By JOSH CREAMER and DANNY MUELLER
An increase in training requirements has placed a large burden on volunteer departments. Worse yet, these training requirements have encroached on training that was historically spent on practical, hands-on skills. This loss of fun hands-on training leaves many volunteers disengaged. As a volunteer department of 300 members in 14 stations (500 square miles), the Boone County (MO) Fire Protection District understands this dilemma. Our department surrounds a moderate-size college town and attracts students from each of the schools in the area.
Like all volunteer organizations, we have members from all walks of life with varying personal and professional experiences and training needs. It was becoming evident that we could not continue using traditional training methods alone to meet the needs of our members. For volunteers having to balance family, work, and school obligations, we needed to find a better solution. Throughout 2011, we capitalized on a variety of low-cost technological solutions that improved our overall training program. We met annual requirements while simultaneously increasing volunteer engagement and contact hours for hands-on training.
None of the solutions we used are outside of your department’s reach. We’ve outlined our experiences in this article so that you can experience similar success and host more enjoyable training.
STEP 1-START SMALL
At the beginning of our online journey, we realized that many great online training resources already existed among a variety of fire Web sites. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we first decided to create an internal repository of these videos, which would allow our volunteers to receive the content in one central location where we could add our organizational context to the video. The easiest solution we found was the online blogging platform Tumblr© (www.tumblr.com). We wanted a solution that was very intuitive and easy to use, and Tumblr© delivered just that. It provides a simple administrative interface that makes it easy to post text, pictures, audio, links, and videos without any knowledge of Web site code. Each option includes the ability to add a description, which we have found very useful. We use the description section to pose questions to our firefighters and to put the information from the post into our organizational context. This allows us to guide the learning process rather than rely on the many “training officers” found on the Internet.
One aspect of Tumblr© we found lacking was the inability of users to leave their personal comments about the posts and videos. Not being able to interact with our volunteers through the blog was a major drawback. Luckily, though, Tumblr© has thousands of users, so it is easy to find technical solutions on the Web.
After a quick online search, we found a way to add comments to blog posts with DISQUS© (www.disqus.com). Adding comments requires manually embedding the HTML code in the Tumblr© source page. However, the instructions from DISQUS© were more than adequate to guide a novice Web user. Now, we are able to interact with our volunteers and pose questions about what we can learn from the videos and links we have posted.
After a year of posting, we have found the blog especially useful for reposting fireground videos, links to relevant news, and our own postincident critiques. Based on Web site traffic, the page is a success, with more than 4,500 views in the first six months. These “mini-training sessions” have allowed us to make training a continuous endeavor, not something that happens just a few evenings a month. Even more promising, many of our volunteers have taken ownership of the blog and actively search for good training material to post. This has led us to consider expanding the blog beyond Tumblr©’s limitations. We are also considering hosting a WordPress.org blog with a videocentric blog theme. This involves slightly more technological investment, something that our first year of innovation has proved is worth the price.
STEP 2-BUILD YOUR OWN
Although we had success embedding training videos created by others on our initial blog, we still lacked the ability to create our own. To truly guide the training environment and be responsive to our operational needs, we recognized the need to create our own videos. After nine months of experience, we’ve found two solutions that best fit our needs. For capturing practical training videos, we purchased a small camcorder and a run-of-the-mill editing software program. The choice of software isn’t nearly as important as the functionality. For the majority of video editing packages, you can have a training blurb taped, edited, and hosted on YouTube within just a few minutes. We are now recording short training “drill” videos that cover topics such as hose rolls, tarp folding, extrication, and backboarding. We have also found success recording maintenance bulletins, incident debriefs, and annual refresher training as well.
Although we had success with this approach for our practical videos, many of our training programs ripe for online learning were lecture based. Rather than make our solution fit this new context, we decided to purchase Camtasia© (www.CamtasiaSoftware.com), software that is designed for creating screen captures of lecture-based training. Camtasia© integrates very well with PowerPoint®, adding a “Record” button into the PowerPoint® toolbar. To create a video, just click the record button at the top of the screen and begin lecturing as if students were in the room. Camtasia© then creates a video file based on the size and format you specify. It’s that easy to begin creating online content.
Our first priority with Camtasia© was to create online videos of our required annual refresher training. We created short refreshers for bloodborne pathogens and respiratory protection based on PowerPoint files that we already possessed. Consisting entirely of lecture, these two topics were ideal test beds for Camtasia©. After our initial success, we expanded our use of Camtasia© into our recruitment academy. Rather than spend an entire training session covering lecture material, we recorded the lectures and required our recruits to watch them prior to class. Now, our recruit trainings consist of reviewing online material and then perfecting the practical skills. Our recruits have enjoyed the additional hands-on time that this has created by moving the lectures to the Internet. Within just a few hours, you can create your own training video that is specific to your local context and resources. Of all of the videos we have posted to Tumblr©, the ones we created have had the most hits.
