Training used to be so simple. You had a person called an instructor, who taught subjects to a group of people called students. It didn't make much difference whether it was on the drill tower where the training officer lectured, or in a firehouse where the company officer delivered the material. There were textbooks, techniques of instruction and then there were tests. You passed, or you didn't.

That was then. If you're involved in the training and education of firefighting personnel today, not only is the toolbox much larger, it's much more technologically enhanced, and there are many more requirements that must be met. The depth to which an officer or an entire department uses technology to expedite training may well determine both the short- and long-range effectiveness of the department's personnel and programs. Using that technology to achieve compliance with training requirements is also critical because we have less and less time to train for more and more topics.

Educational concepts

If you're one of those people responsible for developing a department's training program, it might be time to look at some of the emerging concepts that are affecting your delivery system to see if they will help you justify an increased use of technology in overcoming obstacles such as reduced time and increased requirements.

While these aren't necessarily new concepts to professional training and education practitioners, they only recently have been identified as useful to the fire services. They include:

• Continuing education,
• Distributed learning,
• Blended learning,
• Just-in-time training and
• Long-distance learning.

Continuing education isn't really a new idea; it's a simple concept. Once you have received training and education in a specific topic, the idea is that you should have ongoing exposure to that subject for as long as you are practicing in that area. Continuing education is common in other professional areas, such as medicine, law and aviation.

Since the early 1920s, the fire service has been practicing the idea that one needs ongoing reinforcement of acquired skills. Otherwise, how can we explain the requirement to conduct on-duty training exercises during almost every shift that a crew is on duty? Rookies and veterans alike participate in a daily reinforcement of knowledge and skills.

But continuing-education units are more than reinforcement. They're designed to retrain and re-educate. The term has become specifically linked with specific bodies of knowledge in the fire service such as EMS and hazmat. Most importantly, CEUs have become linked with programs that are classified as certificate programs.

And therein lies the red flag that the fire service needs to monitor: If a program is created with a CEU component, it creates a long-term commitment for the individual who acquires it. If your organization requires it, there's a cost consequence. In either case, continuing education is a two-edged sword. It promotes an ever-increasing body of knowledge so that an individual's expertise doesn't become static, but it places a lot of demands on the delivery system to meet timelines and deadlines and keep track of accountability issues.

Distributed learning is based on the need to clearly identify the exact sequence with which a training program exposes individuals to increasing complexity in skills and abilities.

A good example from many of our careers is the recruit academy. Two or three decades ago there was an assumption that the entry-level firefighter had a solid background in how basic tools worked. We didn't have to teach entry-level people how to use the tools; we gave them training on how to perform a fireground tasks with tools.

To some degree that has changed with the current candidate pool. Significant numbers of entry-level personnel today are not well versed in manipulative skills with tools. In fact, a fire department in Southern California has modified its recruit academy curriculum to include classes on how to use hammers, saws, pry bars and chain saws. The intent is to develop recruits' ability to use these tools in specific operations such as automobile extrication.

Distributed learning is a conscious effort by delivery-system designers to have complex operations supported by several more basic operations. The distribution of that training, therefore, is based on ensuring that no candidates are expected to perform any function until they are ready for it.

Blended learning says that there are many different ways of teaching a subject. Most instructors already recognize that individuals respond to different teaching techniques and media in different ways. Blended learning attempts to match the media with the motivation, resulting in a student having the highest possible chance of successfully acquiring the desired knowledge or skill.

The blended learning concept anticipates that no one teaching style reaches all audiences. However, it also recognizes that learning isn't always a function of formal instruction, acknowledging the importance of peer-to-peer training, mentoring and other nontraditional systems. This includes a rapidly increasing appreciation for self-paced learning and long-distance delivery systems. Blended learning also emphasizes accountability and evaluation.

Just-in-time training is a reaction to the need to provide appropriate but time-sensitive material. In the fire service sense, it's basically tactical or very new information that can be addressed fairly quickly.

This isn't an easy concept to apply at the micro-level. It requires a more broad-based delivery system than most individual fire agencies usually develop or sustain. Nonetheless, it's a concept with merit. Take terrorism disease control as a current example. There are very specific topics that all firefighters need to know more about, such as inoculation or dealing with specific threats, that aren't found in the regular curriculum yet are needed right away.

