Today, I dusted off a notebook that holds my Student Academic Performance Record from the University of West Florida. It shows that I took a course in the summer of 2002 entitled “EME 7990 EPSS”. On the transcript, it merely says “EPSS”. However, to this day, “Electronic Performance Support Systems” remains my favorite course. It shook my mental models and shifted my approach to learning and performance.
Our textbook for the class was Electronic Performance Support Systems: How and why to remake the workplace through the strategic application of technology by Gloria Gery. Over two decades later, that book remains on my shelf. Our professor, Dr. Pam Northrup, sparked my curiosity in a way that continues to fuel my professional passion today.
After graduating with my master’s degree, I started my first job as an instructional designer with Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc. (IDSI) in Pensacola, FL. About a year after joining the company, I had the opportunity to introduce the concept of EPSS to our client at The United States Coast Guard (USCG).
In 2004, I was sitting in a conference room at the USCG Training Center in Yorktown, VA with a Chief Warrant Officer and others from their training team. He was sharing his vision for a new training program that he wanted to implement for the Boat Forces Standardization (STAN) Team. After listening to the problems he was attempting to solve with this new training program, I nervously raised my hand and said, “Sir, would you be open to learning more about something called an Electronic Performance Support System? I think your organization is more likely to achieve the desired performance with embedded support rather than more training.” He asked me to share more. That conversation led to a contract where we developed an EPSS for several classes of boats, specifically focusing on the STAN Team inspections.
I worked with one of our software designers to create a solution that significantly reduced the turnaround time for STAN Team inspection reports. We designed an interface that worked on ruggedized laptops. The inspectors would conduct their normal inspections, but they had an EPSS to help them with tracking the details. After the inspections were completed, the reports were immediately ready for printing and submission. After I had moved on to another job, I was told that the USCG returned to IDSI to add additional EPSSs for other boats in their fleet.
A few years later, I attended Elliott Masie’s Learning 2012 Conference and joined a session facilitated by Bob Mosher and Dr. Con Gottfredson on the 5 Moments of Need(TM) where they showed examples of EPSSs they had created for clients. Afterwards, I invited them to give a demo to my colleagues at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to discuss creating a proof of concept for our workforce. We were all set to start a small EPSS project when the 2013 U.S. federal government shut down. Many people in our workforce were furloughed without pay, and non-essential projects were halted.
Fast-forward six years. I had an opportunity to bring the power of workflow learning to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). In 2019, we conducted an EPSS proof of concept. We branded our EPSS as “Digital Coach”. It has turned into a grassroots effort that has grown to ten Digital Coach projects with two more beginning in the next couple of weeks. We have not struggled with buy-in at the leadership level. As with most other types of training projects, we struggle with continued commitment from the subject matter experts. They are expected to perform their daily work requirements while also contributing to the Digital Coach. Another struggle we face is creating the EPSS in a platform that is closely connected to where the work is performed. Recently, we transitioned to the Office 365 environment, so we are working to develop the Digital Coaches in a tool that embeds easily into Teams and SharePoint.
Who introduced YOU to workflow learning and performance? What sparked your curiosity in this field? I’d love to hear more about your workflow learning journey.
I want to shout “THANK YOU” to Dr. Northrup for lighting that fire that continues to burn for me!
PS: While writing this article, I looked up information on EPSS and the USCG. It appears that they continue to deploy new EPSSs and use a standards guide(1) for their new projects. They also conduct evaluations on their EPSSs(2,3) and have found significant return on investment from at least one of their systems. If you are in the USCG community and reading this post, let’s connect and collaborate!
References:
1 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Coast Guard’s Training System
2 Case Study: Evaluation of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Electronic Performance Support System for the Fast Response Cutter
3 87′ CPB crews benefit from award winning EPSS. U.S. Coast Guard Engineering, Electronics and Logistics Quarterly,13(47), 38-39. Davis, B. D., & Williams, T. (2007)