During the team presentation on “Human Performance Technology”, I started to think in 21st century, we should be instructional designer or human performance technologist? During the presentation, team 6 defined what is HPT and differentiate between ISD and HPT and finally they listed out the competencies for the new age instructional designer and HPT practitioner. My question here is, so all of us who are studying ET or ISD now, are we instructional designer(ID) or Human Performance Technologist(HPT)? If we are HPT then how can we apply HPT in instructional design?
According to Les Moller, a professor at the Pennsylvania State University suggests that people perform in accordance with the performance technology equation:
Performance = Knowledge + Skill + Opportunity + Effort + Motivation
However according to Lowthert William(1996), when instructional designers start to think themselves as “ ID” then most of them only deal with knowledge and skill so the remaining three factors are addresses separately or regretfully not addressed at all. However according to Lowthert William as a HPT, besides the knowledge and skill that ID should consider, normally HPT will try to address all the factors of the equation during all the process in ADDIE phase.
From the explanation above, we could see that in order to become HPT and not just ID, we should readjust our normal Instructional Design process. During the presentation, team 6 explained on how to perform the performance analysis using troubleshooting model and performance matrix and etc but most of the current HPT models are more applicable towards Human Resource Development instead of teaching and learning in education. And the most critical issues within ID and HPT might be whether should we adopt only human performance technology or we should use both together?
Instructional System Design vs. Human Performance Technology
During the presentation, the team presented the difference of ISD and Human performance Technology which they listed out the differences of goal, activity, analysis, implement and evaluation. From the table again, we could see that HPT focus more on job performance, organizational performance and to analysis the gap of performance. According to ISPI[1], Human Performance Technology (HPT) is a systematic approach to improving productivity and competence. It uses a set of methods and procedures -- and a strategy for solving problems -- for realizing opportunities related to the performance of people. More specific, it is a process of selection, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of programs to most cost-effectively influence human behavior and accomplishment. It is a systematic combination of three fundamental processes: performance analysis, cause analysis, and intervention selection, and can be applied to individuals, small groups, and large organizations. To date, there are lots of different types of ISD models that we could use daily in teaching and training process but as mentioned before, ISD are more focus on the knowledge gaps instead of performance gap. In ISE process, instructors do not care too much on the performance of the learners. However, in 2008, AECT redefined Educational Technology as the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources. So from the definition maybe we should rethink whether we should adopt HPT models while designing instruction or not?
The HPT Model
According to ISPI, the HPT process begins with a comparison of the present and the desired levels of individual and organizational performance to identify the performance gap. A cause analysis is then done to determine what impact the work environment (information, resources, and incentives) and the people (motives, individual capacity, and skills) are having on performance.
Once the performance gap and the causes have been determined, the appropriate interventions are designed and developed. These may include measurement and feedback systems, new tools and equipment, compensation and reward systems, selection and placement of employees, and training and development. The interventions are then implemented and the change process managed.
Evaluation is done after each phase of the process. Initially, formative evaluation assesses the performance analysis, cause analysis, intervention selection and design, and intervention and change phases. Then evaluation focuses on the immediate response of employees and their ability and willingness to do the desired behaviors. The final evaluations are centered on improvement of business outcomes (such as quality, productivity, sales, customer retention, profitability, and market share) as well as determining return on investment for the intervention.
Conclusion
Regarding whether we should use HPT or ISD in instruction design, I would like to quote the 2008 ET definition again, since the definition include improving performance, so instead of just using ISD models in designing instruction, I think a hybrid model of the ISD and HPT models should be applied in today’s teaching. Why? Because with just ISD model, we can design a proper instruction to give the learners appropriate knowledge but then we could not know what the performance gap of the learners is. But then with ISD and HPT combine together, then we could not only provide the knowledge but at the same time we could also analyze the performance gap of the learners and later which we could design the instruction accordingly. According to education history, at first, education was designed to train factory workers so most of the ISD models in the early days were just to feed in the skills or knowledge that the learners require and they do not need to be extra good in it or to be out perform. But then nowadays, the world change and now everyone are talking about performance and. Well, for me knowledge is still important because without the knowledge we could not perform. Both knowledge and performance are overlapping each other. However to date, there are not much research or cases reported using HPT in teaching and learning process so I think more researches regarding this field should be conducted such as to validate whether HPT models can be used in teaching and learning process and in which context, learners, contents and environments or we should develop a new HPT model just for instructional design. In addition, how effective HPT in teaching learning process should be investigate too. Finally, instructors should use their knowledge, skill and experience to justify whether they should use HPT together with the ISD models based on different learners, context and environments. I believe that nowadays, most of us regardless whether in company/organization or in school/university are concern on three things which are knowledge, competency and performance! We the ET students should work together forwards to provide a better learning process and learning experience that not only provide knowledge and skills but also to improve the competency and performance of all the learners as defined by AECT regarding ET. So in my opinion, we are not only instruction designer but also human performance technologist! Finally, in my opinion, university is similar to organization so performance is one important criteria especially in university level and based on my own experience, I always find that there are always many smart students who score very well in university but could not perform as good as other average students while they start working? So is our education system just spoon feed all the required information and knowledge but then forgets to teach the learners how to apply in real world or how to face the real world situation which is highly related to performance? If yes, then HPT is important in all levels of education!
References
Patricia L. Hardré (2003). Beyond Two Decades of Motivation: A Review of the Research and Practice in Instructional Design and Human Performance Technology. Human Resource Development Review, 2 (1), 54-81
William H. Lowthert (1996). Moving from Instructional Technology to Human Performance Technology in the Nuclear Power Industry. Retrieved May 31, 2011, from http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/CD-NKM/Handbook%20of%20NKM%20-%20Working%20Material%20-%20November%202008/pdfs/086.pdf
This is a lovely post. You've said it all beautifully. May God continue to bless you in you're writing or blogging as you inspire others to live their lives fully by God's design.
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