Diverse models

Each of these concepts is relevant to conditions faced by most fire agencies. However, the degree to which fire departments can adapt their delivery system to use these concepts is a major challenge for the fire service.

Our training and education system is as complex and diverse as the more than 30,000 estimated fire agencies in the United States. Their delivery systems can range from the company officer who conducts daily training in a neighborhood fire station to the universities and National Fire Academy that deliver content and provide a framework for professional development.

A big challenge for the fire service is to design and implement a model that will meet the various needs of such a complex system of delivery. While no one system can do it all, all models can be used to meet some portion of the requirements. The more successful agencies are those that can identify those best practices that include the everyday elements of the learning concepts described previously.

The fire service also has a need to remain competitive with other public safety and governmental entities in the future. More and more, work-force learning will have to use a delivery system that engages the learner with must-need information that is relevant to his or her job. Training programs that are based on that criterion, rather than merely spending a certain period of time on a topic, are going to be much more important in the future.

Long-distance learning

The design of any system depends on access to a constant flow of subject matter that meets the department's need for high-priority and high-impact information. One solution is the use of long-distance learning techniques as a viable part of the career-planning process.

At its simplest, long-distance learning is two remote locations communicating certain information to each other. One site, the instructor, is providing that information, and one site, the student, is learning about the information. Time and distance are overcome by the speed of the electron.

In reality, the delivery of long-distance learning is very complex and requires a high level of knowledge in both subject matter and technology. Although very few local institutions possess both, most fire agencies have many training needs that can be met through this method.

Unfortunately, many do not recognize its usefulness, or even that they have unfulfilled needs. They may respond that such training is expensive. While it's true that training and education aren't free, in today's environment remaining untrained has a cost, also. Of course, long-distance learning can be a cost-containment decision, because when it's used for specific topics it can replace the costs of travel, per diem, overtime to cover positions that must be refilled and so forth.

In the demographics of the American fire service, one of our greatest deficiencies is that we are a diverse, geographically distributed, complex profession with a training and education system that shares those attributes. Almost every fire department in the country has training needs. From the metropolitan areas to the smallest volunteer departments, fire chiefs face an unwavering demand on their ability to react to problems, respond to emergencies or cope with consequences.

“So what?” you might say, “It's been that way for decades.” The difference now is that long-distance learning technology can provide one of the potential solutions. And not unlike other technology that we have adopted, it has been tried and tested by the private sector. The private sector has already applied blended learning concepts; it's time for the fire service to seize the initiative.

In fact, we already have. The Texas Fire Chiefs Association has recognized the need for supplemental courses delivered to fire agencies online. The Fire and Emergency Training Network, which is owned by Fire Chief's parent company Primedia, operates the Primenet online training system. Many community colleges have implemented on-line courses to reinforce the needs of their local fire service. For example, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts has announced a recent long-distance learning offering.

Benefits outweigh flaws

The fire service has no real excuse not to use this kind of training. The technology is readily available, but what's often lacking is the initiative to use it. Keep in mind, however, that long-distance learning doesn't work for everyone. Learning styles vary almost as much as instructor or leadership styles.

Among the greatest of this concept's weaknesses are motivation and discipline. E-learning can be deferred easily when other events are pressing. There are already many things competing for the time of the student. In fact, many of the efforts to use long-distance learning in the private sector have failed due to inadequate planning or failure to follow up on student accountability.

Another weakness is that e-learning can't be the sole source of training. It must be part of a program of distributed and blended learning, and that requires planning and system design. Adding a requirement to take an online course doesn't make an effective contribution to the person's overall competency.

Long-distance learning can help almost any fire agency, small to large, improve on the knowledge and abilities of its employees. It can overcome the limitations of time and distance, as well as limitation of limited access to instructor expertise.

The implementation of this concept requires leadership at the top to be successful. There has to be a champion — the training officer of fire chief — who seizes the initiative to overcome the inertia of the traditional approach to acquiring knowledge. Long-distance learning requires someone to advocate, adopt and analyze how technology can keep a fire agency on the leading edge of the profession.

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A 40-year veteran of the fire service, Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the state fire marshal of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System. A Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, he has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in vocational education.

References

Advanced Distributed Learning
http://adlnet.org

Brandon-Hall: Your Guide to E-learning
www.brandon-hall.com

Learning & Training Innovations
www.ltimagazine.com/ltimagazine

The Masie Center
www.masie.com

Primenet
www.pwpl.com/primenet.asp