Learning and Performance Glossary

lead-off question

A question initiated by the presenter that is usually directed to a group of students at the beginning of a lesson or main point and designed to generate discussion.

learner centered instruction

An instructional process in which the content is determined by the student’s needs, the instructional materials are geared to the student’s abilities, and the instructional design makes the students active participants.

learning

a relatively permanent change in behavioral potentiality, that can be measured, that occurs as a result of reinforced practice; gaining knowledge, skills, or developing a behavior through study, instruction, or experience.

learning activities

Events or exercises intended to promote learning.

learning analysis

The analysis of each task or subject area to determine what the learner must do upon completion of training, how well the learner must be able to do it, and what skills and knowledge must be taught in order to meet the end-of-training requirement.

learning curve

A curve reflecting the rate of improvement in performing a new task as a learner practices and uses her newly acquired skills.

Learning Content Management System (LCMS)

An infrastructure platform that focuses on learning content. The purpose behind it is to give instructional designers and subject matter experts (SME) the means to create learning content more efficiently or JIT in order to meet learner's and business units' needs. It does this by creating reusable content chunks and then making them available to designers and SMEs throughout the organization. This eliminates duplicate developmentNote that it differs some what from an LMS.

learning decay

A decrease of learned skills over a period of time. Decay can be retarded by the conduct of sustainment training.

learning hierarchy

A graphic display of the relationships among learning objectives in which some learning objectives must be mastered before others can be learned.

Learning Management System (LMS)

An infrastructure platform through which learning content is planned, delivered, and managed. A combination of software tools perform a variety of functions related to online and offline training administration and performance management. Ity is meant to replace fragmented learning programs with a systematic means in order to assess and increase performance levels throughout the organization. Note that it differs some what from an LCMS.

learning package (courseware)

The media, either text, computer program, or CD-ROM, that contains the instructional content of the course.

learning object

A reusable chunk of information that is media independent. Includes Reusable Information Objects (RIOs), educational objects, content objects, training components, nuggets, and chunks.

learning objective

A statement of what the learners will be expected to do when they have completed a specified course of instruction. It prescribes the conditions, behavior (action), and standard of task performance for the training setting. An Enabling Learning Objective measures an element of the Terminal Learning Objective. Sometimes referred to as performance, instructional, or behavioral objectives.

learning organization

An organization that continuously learns new KSA's (knowledge, skills, abilities or attitudes) and applying them to improve product or service quality.

learning portal

Any Website that offers learners or organizations consolidated access to learning and training resources from multiple sources.

learning step

A sub-unit of a learning objective derived when the learning objective is analyzed into its component parts.

learning strategies

The methods that students use to learn. This ranges from techniques for improved memory to better studying or test taking strategies.

learning style

A composite of the cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment. Included in this definition are perceptual modalities, information processing styles, and personality patterns.

learning style inventory

Kolb & Fry's Learning Style Inventory which theorizes that people develop preferences for different learning styles in the same way that they develop any other sort of style, i.e. - management, leadership, negotiating etc. The four predominant styles are:

• Active experimentation (simulations, case study, homework). If this if the preferred style of the learner then she is an Activist - what's new? I'm game for anything.
• Reflective observation (logs, journals, brainstorming). If this if the preferred style of the learner then he is a Reflector - I'd like time to think about this.
• Abstract conceptualization (lecture, papers, analogies). If this if the preferred style of the learner then she is a Theorist - How does this relate to that?
• Concrete experience (laboratories, field work, observations). If this if the preferred style of the learner then he is a Pragmatist - How can I apply this in practice?

learning taxonomy (Bloom's Hierarchy):

A taxonomic classification of cognitive, affective and psychomotor behaviors for the purposes of test design invented by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues.

lesson

A segment of instruction that contains a learning objective and information to be imparted to the student.

lesson plan

A written guide for trainers plans in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes. It provides specific definition and direction on learning objectives, equipment, instructional media material requirements, and conduct of the training.

Lickert Scale

A way of generating a quantitative value (numerical) to a qualitative questionnaire (e.g. poor, fair, good, very good, excellent). Sometimes used on end of course evaluation. (smile sheets) For an ascending five point scale incremental values are assigned to each category and a mean figure for all the responses is calculated. (via the sum of the products of the categories' assigned value times the number of respondents for that category, divided by the total number of respondents) Example: Total number of respondents=25, assigned values are; poor=1, fair=2, good=3, very good=4, excellent=5; respondents selecting following categories are; good=9, very good=10, excellent=6. The quantitative mean = ((9*3)+(10*4)+(6*5))/25=3.9

lifelong learning

The concept of 'continuous personal development' through student centered (self-actualized) learning.

linear

A programming method characterized by short steps of instruction, constructed response, and a maximum amount of overt activity. The least desirable programming technique (see branching).