By Jeff W. Durham

What is performance-based learning, anyway? If you were to ask around, you would probably get widely divergent answers to this question, especially from the certification community. Most would agree, at the very least, that performance-based learning is learning in an environment where you actually do something (hence, “performance”). This type of environment is in contrast to one in which you learn by just reading, thinking or hearing someone lecture about something. This article dissects performance-based learning to see what it is and what it is not.

Learning How to Learn

Ask yourself how you really learn. How do others learn? In truth, we learn best by doing. And our most effective learning occurs in environments that mimic the environment in which the skill that is learned will be applied. Consider, for example, a baseball player at batting practice. Although it warms up the player’s swing, gives him a chance to face a variety of pitches and reinforces his confidence when he hears the crack of ball and bat, the practice does not (and cannot) simulate the exigencies of the ballpark during a real game. If it did, fans would flock to the practice as much as to a real game. They don’t. Why? Because batting practice is just that: practice. The most effective performance-based learning occurs when the real world is, you guessed it, simulated.

“The difference between skills and knowledge is practice,” said David James Clarke, founder and vice president of development for Logilent Learning Systems, formerly CyberStateU, which has provided more than 70,000 online IT courses since 1994. “Personalized learning methodologies bring together the best of traditional learning and the power of the Internet for a learn-by-doing approach, a critical part of the skills transfer process.”

Performance-Based Learning in General

If “performance” is defined as an act or process, and “learning” is knowledge gained through study, then the definition of “performance-based learning” is just that: knowledge gained as a learner works through some sort of process. Performance-based learning is basically the type of learning in which a real environment is simulated, and people operate in it to gain experience.

In the world of computer and certification training, learning by doing is always the goal, but not often the result. After all, can a company really build a product, a Web site or a downloadable demo that actually enables someone to learn about Windows 2000 Server, Cisco routers or something as massive and complex as PeopleSoft? The jury is still out. So let’s just discuss the requisite components of performance-based learning. Instead of pitching any particular product or anything else of the sort, we’ll just highlight what to look at and what to look out for when deciding on performance-based products. We’ll start with the good and end with the bad.

The Intersection of Performance-Based Testing and Performance-Based Learning From the earliest days of Novell’s CNE examination, certification providers have continually reworked and remolded their certifications, in order to ensure that individuals who have passed their programs possess the highest levels of competency. One of the changing trends in the quest to ensure technical knowledge is performance-based testing. Several certification programs, including Cisco, Red Hat and Novell, have introduced “hands-on” components as a way of making sure the exam candidate truly knows the subject. There’s also a new association, the Field Certified Professional Association (FCPA), www.fieldcertification.org, designed to promote performance-based IT certification. Cisco, Novell and Red Hat are all members of the FCPA’s steering committee. The following are some examples of certifications in which the tests include some form of performance-based testing. The RHCE Certification Lab Exam The Certification Lab Exam, which is part of the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) program, has a performance-based component in which the candidate is required to perform a server installation and then configure the appropriate network services. In order to achieve success with this section, learners must have previous hands-on experience in diagnosis, planning and implementation of Red Hat networking solutions. Cisco CCIE Certification Lab Exam As part of Cisco’s CCIE certification process, the candidate is presented with a host of tasks that they must complete in a set amount of time. In the Routing and Switching track, students are required to configure any device that is present in the system, which includes internetwork hardware and related hubs. In the troubleshooting portion, the candidate must analyze, diagnose and correct problems that have been introduced into the architecture by the exam lab engineer. Novell CDE Practicum Exam The CDE Practicum Exam is Novell’s latest attempt to ensure the knowledge level of exam candidates. This is a hands-on exam available remotely through VUE testing centers. Using remote dial-in software at the testing center site, candidates dial in to a Novell server and connect to a live lab directory system. If you wish to take this exam, be advised that it is only offered through VUE testing centers.

What Performance-Based Learning Is

This section examines some of the components that comprise a good simulator. A lot of the concepts apply generically to simulators across the board, whether for Windows 2000 Server or a Boeing 747.

The Complete Task

Many performance-based learning products on the market make the interface look like the environment it represents. The area in which they tend to fall short is in their arrangement of tasks. For example, I reviewed a Windows 2000 GUI simulator in which the learner is assigned the task of adding a piece of hardware. In this particular product, the simulator shows the learner how to get from “Start” to “Settings” to “Control Panel” and then on to the “Add/Remove Programs” dialog box. From here, it describes the functions this dialog box enables, without ever actually moving the student through the process. To instill understanding, performance-based learning needs to move the learner through the whole process from start to finish.

Not Necessarily Fun, but Engaging

Most likely, we have all had those teachers who, regardless of the subject, made the classroom and subsequent learning experience engaging and in some ways like an adventure. Conversely, we have all done our time in front of monotonous training facilitators who just droned on and on, reading verbatim from some text while we stared with glazed eyes.

Figure 1: The IIS 4.0 MMC environment.

A performance-based learning tool needs to emulate an engaging teacher, making the experience an adventure. It needs to ask relevant and interesting questions and then give the user a format through which he or she can work through the problem.

Take a look at the IIS 4.0 simulator tool in Figure 1. This example of an IIS simulator shows the complete IIS interface with all the available tabs. The simulator illustrates a problem and then lets you go about trying to find the correct solution. There is a timer, but it can be disabled (enabling the user to find the correct solution at his or her own pace).

This simulator engages the learner. He or she can sit back, fire up the synapses and think through the answer. The user can click on any tab and move around the GUI when trying to find the correct response. If the user gets it wrong, a complete walk-through displays in the “Wrong” window. From here, the user can follow along step-by-step and correctly configure the task (see Figure 2).

