Purpose

To recognize the continuous achievement of measurable positive societal impact by an individual or organization.

Note: ISPI will NOT accept self-nominations for this award.

Qualifying Criteria (for candidate to be considered)

Documented history of tangible/measurable positive societal results/impacts spanning at least five years.

Recognized contributions to the community and society (as documented through media, other awards, etc.).

If an individual, then has not served on the Board or as a full-time member of the ISPI staff for at least three years prior to the date of presentation of award.

If Advocate or organizational member of ISPI, then no member of the organization can have served on the Board or as a full-time member of the ISPI staff for at least three years prior to the date of presentation of award. Distinguishing Criteria (for selection of candidates under consideration)

• Has significantly contributed to and supported others in creating positive societal results.
• Has evidence of applying the principles of HPT through concepts, models, tools, or techniques.
• Has provided leadership in terms of guiding practice that results in positive societal consequences.

APPLY HERE

Purpose

This award was established in 2011 in honor of Geary Rummler, a lifetime member, significant supporter, and valued contributor to ISPI and the profession. It is awarded to individuals and/or organizations who have demonstrated and reflect the work and life of Geary. The award honors his legacy and advancement of both HPT and ISPI's principles and practices.

Note: ISPI will NOT accept self-nominations for this award.

Qualifying Criteria (for candidate to be considered)

• 10+ consecutive years as an international member of ISPI
• Regular presenter at the international conference, regional, and local chapter events
• Regular publisher in PIQ, PIJ, and other peer-reviewed and trade publications
• Client-focused practice applying ISPI's principles, practices, and standards
• Has not served on the Board for at least three years prior to the date of presentation award

Distinguishing Criteria (for selection of candidates under consideration)

• Outstanding thought leader in performance improvement
• Outstanding collaboration with others
• Outstanding performance in "adding value"
• Outstanding documented results
• Selfless sharing

Documentation: Nominations requires documentation of how the nominee meets the distinguishing criteria. Please prepare a .pdf or .docx document to attach when completing the nomination form.

For questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

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Purpose: To recognize outstanding and significant contributions to the knowledge base of human performance technology.

Note: ISPI will NOT accept self-nominations for this award.

Qualifying Criteria (for candidate to be considered)

• 10+ consecutive years as a contributor to the field of human performance technology
• Recognized by professional organizations related to HPT such as ISPI, ASTD, etc.
• Regular presenter at conferences such as ISPI or other related HPT organizations
• Has not served on the Board or as a full-time member of the ISPI staff for at least three years prior to the date of presentation of award.

Distinguishing Criteria (for selection of candidates under consideration)

• Has made significant contributions to the knowledge base of human performance technology
• Has made contributions to the definition/communication/demonstration of HPT
• Has mentored other HPT practitioners
• Has the respect of his/her peers in the technology
• Has published in journals/books/media to communicate achievements/findings in HPT
• Has promoted HPT through presentation to other professional groups

Documentation: Nominations requires documentation of how the nominee meets the distinguishing criteria. Please prepare a .pdf or .docx document to attach when completing the nomination form.

For questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

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Purpose:

To recognize outstanding and significant contributions to the field of human performance technology and the Society.

Note: ISPI will NOT accept self-nominations for this award.

Qualifying Criteria (for candidate to be considered)

• Current international member of ISPI and has a minimum of 10+ consecutive years as an international member of ISPI.
• Regular presenter at the international conference, regional, and local chapter events
• Has not served on the Board for at least three years prior to the date of presentation of award

Distinguishing Criteria (for selection of candidates under consideration)

• Has made contributions to the definition/communication/demonstration of HPT
• Has mentored ISPI members
• Has the respect of his/her peers in the technology
• Has published in ISPI and other journals/books/media to communicate achievements/findings in HPT
• Has promoted ISPI through presentation to other professional groups
• Contribution to the international conference is noteworthy
• Has made significant contributions to the knowledge base of human performance technology

Documentation: Nominations requires documentation of how the nominee meets the distinguishing criteria. Please prepare a .pdf or .docx document to attach when completing the nomination form.

For any questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

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Purpose

To recognize outstanding and significant contributions to the betterment of ISPI on a long-term basis.

Note: ISPI will NOT accept self-nominations for this award.

