Digital Networks Robert Kozma and Edy Quellmaiz describe the potential of networked technologies to demonstrate impact. 7 These technologies automatically gather and store data. You can also use them to analyze data by monitoring access, types of use, frequency and duration of use, and user reactions—both for summative evaluations and formative activities designed to adapt a program to better achieve desired goals. These evaluation activities may be used to measure and analyze the impact on students as well as faculty and staff. Interactions between staff, professional development activities, and elements of the curriculum all leave artifacts on a digital network. Interactions can be analyzed by the number of participants, frequency of interactions, composition of groups, and focus of discussion. Curriculum can be judged for quality and alignment with standards, and compared to student achievement data. Teachers can further benefit from networked technologies by utilizing templates for notebooks, journals, and lesson plans—all of which can be captured in a standard form for ease of analysis by evaluators. Students, too, will leave artifacts on a digital network for possible analysis. These include frequency data that show which resources students access and how often. Logs of how students interact with each other, their teachers, and outside experts can be stored, and analyses of these interactions may provide insights into the depth of student reasoning, understanding of course content, and how well students collaborate with others. Electronic Performance Support Systems Developed to support industry and the corporate world, Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) hold great potential for education. These systems provide "just in time" support to workers who must make decisions about operating equipment, filling out forms, or completing other tasks. Common EPSS components include training, documentation, and help desks. Barry Raybould writes that these support systems are not necessarily limited to electronic delivery. 8 He takes a more holistic approach that includes all system elements to support workers, develop their capacity, and eventually build both individual and corporate knowledge and capacity. His Organizational Performance/Learning Cycle Model describes how the support system can lead to individual learning. This ability to increase situated learning directly impacts education and could potentially result in individualized instruction and assessment. This and other articles, presentations, and links to Web pages describing performance support engineering are available from EPSS.com.