Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

13.4. JOB AIDS

Job aids are a category of tool, rather than a specific tool. The term job aid covers a lot of ground from a recipe on an index card to an elaborate electronic performance support system. The idea of a job aid is to provide help to someone performing a job right when and where they need it.

Job aids are not considered as training, but they can reduce and shape the need for training and in some cases can substitute for training.

To find more examples of job aids, search the Web for job aid or online job aid. Or search for the type of job aid you want, such as calculator.

13.4.1. Types of job aids

Let's look at some common types of job aids implemented using Web technologies. They range from simple instruction sheets and checklists to sophisticated calculators and virtual consultants.

13.4.1.1. Task-specific instructions

Most products come with paper or online documentation. However, the documentation provided by the vendor is generic. It tells how to do general tasks and how to use standard components of the program. Often that falls short of what employees need to do their jobs. While one section of the manual might tell how to format text and another might tell how to send a fax, and an office guide might tell how to write a business letter, that information would be of little use to the poor clerk charged with faxing a customer a letter on the company letterhead.

A job aid would tell the clerk exactly what to do to accomplish this very specific task.

13.4.1.2. ...