It’s been more than 20 years since Gloria Gery published her pioneering work, and still the promise of real-time performance support remains elusive. What opportunities do trainers now have to help employees improve skills while doing real tasks on the job? When is it appropriate to use mobile devices and when isn’t it? What new strategies are needed when developing mobile learning as performance support?

Many organizations want to increase their deployment of performance-support (PS) programs, but are struggling to find a way to do so with a limited budget. You don’t need to spend lots of money on design and development tools for effective performance-support content. Performance support does not always need to be a product from a vendor; you can quite effectively create and deliver performance-support content using your existing software or free online tools.

Every year, thousands of America’s service members separate from the military to start a new chapter in life as civilians. The re-entry into civilian life can be a difficult phase that results in unfamiliar challenges. The increased number of separations from the military strains the current infrastructure, resources, and techniques to prepare for post-military life.

Field-based performance support (PS) generally means printed job aids, which quickly become dirty and outdated and are nearly impossible to replace with new information. Today’s professionals carry and prefer using mobile devices. They expect performance support whenever and wherever they need it, which makes mobile devices the perfect vehicle for delivering PS. When PS can be accessed by scanning images and real objects, it’s not only the fastest and most preferred way to get PS, it’s fun and amazing!

Access to relevant information in a timely manner is a growing need of people in both their professional and personal lives. Leveraging augmented reality technologies on mobile platforms provides quick and easy access of information required to complete a job at hand more efficiently or simply to enhance a learning process.

To enable a more “on-demand” (or “just-in-time”) approach to performance improvement, organizations are moving away from relying completely on formal learning models to an informal approach, where people can quickly access information when, where, and how they need it. Learning strategies are evolving, with a focus on opportunities to move away from traditional LMS-centric, push, methodologies toward smaller learning modules and flexible pull approaches.