieved to ensure ship readiness. A potential challenge for human performance technologists is to develop robust theoretical frameworks to analyze and explain existing practice within this context. To illustrate, we present the case of U.S. naval sailors and civilian subject-matter experts (SMEs) collaboratively troubleshooting complex shipboard radar systems across ship and shore. Adapting perspectives from organizational theory, information science, and educational psychology, we conduct a multi-level analysis of the context of distributed knowledge and work. Findings suggest that regulative and normative restrictions, boundary spanners and objects, and disruption of coordination across system components influence practice substantively. Implications for research and practice, including a readdressing of the existing cannon of analytical frameworks are offered.

While there is a great demand to share training programs globally, there are few methodologies to implement effective instructional development processes in multicultural organizations. Based on lessons learned from a Fortune 500 company, this article presents an instructional development model for global organizations. Three main gaps are identified in a practice of instructional design (ID) model for international settings: language, culture, and needs gaps at local sites. In order to solve these problems, the proposed model includes a decentralized process and collaborative efforts between the originating site and local sites. The virtues of the proposed model are just-in-time training, flexibility, and adequateness. The current situations in global organizations are ill-structured and require the sharing of multiple perspectives through collaboration in order to accomplish social consensus. The characteristics in the presently proposed model are that a) there is limited predetermined content, b) there is a sharing of multiple perspectives, c) there is needs negotiation, and d) learning is occurring within a context.

This article introduces a strategic argument and examples, in subsequent articles in this special issue, about sociocultural research opportunities for HPT practitioners and scholars. The authors take the view that recent criticisms of Instructional Systems Design have merit when considered from an organizational performance point of view. We see the problem as historic overuse of one theoretical perspective at a microlevel of theory and application. We argue that adding recent sociocultural perspectives and expanding the levels of theory to include groups and complex organizational structures will offer an opportunity for more rigorous and diverse research agenda and create new insights for problem solving in practice.

Dynamic Online Performance Support Systems (DOPSS) are a new class of intervention that can meet the needs of a quickly changing work force in an information age environment. These systems are customized for the target population, with unique meta tags, unique function sets, and dynamic growth for and by users in use. These unique tag sets allow users to quickly and easily add resources to the system, so it is an intervention that grows and evolves based on continued use and input by users. This paper reports on a case study examining the design of a unique function set for military aircraft maintenance technicians. A new method to guide data collection and analysis is used. The USE method (User-centric + Sen-semaking + Evolving) is applied, with Schwen's (2001) knowledge model supporting the user-centric collection and analysis of data. The result of this new perspective allows the input and analysis of needs on micro, meso, and macro levels, identifying needs that may cross boundaries of traditional interventions.

HPT practitioners have found knowledge management concepts a useful way of thinking about information “root causes” in analyzing performance deficits. Nonaka and Konno (1998) have offered their theory of “ba,” or “space,” suggesting that particular environments facilitate the “conversion” of particular types of knowledge. Constructing environments where particular forms of knowledge are transferred among groups of individuals is naturally appealing as it offers the HPT consultant the opportunity to create interventions to disseminate social or group understandings. In this study we argue that the validity of the theory needs to be tested in natural settings in order to give credence to its utility and bring more precision to the prescriptions. This study focuses on the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, or “interacting ba.” Three corporate groups were observed as they collaborated to develop instructional, Web-based stories intended to capture their tacit organizational understandings. The investigators used a comparative case study method to investigate three design retreats. A reasonable level of support was created for the theory.

In keeping with recent research findings in the areas of constructivist learning and affective mediation of complex behavior, the authors assert that the conduct of task analysis should reflect the holistic nature of this performance. Although a common practice in special education is for teachers to instruct parents on how to teach exceptional children at home, the differing values that teachers and parents hold regarding the “best practice” for the children often lead to strikingly different implementations of the same teaching approach. Using knowledge representation theory, we attempt to better understand how and why such discrepancies happen. In this paper we explore the theoretical dimensions of a modified task analysis model that purports to integrate cognitive-affective-behavioral dynamics underlying teacher and parental teaching behaviors. Applied in a qualitative study conducted in a special educational program in Taiwan, this model reveals the differences between teachers’ and mothers’ mental representations of teaching at the (a) conceptual orientation, (b) values, (c) reasoning, and (d) behavioral levels. With more applied research, we believe that this model will help trainers and trainees to reach a better understanding of the cognitive and psychological roots of complex value laden performance.

