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Subject:Skills needed by users of EPSS? From:Elizabeth Boling <eboling -at- INDIANA -dot- EDU> Date:Sat, 27 Jul 1996 16:43:23 -0600
I teach design and production for instructional systems,
including writing for instruction, and I am preparing a
paper for a small Performance Support conference to be held
in Beijing this September.
The paper will raise questions about skills needed by the
users of electronic performance support systems -- the kind
of EPSS in which every "knowledge worker" in a company is
presumed to be a potential author for the system,
contributing his or her special know-how into an online
repository for the benefit of everyone else in the company.
I would appreciate the comments of anyone who subscribes to
this list regarding these questions:
- Can we presume that all the people who will be responsible
for producing contributions to an EPSS will have the skills
to do so effectively? Just because a person is a competent
engineer or administrator, does that mean the person can
prepare information to meet the constraints of a system and
the needs of those who will use it?
- Are there systems you know about or have used that are
capable of coaching people who are not professional tech
writers through the process of preparing information for the
use of others? Do you believe that software systems are
capable of providing all the coaching necessary for this
kind of task?
- If you were coaching people who were not professional tech
writers through the preparation of materials for
distribution to their peers, what would you consider to be
the minimum skills that person would have to develop?
Thanks for your attention and assistance.
Elizabeth Boling
eboling -at- indiana -dot- edu
----------------------------
E . X . B
(812) 856-8467
Assistant Professor
Instructional Systems Technology
Indiana University Bloomington
Education 2224
201 N. Rose
Bloomington, IN 47405
---------------------------- http://www.indiana.edu/~iirg/
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