stopwatch_blogAcross all industries and areas of business, we work much faster and with increased complexity than ever before. It’s no longer possible for staff to know everything they need to know to carry out an individual procedure, let alone their entire job.

This poses a huge challenge for learning and development. Learners need to know how to quickly find information to assist them in the workplace, rather than attempting to commit large amounts of knowledge to memory. It is our responsibility to design learning that can be accessed while they are performing specific tasks, rather than developing standalone courses by default.

Enter performance support, which gives learners flexible, on-the-job support at the point of need. Mobile devices are great for this because they are much more personal to the learner. Performance support is closely linked to multi-device learning, and can play a role in multi-device courses if you know a proportion of your audience has sufficient time to use mobile devices and will be motivated to do so.

It’s important to remember, however, that multi-device learning is not about shrinking standard e-learning courses to fit differently sized devices. Some audiences will want to access courses on every device, but smaller, mobile devices are more likely to be used for real time performance support than for whole courses of e-learning.

In fact, a well designed performance support tool can remove the need for a traditional course altogether. Even in cases where formal training is required, there is still a requirement for support when staff take learning out of the classroom and into the workplace.

To find out more about harnessing the power of performance support, LEO’s Chief Strategy Officer Piers Lea and Tim Drewitt, Online and Mobile Learning Manager at Vodafone will be delivering a presentation at the WOLCE on 1st October. Join them at ‘Using mobile devices for performance support’ from 13:15-14:05.

Head over to the LEO website to see how performance support, mobile devices and a whole host of other technologies come together to form our vision for the future of learning. Our helpful ebook ‘A new future for learning’ explains how each and every challenge that organisations face today adds a new dimension to the way learning can revolutionise your business. Find out more and download it here.