This article examines four cases and identifies several issues associated with the concept of communities of practice. These cases describe different forms of communities of practice in various settings including consulting firms and legal firms. After introducing these cases, we address several issues that emerged from these cases and the research literature. First, we caution against the tendency to romanticize the communities of practice construct and especially online communities. The cross-case analysis points to five problems that should be considered before developing an online community of practice. These five problems include: prescriptive versus description distinction; ready-made versus communities in the making; knowledge of possession versus knowing in practice; mid-level social theory versus micro learning theory; and motivated members versus unwilling subjects. In sum, we believe that community of practice is not likely to be forced, but is emerging, and designers need to be aware of the ch...

Since the 1980s metaphors have been used to design computer interfaces in order to facilitate user learning. As computer systems become more complex, the issue of using a large number of metaphors of narrow scope to design interfaces has arisen. Several researchers have proposed the use of multiple metaphors in the design of computer systems. This study set out to compare the effects of structural cues derived from single versus multiple metaphors used in designing hypertext systems. A total of 54 undergraduate students were asked to perform selected information search tasks. The results show that the provision of metaphorical cues helped subjects to find a greater number of accurate answers in a shorter period of time. The more complete mapping between the base and target domains in the design of the interface, along with cues from multiple metaphors, may have helped subjects to develop more sophisticated representations of the hypertext structure.

This article considers three aspects of the knowledge management (KM) literature that have the potential to enhance human performance technology (HPT) research and practice. First, we believe the recent attempt by economists to describe and quantify intellectual capital can help HPT to better evaluate and defend organizational expenditures/investments for performance improvement initiatives. Second, the emerging KM literature explores the linkages between information, learning and performance, provides a common point of intersection for our fields, and can enhance our analysis and implementation of information (as opposed to training) solutions as well as inform and expand our conceptual and theoretical understanding. Third, we have observed that both KM and HPT practitioners are increasingly concerned with the learning that takes place outside the confines of traditional formal training environments. We briefly review the electronic performance support systems literature from HPT and KM, noting the similarities in epistemology, design, and interventions. Finally, we highlight the KM research agenda and suggest related opportunities for HPT research.

Does the way instructions for carrying out elementary operations are presented affect the time required to complete those procedures, student’s critical thinking ability, and student’s final grade? This investigation sought answers by presenting prescriptions — or algorithms — in three ways to university students in an introductory laboratory-chemistry course. Differences in the effects of the three representation modes — flow charts, lists, and standard prose — were complex and changed over the 10 lab sessions. There was no evidence that representation mode affected either critical thinking ability or final grade.

The following case study has been severely edited due to space constraints. An effort was made to maintain the flavor of the case study, to ensure the results are presented and to mention the statistical procedures used. A complete report of the project is available from the authors. JBJ

This profile of a Lilly postdoctoral teaching awards program focuses on what was learned through administering the grant and the impact the program had on individual faculty, departments, and the institution.

Many questions remain to be answered about the role of individual differences in learning. In the area of mathematics learning, do spatial and general reasoning abilities interact with instructional treatment? This study extends a series of earlier studies examining the interaction between aptitudes and instructional treatment. One treatment was strong in verbal-pictorial-numeric content; the other treatment was strong in verbal-symbolic-numeric content. Interactions between instructional treatment and the aptitudes are reported.

If one is satisfied with present performance, development can legitimately be dismissed as unnecessary. On the other hand, if qualitative improvement is an objective, concern with development is by definition imperative. Both internal and external pressure places education in the second category (Schutz, 1970). The process of development may be regarded as an activity involving "the systematic use of scientific knowledge directed toward the production of useful materials, devices, systems or methods, including design and development of prototypes and processes" (National Science Foundation, 1965). Ins t ruct ional development is that same activity when it results in useful instructional materials, devices, systems, methods, prototypes, and processes. Specifically, instructional development is concerned with the design, validation, revision, dissemination, installation, operation, and evaluation of instructional products or systems. In all its phases, development is a decision process. From the total population of components which potentially comprise the ideal learning environment for a given learner and learning task, the developer makes his selections, testing them with actual learners. He performs a similar task with a multitudinous set of potential dissemination mechanisms, and with a set of plausible evaluation instruments, and so on

DEFINITION AND BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LEARNER ANALYSIS FUNCTION There are many structures or schemata that could be used to describe a complex phenomenon such as instructional development. In any description of instructional development there would necessarily be some misrepresentation of the reality. But in an adolescent profession, discrepancies in definition may be viewed as positive attributes (Davies & Schwen, 1972). The resulting professional controversies may create an environment for increased understanding and improved practice. It is in this spirit that the following perspective is offered.