Qualifying Criteria (for candidate to be considered)

• 10+ consecutive years as an international member of ISPI
• Served on a range of international ISPI Committees and/or special assignments
• Regular presenter at the international conference, regional, and local chapter events
• Has not served on the Board for at least three years prior to the date of presentation of award

Distinguishing Criteria (for selection of candidates under consideration)

• Has made contributions to the definition/communication/demonstration of the Society
• Has recruited and mentored ISPI members
• Has the respect of his/her peers in the Society
• Has promoted ISPI through presentation to other professional groups
• Contribution to the international conference is noteworthy
• Has made significant contributions to the formation/development of chapters and the international organization

Documentation: Nominations requires documentation of how the nominee meets the distinguishing criteria. Please prepare a .pdf or .docx document to attach when completing the nomination form.

For questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

APPLY HERE

The Distinguished Dissertation Award promotes excellence in student research that focuses on Performance Improvement Technology. All winners will also have the opportunity to present their research findings during a poster session at the upcoming annual conference.

Only doctoral dissertation research defended successfully within the current calendar year and four previous calendar years are eligible. Any doctoral students attending an accredited university throughout the world are eligible. Applicants from previous years who did not receive the award may re-apply. Award winners are encouraged to submit their dissertation study to Performance Improvement Quarterly to be considered for publication in ISPI's premiere refereed research journal.

Note: Incomplete applications will not be considered for this award. Only high-quality dissertation studies that meet the rigor of the award community will be considered.

DISTINGUISHED DISSERTATION AWARD APPLICATION

Complete and save this document: Distinguished Dissertation Award Proposal.

Append your current curriculum vitae to the proposal document above. You will upload the combined proposal and CV document via the online application form where directed.

Include a letter of recommendation from your Dissertation Academic Director. You will upload it via the online application form where directed.

Be sure to note the application requires alignment to the Performance Technology Standards and detailed information about your study.

Please note all Award of Excellence applicants must be a Gold Level member with ISPI.

For questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

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This award recognizes outstanding research in the field of Human Performance Technology (HPT) or in a related field such as Adult Education, Human Technology, Behavioral Psychology, and Vocational Education.

The research can be conducted by a professional in the field of HPT or a related field

This category is also open to all students (master’s and doctoral) enrolled in a related graduate program. Dissertations, theses, or studies completed as part of an independent study or external contract to the institution will be considered.

Scope

• How we define “research” for ISPI awards
• The categories of research that qualify for awards
• The criteria for excellent research, worthy of an award
• This document does not attempt to teach the research process, nor does it pretend to describe how the methods of scientific research can be applied to various situations. For this reason, the research category relies upon the extensive research background of its Evaluators

Basic Characteristics of HPT Research

Human Performance Technology is an applied field, more of an engineering discipline than a basic science, so when we speak of research in this context, we mean scientific research as it is applied to an engineering discipline. The purpose of such research is to produce new applications, technology, or insights that improve our practice of HPT. It is grounded in solid scientific research technique, but has definite implications for the practice of the discipline. The applied research studies we wish to recognize will all fulfill a few basic goals.

They:

• Systematically compare plausible alternatives relevant to the development or application of HPT methods (i.e., there must be two or more experimental conditions
• Draw conclusions that are generalizable to situations other than the context of the original study
• Have practical implications and immediate consequences (e.g., a definitive study of the motivational value of spraying whipped cream from an aerosol can on top of participants’ heads, is a non-starter because in actual practice, only Thiagi could get way with doing it!)
• Award evaluators are asked to evaluate award applications in light of these criteria, the research questions being asked, and the appropriateness of the research methodology employed in answering them.

Categories of Research

ISPI wishes to recognize excellence in HPT research without unduly constraining the questions being asked or the methods employed to answer them. This section describes the major categories of research, which we believe are clearly relevant to advances in HPT. The intention is not to endorse one method over another, but rather to open the awards process to a variety of research techniques.

The description of these categories should make the point that there are many avenues to rigor, generalizability, and significance. Excellence comes from choosing the right path, and following it thoughtfully.

Research in HPT may come in many forms, have more than one purpose, and employ different conceptual models of the research process. This variety would make our awards procedures unmanageable if we had not established some categories and corresponding criteria. These categories may appear arbitrary, and their boundaries may be fuzzy (a given entry may well overlap several categories) and the categories themselves are far from exhaustive. Even so, they summarize years of experience with the Research Award program, and historical patterns of HPT research.

In your application, you will be asked to apply these categories (as we have defined them) to your research project, so that your application will be that much easier for our evaluators to comprehend.

Applied Research Categories—Purpose

Applied research may be categorized by its purposes, which we list to distinguish research studies from studies that use the same methods of systematic inquiry, but are not research.

