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Knowledge Application 201

Table 6.4
Example of a task analysis: Tying shoelaces

For novices For more experienced individuals
1. Pinch the laces. 1. Grab one lace in each hand.
2. Pull the laces. 2. Pull the shoelaces tight with a
3. Hang the ends of the laces from the corresponding vertical pull.
sides of the shoe. 3. Cross the shoelaces.
4. Pick up the laces in the corresponding hands. 4. Pull the front lace around the
5. Lift the laces above the shoe. back of the other.
6. Cross the right lace over the left one to form a teepee. 5. Put that lace through the hole.
7. Bring the left lace toward the student. 6. Tighten the laces with a
horizontal pull.
8. Pull the left lace through the teepee.
7. Make a bow.
9. Pull the laces away from one another.
8. Tighten the bow.
10. Bend the left lace to form a loop.
11. Pinch the loop with the left hand.
12. Bring the right lace over the fi ngers and around the
loop.
13. Push the right lace through the hole.
14. Pull the loops away from one another.

on-the-job learning and advice. E-learning is also currently enjoying a high level of
usage and can be seen as a subset of EPSSs, as described in the next sections.

EPSS In the groundbreaking book, Electronic Performance Support Systems , Gery (1991)
defi ned EPSSs as an integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily
accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualized,
online access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice, assistance,
data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance
with minimal support and intervention by others.
An electronic performance support system can also be described as any computer
software program or component that improves employee performance by reducing
the complexity or number of steps required to perform a task, providing the perfor-
mance information an employee needs to perform a task, or providing a decision
support system that enables an employee to identify the action that is appropriate for
a particular set of conditions (see fi gure 6.7 ).
The EPSS point of view has been revolutionary. Its signifi cance was how it reframed
our thinking from the training paradigm of “ fi ll them up ” with knowledge and skills
and then “ put them to work. ” EPSS practitioners and business sponsors came to