digitalLEARNING-Aug-2010-[42-43]-A Pedagogical Shift Integrating e-Tools, e-Resources and e-Knowledg

case study

Just-in-Time

A Pedagogical Shift Integrating e-Tools, e-Resources and e-Knowledge

Padmaja Naraharisetty

“Just-in-Time” (JIT) is a pedagogical shift towards problem and competence-based learning environments. It’s a holistic approach that involves new pedagogical strategies, processes, people and systems to deliver knowledge and skills required by academia and organisations, in a timely and costeffective manner 42

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Web-based technologies embedded with vast, and easily accessible online content have brought about a metamorphosis in learning paradigms. Community activities such as Blogs, Wikis, and Moodle have effectively leveraged on technological advancements and inter-connectivity, promoting collaborative enhancement of knowledge on a scale never seen before. What’s needed today, however, is to map content to context, on the fly.

“Just-in-Time” (JIT) is a pedagogical shift towards problem and competence-based learning environments. It’s a holistic approach that involves new pedagogical strategies, processes, people and systems to deliver knowledge and skills required by academia and organisations, in a timely and cost-effective manner. JIT requires a well-knit assemblage of atomic learning assets

Individual level

Organisational level

Individual performance improvement

Alignment of employees to business strategy

Speeding up learning curve

Meeting the deadlines and increasing operational efficiency and flexibility.

Faster adaptation to job requirements

Continuous reutilisation of the JIT learning modules- cost effective training and more effective transference of acquired knowledge.

More effective transference of acquired knowledge

Investment in work related priorities and goals according to personal pace of learning acts as a motivating factor

Learn as required by work-related activities and demands

Helps overcome the increasing scarcity of human experts in critical operations

Task simplicity at operational level processes

Brings into existence legacy systems supporting core activities or

Table 1: Two Dimensional Benefits of JIT Learning

and runtime creation of coherent learning content that’s aligned to learner’s needs and preferences.

In a business environment, time is the essence. An organisation therefore, would seek to provide access to right information, at the right time, leveraging on latest technology and systems. Role based performance support, just-in-time, and on “just enough” basis is preferred over conventional linear course based learning pattern.

The granularity and associated selforganising capability of learning object architecture in line with the learner’s preferences is the key to JIT learning - a learning system that integrates the e-tools, e-resources and e-knowledge with the learner preferences minimises the gap between the learning and application offering context-oriented help and providing a tie-in to knowledge base of the organisation.

A successful JIT-Learning system needs emphasis on key topics that aids a learner to obtain better insight of underlying concepts and promote reaching plausible solutions appropriately supported with business processes and knowledge domain.

A seamless integration of work skills, system requisite and interaction can aid knowledge acquisition, improve learner’s decision making skills in work related tasks, and help resolve expert scalability problem.

With an aim to gauge the efficacy of different learning interventions and pedagogical constructs (both used in MSIT programme and those popular in the Industry), the authors conducted two surveys in October 2008 on following

“The context of operational learning is changing due to a no-time-to-spare pace of today’s work environment.

Event-based or “just-in-case” learning is no longer adequate; now, employees need knowledge, data and tools integrated into the workflow so that it is available at the moment of need.”

– Gloria Gery

Project Name Just-in-Time Learning - Effective & Efficient Pedagogy of Future The Organisation CIHL, MSIT Division, IIIT-Hyderabad Key people Padmaja Naraharisetty, Principal Mentor Tools facilitating just-in-time learning • Virtual conferencing • Threaded discussions • Electronic resource repository • Simulation based learning modules • Electronic administrative tool

sample populations: Internal participants of the MSIT programme and Industry professionals (43% from IT/ITES, 10% from engineering sector, 21% from academics, 26% from other professions).

The survey results highlighted that JIT, if suitably encapsulated in a Learning System Design, can enhance and accelerate the learning experience. In a knowledge economy, where learning

demands are dynamic, flexible and are required to be delivered at fast pace across distributed geographies, JIT surely provides a focused approach that leverages on technological advancements and reduces cognitive load on the learner. Specifically, a JIT approach would create a learning ecosystem that is: just enough, just for me and just in time.

The quote from Gloria Gery captures the very relevance and significance of JIT Learning: “The context of operational learning is changing due to a no-time-to-spare pace of today’s work environment. Eventbased or “just-in-case” learning is no longer adequate; now, employees need knowledge, data and tools integrated into the workflow so that it is available at the moment of need.” \\

Padmaja Naraharisetty

Principal Mentor, CIHL, MSIT Division, IIIT-Hyderabad

digital LEARNING

AUGUST 2010

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