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The coiner of the term, Gloria Geary,
calls an Electronic Performance Support System:
| "...an
integrated electronic environment that is available
to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured
to provide immediate, individualized on-line access
to the full range of information, software, guidance,
advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment
and monitoring systems to permit job performance with
minimal support and intervention by others." (Geary,
1991) |
Think of an EPSS as any computer program
that makes a job simpler or easier to do, provides "Just-in-Time"
information necessary to do a task, or helps a person decide
what to do when confronted with a complex problem.
Of course, most institutions already have
performance support: training, documentation, and help
desks. An EPSS isn't designed to replace those
functions, but rather to augment them in a way that requires
a minimum of support from other people.
A Typical EPSS might have these parts:
| 1)
Tools: productivity software |
| 2)
Information Base: on-line reference information
and databases (often supplied by the users themselves) |
| 3)
Advisor: an interactive expert system
or "coach" that guides a user through performing
procedures and making decisions |
| 4)
Learning Experiences: computer-based training
(CBT), nowadays often delivered over the web and called
web-based training (WBT). |
At the Faculty Development Center, one
of our long-term goals is to build an EPSS to help faculty
members do their jobs more quickly and easily. Here's
what we're doing in each of those areas:
| Tools--
Think of the tasks nearly all professors face: for
example, writing syllabi and/or objectives and giving
feedback to (and getting feedback from) students.
That's where IDEA's Helper programs come
in. We're writing programs that work over the web
to speed up and improve basic teaching tasks. Several
of these programs are already available (just click the
"Back" button on your browser to give them a
try) while others are in development. In addition,
the Faculty Development Center provides instructors with
course management and web site tools like Blackboard,
WebCT, and Microsoft FrontPage and hosts over 1000 online
class web sites on our servers. Templates, shortcuts,
hidden features, "add-in" programs, freeware,
shareware---the FDC can help you use software tools to
get more done in less time. |
| Information
Base-- the FDC
Web Site contains a wealth of information on grants,
conferences, and university information sources.
We're also building several web-based databases for CSUF
faculty to use: for example, a searchable catalog
of materials available from the FDC library, a web site
cataloging CSUF faculty members' favorite teaching tips
and techniques (Click
here to visit the Teaching Tips web site), and a database
of faculty research interests. |
| Advisor--
we're constantly adding step by step streaming media guides
that walk a user through every step of complex procedures.
For example, check out our WebCT
Help Page. |
| Learning
Experiences-- The FDC offers free monthly workshops
on a variety of software programs from Microsoft Office
components to courseware development packages like CourseInfo,
WebCT, and FrontPage. In addition all 23 CSU campuses
have recently contracted with SmartForce
to make nearly 600 industry-leading computer-based-training
(CBT) courses available to CSU faculty, staff, and students.
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