Showcase Video
Gillian Martin, Senior Project Officer eLearning
The project for Fire and Rescue NSW is Improving training access for retained firefighters. We have used a blended learning model for a cohort of 30 retained (part-time firefighters) who are undertaking two units of competency from the Certificate II in Public Safety (Firefighting and Emergency Operations). The project is being managed by myself and facilitated by two Fire and Rescue Instructors. Tracey Kick, Assistant Director Education explains some of the benefits the project has provided to the organisation.
Tracey Kick, Assistant Director Education
Some of the benefits of the eLearning for Participation and Skills project for Fire and Rescue NSW have included increased access for our retained firefighters or part-time staff in country areas in particular to learning and continual learning to increase their skills and knowledge around firefighting.
The project has enabled us to showcase to the organisation the effectiveness of a blended learning delivery and its application for education and training not only of retained firefighters but right across the organisation and to consider its application to future training and education programs.
Throughout the project we have been able to demonstrate a range of technologies such as video conferencing, virtual learning, self-paced learning and communities of practice on-line that have assisted participants to talk to each other regardless of their location.
One of the benefits of the project is that we have been able to debunk the myth that retained firefighters, or our part-time staff, won't be interested in or can't access the technologies available to them. The project has demonstrated that firefighters are willing and able to utilise those technologies.
The project has resulted in improved access to learning for our part time staff who want to engage in further study and training.
Gillian Martin, Senior Project Officer eLearning
The Senior Instructors, Jon Cantrall and Daniel Humphrey who facilitated the program, discuss the program from the participants' perspective gained from informal feedback and from their own experiences. Further benefits are highlighted along with some of the challenges faced.
Jon Cantrall and Daniel Humphrey, Senior Instructors Country
1. How have retained firefighters benefitted from participating in this project?
A couple of the benefits are that it has got the portability of their access, so it doesn't require them to have to attend the fire station to access the Learning Hub, and I think also too, just with that environment at home might be a little more comfortable for them while they are working through the various modules. Again as well, being remote access it allows them to learn at their own pace and the other thing that's I think very beneficial for retained firefighters is the fact that that they are not permanently on duty at the fire station they can do it at times to suit themselves whether it is late at night or early in the morning that sort of thing and with that again and it takes that little bit of pressure off them not to attend the firestation when they finish work to log on and access the hub that way.
2. What do you think participants have struggled with when participating in the program?
Early on there were a few issues around logging in and navigating through the learning hub. So they were a couple of common themes that came up in the early stages. I think probably as it progressed, that we didn't have the full participation of the trial group, so whether some people had trouble with the access to the learning hub and gave up or just being able to find that little bit of extra time to be able to participate in the trial.
Yes, that's something we will have to survey them on a little bit later on. Yes.
3. What about you as an instructor, how did you find your first experience as an online instructor or facilitator?
Probably a bit similar to the firies, initially it was navigating through the learning hub, getting used to the lay out and using it. But as that it progressed probably the thing I struggled with the most was just finding the time while managing other competing priorities with our daily work. What I found when we had our Virtual Classroom I thought that was excellent and could really see the flow on benefits down the track and how we could use that to our advantage as trainers. One example might be for instance, where people aren't able to attend a drill and we could do what we call a 'make-up drill' with those couple of people on line so it may not require us to actually still be at the station to do that make-up drill with those firies that weren't able to attend.
I thought that was really good and I got some really positive feedback from a couple of guys after we had our virtual classroom aswell, in fact one of the firies I was talking to thought that yourself, Danny and I were all sitting in the same room at the same desk, so I thought that was pretty good because it seemed quite seemless to him.
That's very positive.
4. Is there anything else you wanted to add before we close?
I think while we are still learning to use this I think I would benefit from just having another a couple more face to face sessions with yourself down in Alexandria, just to make sure that my skills using the learning hub are where they need to be.
There is one more thing I suppose, but I think is coming. With some of the things referring back to question two, any struggles we might have. Fielding after hours queries from the firefighters, if we weren't in front of the computer to look at the learning hub so we can help navigate them through maybe a tablet or something like that might give us that quicker access so we can help with that enquiry straightaway as well so we don't lose the participation of that person.
Gillian Martin, Senior Project Officer eLearning
Andrew Nokes our Senior Project Officer Blended learning has been integral to the success of the project and provides an insight into the technical aspects of the project development and some of the lessons we have learned through this process.
Andrew Nokes, Senior Project Officer Blended Learning
My main role in the project has been to provide the project team with technical support and guidance. The project is leveraging upon several other initiatives within the organisation that make use of new and emerging technologies to increase learning opportunity and participation for geographically dispersed staff members.
Some of these technologies include Moodle LMS, virtual classrooms, mobile devices and eLearning authoring tools such as Adobe Captivate.
Moodle
The main platform for this project is Moodle LMS, otherwise known within our organisation as Learning Hub. Our LMS is currently hosted by Moodle Partner, Pukunui Technology, and administered by myself. In doing so I have been responsible for developing course shells, creating user accounts, enrolling participants onto courses, providing training in course development and management and for identifying and recommending solutions.
One of the main advantages of hosting our instance of Moodle externally, is the level of specialist support afforded by the Moodle Partner, ensuring that there are no service outages and that service requests are actioned quickly.
A challenge in hosting Moodle externally has been that we have been unable to connect to the organisation’s active directory. The problem with this is that users are required to use different usernames and passwords for the LMS than they are for other FRNSW systems.
As a result of this issue, we are currently working on a solution that would allow users to authenticate into the LMS using their current network credentials, by migrating the Moodle instance to a server inside of the organisation’s network.
Captivate
Many of the learning resources for this project have been developed as SCORM packages using Adobe Captivate. Doing this has allowed us to develop engaging interactive learning material and assessments that plug directly into Moodle, where learner progress is automatically tracked and recorded.
Adobe Connect
We have also incorporated some live training into the project using Adobe Connect virtual classrooms. This has enabled geographically dispersed instructors and learners greater flexibility about the locale of their training. In addition, we’ve also been able to record the live sessions and post them to Moodle for those learners that were unable to attend.
A future development of our Adobe Connect installation is to allow users to connect from outside the FRNSW network. Doing so would allow retained firefighters for example, the ability to connect to sessions from their primary place of work during lunch breaks or from home.
Mobile assessment
Some aspects of this project have included face-to-face assessments, such as workplace observations. To support the mobility of instructors, the user group for this project have been used to pilot a new initiative to use mobile devices for capturing and recording assessment evidence, the results of which are stored into our SAP learner management system.