Introduction
The application of human performance technologies (HPT) in a learning environment is a skewed and specific research topic that requires careful investigation within the available research literature. For the purpose of this critique, five research articles published no later than 2015 were selected. The authors of the articles have looked at human performance technologies from different perspectives, ranging from the educational to the employee training contexts. There is a general agreement over the thesis that HPT plays a positive role in uncovering the unseen potential of learners and enhancing their decision-making ability when it comes to allowing learners to take the initiative.
Critique
Abaci’s (2015) article offers a concise but comprehensive review regarding the application of human performance technologies into practice. The article is beneficial for gaining an understanding of what HPT means and practices as well as how it has been evolving in the learning context. The article is short, which is one of its disadvantages and it does not provide any findings and recommendations based on empirical evidence drawn from an experiment or other test. Rather, the article comments on the act that HPT could be highly flexible in its implementation due to the close relationship between research, theory, and practice. Notably, the author mentions that there is a very fine line (if there is any) between exemplary HPT practice and research in this area. In the article, it is suggested that those interested in studying HPT should become scholars-practitioners in the field, which will allow for the advancement of the field with a solid connection to theory and research base. As a result, the comprehensive pool of best practices for the community can be formulated with the aim to benefit individuals separately and organizations as a whole.
In their research, Sayavaranont and Piriyasurawong (2019) applied human performance technologies to enhance innovation competency and innovation for high performance organizations. Using the quantitative methodology, the scholars revealed that HPT is capable of being effective in enhancing innovation and innovational competency within an organization. However, to achieve this, the training process involving HPT must be embraced and nurtured. A challenge that was noted in the findings was maintaining momentum for the participants in learning. This meant that problem-solving had to be embedded as one of the most relevant engagement strategies. The researchers, however, failed to disclose the limitations of their study and focused primarily on recommendations for HPT application rather than giving advice on how future research could improve.
In their study, Lasamahu, Siregar, and Sukardjo (2021) explored online learning through a project-based learning approach in the HPT course. The theoretical framework for the research was that online environments had become an irreplaceable part of learning as they allow the acquisition of information to occur at any time and location. Lasamahu et al.’s (2021) study can be set apart from others, including that of Sayavaranont and Piriyasurawong (2019), because the scholars used the Research & Development (R&D), which was intended to create a new model, such as the PEDATI model, which was used in conjunction with the project-based learning method. The advantage of the study was that the findings were broken down into learning outcomes and sub-learning outcomes to illustrate whether the HPT course outcomes were met using the project-based learning approach. A disadvantage of the study was that the researchers did not implement HPT into learning per se but instead used a project-study approach to determine success within the HPT course. Moreover, there are no recommendations given for implementing future research.
In their study, Sun (2017) aimed to analyze educational technology and performance technology, with discussing how to incorporate performance technologies into the educational technology scope. Performance technology methods have been embedded into education to address various performance challenges because limitations are usually related to such factors as knowledge, techniques, and skills of operation, the working environment, and available incentives. For educational institutions, the quality of teaching is a crucial indicator for measuring the performance of educational organizations. Besides, the researcher emphasized the fact that issues in teaching performance can lead to significant challenges, which is why it is necessary to combine performance technology and teaching design thinking organically to realize their benefits (Sun, 2017). The limitation of the article is that, in contrast to Lasamahu et al. (2021), it does not contain any experimental aspect and merely offers a review of the literature. Why such a qualitative method for studying HPT is acceptable, it could have been more effective for the scholar to test how theory applies in practice, mainly due to the focus on the educational context.
In their study, Essmiller, Thompson, and Alvaro-Albertorio (2020) presented the application of the HPT model within an Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative in the context of a university library. Specifically, the researchers focused on three steps of the process such as organizational analysis, environmental analysis, and gap analysis. An advantage of the study compared to other articles included in the critique was the application of the OER initiative in real life, with strengthened the trustworthiness of the research and the exploration of the phenomena under study. Besides, none of the other studies in this review addressed the alignment between HPT and the values, mission, and vision of the institution within which it was implemented (Essmiller et al., 2020). Through integrating environmental analysis, it was possible to explore the role of stakeholders in implementing HPT in the university library. A limitation of the study is concerned with its descriptive nature and the lack of statistics-based evidence. However, the research can be helpful for those who may be interested in incorporating HPT into their own practice.
Conclusion
The critique of available studies on the topic of HPT application in the learning context revealed that the method has the capacity to be used in different environments due to its flexibility. However, it should be noted that there is a significant gap in research on the topic because finding studies published no later than 2017 was nearly impossible. Since there is not enough up-to-date evidence from peer-reviewed journals, this critique was limited to a smaller number of studies. Besides, only two studies out of five had an experimental underpinning to their findings, which shows that there is lacking empirical evidence to support the topic, and the gap needs addressing. Moreover, the studies of higher reliability and validity were those that showed the effectiveness of HPT for enhancing the process of learning. While there is consensus among researchers that HPT plays a part in uncovering the unseen potential of learners and enhancing their decision-making ability, there is still not enough empirical evidence to may certain conclusions.
References
Abaci, S. (2015). Introduction to “Human performance technology: Research and theory to practice.” Performance Improvement, 54(3), 34-35.
Essmiller, K., Thompson, P., & Alvarado-Albertorio, F. (2020). Performance improvement technology for building a sustainable OER initiative in an academic library. TechTrends, 64, 265-274.
Lasamahu, B., Siregar, E., & Sukardjo, M. (2021). Online learning with project based learning approach in the human performance technology course. Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation, 5(2), 208-215.
Sayavaranont, P., & Piriyasurawong, P. (2019). Virtual community of practice using human performance technology to enhance innovation competency and innovation for high performance organization. TEM Journal, 8(4), 1461-1468.
Sun, Y. (2017). Application of performance technology in educational technology. Advances in Intelligence Systems Research, 156, 64-67.