STEP 3-FIND STORAGE
Once we started creating our own videos, we needed to share them online. Since we already had the Tumblr© blog, we assumed we could simply upload the files there. Unfortunately, Tumblr© limits users to uploading videos less than five minutes in length. We’ve had success hosting our videos on YouTube, but they limit users similarly in uploading videos shorter than 15 minutes. For our longer videos (mostly lecture material through Camtasia©), we decided to host our videos through the Amazon© Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) (http://aws.amazon.com/s3). The cost for this service varies each month based on the bandwidth used. Overall, though, the cost to host your videos at Amazon© is minimal. Once the videos are hosted, you can post them easily to your blog or Web site for easy access by your volunteers.
STEP 4-DON’T FORGET THE SMALL STUFF
Amid searching for training solutions, we realized that not all training has to be high tech. One of our largest untapped resources was the fire service books we had in the offices at our district headquarters. Unfortunately, none of our volunteers knew that this resource existed. After a quick inventory, we added an index of all of our books to our Web site. Now, all of our volunteers can check out the books we have available and can pursue further training on their own. As an added benefit, this library counts toward our overall ISO rating.
Another big hit was the transition of our many training calendars from paper to online. After reviewing several options, we decided to use Google© Calendar. The calendars are easy to share online and also merge with our volunteers’ personal calendars and mobile devices. Rather than having to keep track of multiple paper copies and e-mails for department changes, our volunteers now only need to check their mobile device for the latest updates.
We realized early on that we needed to validate the effectiveness of online training. Simply handing out a paper-based quiz at the beginning of each drill night would be sufficient to validate the online training program and ensure that learning objectives are met.
Another solution on our radar was the use of open-source learning management systems (LMS). We have decided to use Canvas by Instructure (www.instructure.com), which is free, but you must host it yourself or pay another provider to host. We hope to incorporate an LMS into our emergency medical technician, paramedic, and recruit training programs as an aid to our students.
We did not have any preconceived notions of what success would look like when we started. With the benefit of hindsight, we have identified several successes that arose from our technological journey. Although we were confident the technology would be embraced by our newest members, we were unsure of its success within the rest of our department. We are pleased to report that the changes have been well received by all of our volunteers regardless of age and experience. Members with more than 30 years of experience routinely review the material, our safety committee members submit material for posting, and our deputy chief regularly uses the technology to relay information from his bureau.
This training methodology allows our experienced members to train on their own time without any attached mandates. It is not uncommon to hear conversations at the fire stations among our experienced members discussing the videos they saw or the article they read on the training site. This new focus has made many of our experienced members advocates for researching more online material and another avenue to serve as mentors to the next generation.
Sustaining this effort was also something we could not guarantee when we began. With experience, we have realized what sets this endeavor apart from some of the other fire training programs. Previous training programs that used technology required a significant financial commitment. We have used some of these programs in the past only to find we needed to reinvest more money to update the material to the latest trends and standards. Our current approach, however, requires almost no financial investment. Further, we have avoided putting all of our eggs in one basket by diversifying our use of technology (videos, platforms, online quizzes, calendars, and so on). Most importantly, our approach is responsive to changing needs by allowing for quick and easy updating-a major drawback to technological solutions from outside vendors.
The biggest lesson we learned in this process, though, had nothing to do with technology. Our move toward online training has decentralized the overall training process and empowered our volunteers. Rather than being the sole creators and finders of relevant training, the training officers now serve as facilitators. We now seek input from our volunteers and regularly post videos to the training blog that they believe are useful. Some of these videos are even created by the volunteers themselves. This provides an additional benefit, as they learn more from creating the material than we as a training cadre could ever have taught them. They are now excited about training and push us to continue raising the bar.
We have no delusions that online training can replace hands-on training. Rather, our focus on online training is actually an extension of our desire to perform more hands-on training. By allowing our volunteers the flexibility to get the didactic training online, we have opened up a great deal of hands-on time on our training calendar. This renewed focus on hands-on training has been very well received by our firefighters. We are now maximizing our training time by capturing both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. With just a little effort, your department can have this opportunity, too.
Although many of these resources are simple to implement, embracing technology may seem like a daunting task. In that case, we strongly recommend soliciting help from your volunteers. You may have someone in your department who has the expertise and would love the opportunity to help. If not, a quick online search on these topics will yield in-depth, how-to instructions. The above resources would also be easy to apply regionally, so make sure to check with your mutual-aid partners for assistance. With just a few simple steps, you could provide a jumpstart to your training program and get your volunteers to take part in the process.
JOSH CREAMER is the recruitment/retention coordinator for the Boone County (MO) Fire Protection District, where he has worked for nine years. Creamer has an M.S. degree in fire and emergency management administration from Oklahoma State University and serves as a rescue squad officer for Missouri Task Force 1.
DANNY MUELLER is a lieutenant and training officer with the Boone County (MO) Fire Protection District, where he has worked for seven years. Mueller is also a member of Missouri Task Force 1 and has a B.S. degree in education from Central Methodist University.
