How to Use This Book: The 30-Second Access

The book is designed as a multilevel database: You can jump in at any level and retrieve the information required—from a one-sentence definition of "systems," for instance, to an extensive range of research on the art of designing systems. The book aims to provide you with the information you need at the moment you need it—be it Information Lite or Deep Data. Here is the way three different user levels would utilize the book:

Beginners:

• Have you suddenly been catapulted into a training department without a Ph.D. from Harvard? Don't know what they're talking about in meetings? Read this little book when you're back at your desk. It will ramp you up quickly and point you in the right direction.

• For a brief systematic introduction, read Part One, from beginning to end, to gain an overview of the learning and performance improvement process, from analysis through solution-design to implementation and evaluation.

Intermediates:

• Using the table of contents and the index, you can locate any subject ("learning object") and read the initial definition within thirty seconds. Spend a couple of minutes reading the rest of the entry or certain cross-references—then go have lunch or go to your next meeting (or, if you have the afternoon off, go read one of the five-pound text-books I have referenced in the Fastpaths sections).

Advanced Practitioners:

• A practicing expert and know everything? Kick back on your next lunch break and read the section on "Dante: Curriculum as Memory Theatre" in Part Three, and let your brain rock and roll on sun storms of association toward a new award-winning learning and performance initiative!

The Fastpaths as Pointers to Expert Texts

Throughout the book there are chronological listings of key events in the development of the different theories and concepts, called Fastpaths. These Fastpath sections, which provide a sense of the historical development of each concept, are of particular interest to advanced practitioners and researchers. Practitioners looking for only practical steps can skip these listings.