Simulator Software Vendors Here are some companies that produce simulator products. Again, make sure to view the demos to see if what they offer is what you need. If they have a downloadable demo, make sure to take a look at it before purchase. Also, be aware that a lot of times Web-based demos will not operate exactly the same as their downloadable counterparts. TestOut! Lab Sim ($189) www.testout.com TestOut manufactures a simulator called LabSim, which offers hundreds of separate tasks to work through to gain knowledge of the networking environment that the simulation maps to (e.g., Windows 2000 Server). It includes a simulated Windows 2000 interface, and the tasks map reasonably well to the objective. Currently LabSim is available in four flavors: Windows 2000, Windows NT, CNE and A+. PC Age LearnByDoing Simulator ($39.95) www.pcage.com LearnByDoing is a simulator created by PC Age that simulates the steps an exam candidate would have to take to complete a specific networking task. Each lesson comes complete with a GUI that simulates the environment, as well as a dialog box that works as the command bar for the simulation. The downside to this product is that it only allows you to make the correct choice, so you cannot learn from your mistakes. Also, the correct choice is highlighted in blue, which makes it virtually impossible to make a mistake. Net-Campus Interactive Windows 2000 Simulator ($649.95, part of Windows 2000 MCSE Complete Kit) www.net-campus.com Net-Campus has a range of simulators that cover the various MCSE component tests. The simulation guides you through various Windows 2000 processes and allows you to perform various tasks. Some of the Windows 2000-based simulators include such aspects as Network Services Overview, Windows 2000 Professional: Installing Concepts, W2K Server Disk Management and Planning for Active Directory. Be careful when trying to download the demo. I downloaded it twice, and all that came up in the dialog was the uninstall script.

Reinforce the Process

In many certification courses, retention is not the overriding goal. This is especially true of the boot-camp-style courses that are suddenly proliferating. These boot camps train you to pass a test; then you’re done. Retention of knowledge is not necessarily a top priority (especially “peripheral” knowledge).

Figure 2: The IIS 4.0 MMC Simulator
showing the correct step-by-step process.

Conversely, with a simulator that is functioning as a learning tool, retention is of the utmost importance. For a simulation to be successful, it must back up the hands-on component with a medium that gives an overview of what the process or task entails.

I have used good simulators and bad simulators in classroom situations. The good simulators all had what I would almost call a help-file component to them. After each task, the good simulators enable the learner to click on a topic-related link that takes the user to more information about the topic. Bad simulators use voice-overs or pop-up boxes that last for only a few seconds. Although the voice-overs (which do sort of simulate a classroom environment) and pop-up boxes help somewhat, they don’t go far in terms of promoting retention. You often can rewind the audio portion, but for information of this type, the textual component far exceeds any recorded component with regard to facilitating retention.

What Performance-Based Learning Is Not

Now that you understand a few important performance-based learning concepts, let’s shift gears and talk about what does not constitute this type of pedagogy. The point of this section is not to criticize the way certain vendors have designed their products. Instead, its purpose is to get you to understand what should be included (or ignored) in a performance-based learning tool.

Not an Exam Simulation

Although this may sound like a “Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb?” scenario, it is important to make the distinction that exam simulations are not application simulators (at least not with regard to this discussion). They simulate exam conditions, not conditions relative to the computing environment. Consider the gaming industry, for example. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator does not simulate the IFR written examination; it simulates flight in an aircraft. To that same end, a good exam simulator should simulate an actual computing or networking environment, not the test or certification with which it is aligned.

Figure 3: The NT Server 4 Simulator
showing the TCP/IP Properties dialog box of NT 4.0.
Note the buttons at the bottom
that display each NT Server component.

In this world of out-comes-the-credit-card/in-comes-the-download, always make sure that you know what you’re getting. Make sure you understand the difference between something like ServerCert 2000 5.0 Exam Simulator and a Windows 2000 MMC simulator. Figure 3 shows an example of the NT Core Simulator included with the MCSE Windows NT Server 4 Training Guide from New Riders Publishing. Although this is not the latest version of Windows, this product shows another good example of how to present a performance-based learning tool.

Not a Flash Movie Disguised as a Task

Although a lot of simulations walk users through a process, a number of them are designed with automated steps. That is, instead of a design that responds to the learner as he or she moves through the simulator, the product actually moves on its own, with either a voice-over component or text boxes that pop up along the way to indicate key points of the scenario. These can prove to be useful tools in a classroom setting or as addenda to pre-existing curricula, but they don’t provide the necessary hands-on component that is integral to learning in a simulated environment. These types of simulators are usually created using something like .mov or AVI files (or more recently, with either Flash or Shockwave components). When shopping for performance-based testing, make sure to read the fine print to see whether this is what a company considers its “simulation” product.

Not a Classroom

Another important aspect to consider when shopping for simulators is what they actually simulate. Vendors often call their products “interactive,” but beware: Many times, this interactivity consists of something to the effect of a PowerPoint presentation with subsequent voice-over. In such instances, the product is simulating a classroom environment but is not really enabling the user to complete a task of some sort. When previewing such performance-based learning options, always download the demo to make sure that the type of simulation you’re getting is what you want.

Conclusion

Quality performance-based learning puts the learner in an environment in which he or she can actually do something. Performance-based learning must encourage retention of the knowledge for use later in the actual environment being simulated. Performance-based learning tools are great, but can be difficult to find. When you’re looking for them, keep a keen eye on what they offer. Make sure they deliver on their promise of putting you in the driver’s seat by simulating what you want to learn.