The most frequent confusion occurs with evaluation. Evaluations test the hypothesis that the outcomes are as the design intended (summative evaluation) or that the tactics employed achieve the intended result (formative evaluation). Rarely do they produce a result that is generalizable to other situations, although the method of evaluation, or its template, may well be of broader use. For the purpose of ISPI Awards, we view evaluations as components of the projects they evaluate, not as independent research projects.

The research categories are:

• Design-oriented Research
• Outcomes-oriented Research
• Technology-oriented Research
• Meta-analysis Research
• A brief description of each type of research is included below.

Applied Research Categories—Design

Design-oriented Research seeks to determine the effects of certain design parameters of HPT interventions, the independent variables, on the dependant variable, human behavior or performance.

For example, a researcher may examine the effects of various forms of feedback on task performance to decide how much feedback, and what types of feedback, are necessary to achieve a given level of performance. Providing that the forms of feedback are adaptable to other contents and subjects, the results will be generalizable to a variety of settings.

Outcomes-Oriented Research

Outcomes-oriented Research seeks to compare the results produced by programs or interventions that have the same nominal goals. The purpose of this research is to provide an empirical basis for decision-making in selecting the best possible outcome (Geis & Smith, 1992; Rossi & Freeman, 1993).

For example, three companies have developed fire safety courses for their physical plant departments. Now that the companies have merged, the combined company wants to standardize on a single program. An outcomes-oriented study would gather the information to make that decision. If those three programs had been purchased from outside vendors and were generally available, or if they were representative of three recognized approaches to teaching fire safety, the research and the decision would be of interest to other companies similarly situated.

Technology-Oriented Research

Technology-oriented Research concerns the impact of the tools and techniques we use to develop and implement HPT interventions.

An example would be comparing the same training delivered in a classroom with training delivered in a virtual classroom over the Internet. To isolate the effects of the technology, all of the design features of the two courses (e.g., exposition, practice, and feedback) would have to be as comparable as possible. Technology may encompass hardware, software, or systematic methods of developing performance improvement solutions.

Technology-oriented research is treated as a separately because its purpose often straddles the boundary between Design-oriented and Outcomes-oriented Research.

Meta-Analysis Research

Meta-Analysis Research combines the results of a number of comparable studies to increase the sensitivity and power of the inferences that can be justified by the data. It is especially useful in areas where a number of ambiguous or non-significant results have been obtained in a collection of experiments run by different people at different times and places.

Applied Research Categories—Measurements

A second method of categorizing research considers the method of measurement used, and the nature of the data collected. Broadly speaking, measurement in the social sciences can be defined as “the process of linking abstract concepts to empirical indicants” (Carmines & Zeller, 1979). But, there are many methods of linkage:

• Quantitative Research Measures
• Qualitative Research Measures
• Statistical Measures

Applied Research Categories—Design

A third method of categorization is based on the designs of the experiments. Over time, certain designs have become associated with certain types of study; but, in principle these designs are not bound to a particular question or data type.

Starting with the most rigorous statistical designs, we list the types in order, from those capable of the strongest, most objective inferences to the most subjective ones. Whether a design delivers to its full capability depends largely upon the details of its application, so a powerful design inappropriately chosen, or ineptly implemented, may be significantly worse than a less assuming design that is appropriate to existing experimental constraints.

Be assured that your application will not be judged by your choice of experimental design in isolation from the context of the entire experimental situation, and the conclusions you draw. Types of Experimental Designs for Applied HPT Research include:

• Classic balanced randomized block designs
• Quasi‑experimental designs
• Single-subject designs
• Case studies
• Opinion research
• Modeling
• Phenomenological Studies

Research Phases

Research phases follow a common pattern. There are frequent variations, but the basic procedure is:

• Identify the question/issue/hypothesis
• Plan/design an appropriate study
• Collect and code data
• Analyze data
• Interpret results, draw conclusions
• Communicate the results
• Use the results to improve human performance theory or practice

We grant that the seventh phase is not always under the control of the researcher. However, utilization of the results is necessary if the research can be said to be “applied.” Furthermore, successful application validates the claims of utility to HPT as nothing else can.

Qualification Checklist

To qualify for review and consideration, applicants must:

• Be a Gold Member of ISPI, or a representative of an ISPI Advocate organization,

Pay for shipping, special equipment rental, or translation, if needed, for evaluation, and

Provide full-length copies of the research and development effort (contact awards@ispi.org to arrange delivery).

