Glossary

Just-in-case training refers to instruction which is delivered well in advance of when a person might need to use it. As such, it is typical of most traditional training, which seeks to ensure that people have the knowledge and skills they need before they begin a job.

In 1959, in the Journal of American Society of Training Directors, Donald Kirkpatrick of the University Of Wisconsin published a series of articles on the evaluation of training, later published in Evaluating Training Programs (1994, Berrett-Koehler). Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation of training are: reaction (how students feel about training?), learning (what knowledge/skills were transferred?), behaviour (did the transfer result in altered action?) and results (what was the effect on the business of the transfer?). In the 1990s this was extended to a fifth level by Jack J. Phillips of the ROI Institute, who introduced a methodology for assessing the monetary impact of Kirkpatrick's fourth level.

In organisational skills development, a Learning Center is a physical location where individuals can learn - either through explicit formal face-to-face instruction, or (more usually) by using available resources such as computers and books in an environment designed to encourage learning.

An LMS is a software application for the administration of organisational learning. Functionality may include: tracking learners' use of learning materials and attendance of physical events, storing storage and delivering e-learning materials and reporting on usage. As well as courses, content may include short learning nuggets, so that it delivers just-in-time learning, and approaches an EPSS in functionality.

A (usually) digital piece of learning content focused on teaching a single item. They are designed to be used either on their own, or compiled with other learning objects into longer pieces of learning/training content, and even into courses. This means that they must be tagged with metadata (in order to be easily found) and - usually - that they must be stored in a system that enables them to be used and re-used. This would normally be a Learning Content Management System (LCMS).