Learning and Performance Glossary

face-to-face (F2F)

Students and teachers are in the same location at the same time.

facilitator

A person who makes it easier for learners to learn by attempting to discover what a learner is interested in knowing, and then determines the best way to make that information available to the learner by providing the knowledge, systems, or materials which enable the learner to perform a task more effectively. This is done by listening, asking questions, providing ideas, suggesting alternatives, and identifying possible resources.

fading

The technique of gradually removing the teaching information in programmed sequence to the point that the learner is required to perform the desired behavior without assistance.

feedback

Providing learners with information about the nature of an action and its result in relation to some criterion of acceptability. It provides the flow of information back to the learner so that actual performance can be compared with planned performance. Feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral. Feedback is almost always considered external while reinforcement can be external or intrinsic (i.e., generated by the individual).

formative evaluation or assessment

The focus of discussion between trainer and learner, as a result of which both parties review their objectives or approach.

frame

Learning objects given to learners in order to achieve an answer. Their answer will determine the next frame to proceed to. Learners proceed through these "bits of data" until they have completed the required instruction.

front-end analysis

The "front end" phase of the ISD or SAT process in which the job is analyzed, tasks are selected for training, task performance measures are constructed, existing courses are reviewed, and the instructional setting tentatively determined.

functional grouping

Organizing instruction such that tasks that relate to the same procedures or equipment are presented together.