Also, the nominated research must:

• Have been designed and substantially conducted by the applying individual, organization, or team. (Students must provide a letter from a faculty member attesting to the student's primary role in conducting the research),
• Have addressed all outlined criteria, and
• Have been completed within the three-year period preceding the application deadline.
• Additionally, you and/or your organization must:
• Display the actual research (or a mockup/alternative if confidentiality is a concern), if required, at the annual conference, and
• Be willing to mentor a new applicant the year following your Award recognition.

Application Steps

Complete and save this Application Proposal (OSR). The file:

• Must be submitted as either a single Word or PDF document; no other formats will be accepted. PDF portfolios will not be accepted.
• Must not be password protected.
• Must not contain any business-sensitive, classified, or other limited access material or markings. Such proposals will rejected and deleted from the ISPI Awards database and you will be notified upon determination. You may be able to re-apply if the application window is still open.
• Must be named as Applicant's First Initial Last Name Application.xxx (where xxx is .doc or .pdf). For example, "L Skywalker Application.docx". If you are submitting more than one application this year, then append -01, etc to your proposal file's title (e.g. "L Skywalker Application-01.docx, L Skywalker Application-02.docx).

Evaluation Criteria

Each application will be evaluated for:

• The internal rigor and quality of the research
• The extent to which the findings can be generalized to new settings and populations
• The impact the work has had or will have on the field of Human Performance Technology

For questions about submitting an Award, please email: awards@ispi.org

APPLY HERE

The ISPI Chapter of Excellence Awards recognizes chapters that demonstrate innovative efforts and/or achieve outstanding results in Programming, Communications, or Chapter-to-Society Relations. The award recognizes achievement over a calendar year. Up to three chapters will be recognized.

Each Chapter of Excellence Award category need not be awarded each year; multiple awards may be given in a category.

Criteria for Nomination

In addition to the application form and supporting documentation, Chapters must have submitted their annual report to the Society as required by their Chapter Affiliation Agreement. Chapter of Merit designation is not necessary to apply.

Guidelines for Selection

The following guidance is provided to aid the selection of Chapter of Excellence awardees. These attributes are neither mandatory nor exhaustive. (Download the Chapter Awards Guide).

Outstanding Programming
Identify and determine the best methods for responding to the needs and interests of the Chapter’s served community to deliver relevant programs, products, and services that align with ISPI’s strategic goals and values.

• Review metrics to evaluate programs and make recommendations to maintain, improve, or discontinue.
• Ensure the review of existing and potential professional development activities that incorporate the conditions necessary for successful adult learning.
• Develop comprehensive implementation plans to ensure that programs are fiscally responsible.
• Use of innovative methods and delivery systems to appropriately address stakeholder needs.
• Co-sponsorship of meetings/conferences with other chapters or groups
• Other efforts or results indicative of aspirational Programming

Chapter Communications

• Deploy informative, engaging physical marketing material.
• Deploy informative, engaging website and virtual communications design.
• Distribute engaging newsletters on a regular basis.
• Leverage membership directory and leads list outreach and analysis.
• Develop community awareness through social media.
• Develop community awareness through traditional media.
• Develop a data-driven marketing strategy to support the Chapter’s membership, education, and outreach goals.
• Other efforts or results indicative of aspirational Chapter Communications

Chapter to Society Relations

• Encourage Society membership
• Conduct timely and continuing communications with Society (Staff and CAC)
• Support and promote Society meetings, programs, and goals
• Share with the Society lessons learned regarding better service of member needs.
• Other efforts or results indicative of aspirational Chapter to chapter-society relation

Submission Guidelines

Applications open on December 15th and close on January 15th. The ISPI CAC will contact Chapters directly with submission instructions for this award. Additional information is available in the Chapter Awards Guide.

For questions about submitting an Award, please email awards@ispi.org.

Chapter of Merit is a designation available to all Chapters and is determined by reviewing annual reports and checking for compliance with the Chapter Affiliation Agreement (CAA).

The Chapter of Merit designation recognizes significant compliance with the CAA. Evaluation and determination are done by reviewing the chapters’ annual reports (due Jan 15) and websites.

Additional information is available in the Chapter Awards Guide.

ISPI recognizes one Chapter per year for the Distinguished Chapter Award. Recognized as the highest award level a Chapter can achieve, this award recognizes the one Chapter each year that is committed to its partnership with ISPI through its support of ISPI’s long-range plans and objectives.

Additional information is available in the Chapter Awards Guide.

Additional information is available on the Chapter Awards page or in the Chapter Awards Guide.