HANDELkompetent – Situation Aware Learning in Retail

Abstract

Digitization is a megatrend which affects all industries. But how does this affect learning on the job scenarios. The research project HANDELkompetent aims at digitization of work process integrated informal learning in retail with a methodological approach and a supporting digital learning environment. The method consists of an accompanied learning approach, where a dedicated person schedules the development of competences of staff in dialog. Learning content consists of small web-based trainings, i.e. learning-nuggets, which can be consumed in a few minutes. The learning environment is enhanced with a tablet pc app, which presents learning content to a learner. The app is enabled to deliver appropriate content to the learner by recognizing the learning situation by making use of device sensors, the actual competences of a learner and the target competences as registered in the learning environment. That means in detail that a learning position, e.g. cash point, warehouse or sales floor is tagged with iBeacons. Those iBeacons broadcast their identification via Bluetooth Low Energy. The tablet PCof a learner can identify these iBeacons and thus, the app determines the physical location of the learner. Besides the position the app can utilize microphone, camera or a brightness sensor for gathering context information, to derive the learning situation and to deliver appropriate content. We make use of the Digital Business Engineering Framework to structure our work. Digital Business Engineering is a methodological framework to deliver sustainable solutions for Digital Transformation. This paper shows our structural approach and first results of the development phase of the HANDELkompetent project.