With technology changing every second of every day, it is no surprise a learning management system (LMS) quickly can become outdated. But it is no easy task to re-engineer a current LMS or find exactly the right new one to purchase. In this article, three 2010 Top Young Trainers share their experiences with implementing or re-engineering an…

The importance of headship to the success of schools is widely acknowledged. This paper focuses on two related aspects, "transition to" and "development during" the first year in post, and identifies and compares research findings with some of the key literature on transition theory and the development of occupational identity. The paper is based…

Action plans have been shown to improve transfer of learning and have proven an effective tool in training evaluation. This study describes how action planning was simply and successfully adapted to a preexisting curriculum with few additional resources. The decision to use participant action planning, the administration of it, and the…

Since 2004, Rhodes State College has been at the forefront of developing an institution-wide model of institutional effectiveness--Strategic and Institutional Effectiveness Planning System (SIEPS). A focus on both measuring mission effectiveness and strategic achievement led to development of a unique electronic application that tracks the direct…

Paulo Freire argued that learning should be conversational, accessible, and centered on the experience of the participants. Freirean theory remains strong in adult education and has implications for human performance technology applications in such areas as online learning in terms of design, accessibility, and content, as well as performance…

This research seeks to explore the relationship between personality traits and performance among school principals. The main objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between principals' personality traits such as introversion, extroversion neuroticism and emotional stability between several performance dimensions. A descriptive…

A3 Thinking is fundamental to Toyota's benchmark management philosophy and to their lean production system. It is used to solve problems, gain agreement, mentor team members, and lead organizational improvements. A structured problem-solving approach, A3 Thinking builds improvement opportunities through experience. We used "The Toyota…

Family Life Education (FLE) websites can benefit from the field of user experience, which makes technology easy to use. A heuristic evaluation of five FLE sites was performed using Neilson's heuristics, guidelines for making sites user friendly. Greater site complexity resulted in more potential user problems. Sites most frequently had problems…

Mobile devices offer much potential to support older adults (age 65+). However, older adults have been relatively slow to adopt mobile devices. Although much ongoing HCI research has examined usability problems to address this issue, little work has looked at whether existing graphical icons are harder to use for this population compared with…

This article discusses three perceived challenges in the field of human performance technology: a missing link from training to performance, limitations in gap analysis and cause analysis, and a lack of attention to business and organization performance. It then provides possible alternatives for each issue, such as instructional system…

Managers are often faulted for not managing performance; when performance issues surface, they first look to training as a possible solution. But without correctly identifying the cause of a performance problem, they can choose the wrong solution. The behavior engineering model (BEM) helps diagnose performance problems as well as engineer a…

This article is third in a series written to address questions regarding the need for more empirical research in the field of human performance technology (HPT) and the need to determine the future direction of HPT research. The call for more empirical research has been published in journals such as "Performance Improvement Quarterly" and…

One hears quite frequently how the arts continually suffer in the academic day. Many long-time technology education champions certainly know what this is all about; but there may be some ways to use technology education to bring the arts into the classroom. This article offers a series of activities and suggestions that will help students better…

Some days seem like bouts in an endless game of tug-of-war. At one end of the rope, facilities professionals must do more--tackle deferred maintenance, develop a climate strategy, and meet the energy and operational needs for a complex mix of building types and stakeholders. Tugging on the other end are the obstacles of less money, staff, and…

Measurement and evaluation are at the core of reliably improving performance. It is through these central mechanisms that performance improvement professionals are able to demonstrate the true worth of their efforts. However, the true value of the contributions they make is inconclusive. This article presents a content analysis of 10 years' worth…