OVERCOMING TRAINING CHALLENGES WITH AN ONLINE SOLUTION

A Test of Time

When Academic Director Mike Simmons first approached Action Training Systems about training solutions, he identified several challenges he was trying to overcome.

· He needed to increase student test scores

· He wanted more time to dedicate to hands-on skill-building

· He was looking to broaden his student base by making the content more accessible

Kilgore College is located in Gregg County in East Texas. This community college offers associate degrees in the arts and applied science, as well as technical prep, workforce training, and certificate programs one of which is the Kilgore Fire Academy. The fire academy offers several different firefighting training programs. There is an onsite program, an online basic fire academy, and a hybrid basic fire academy.

It’s been over two years now since Simmons successfully incorporated Action Training Systems’ Online Interactive Courses into his academy’s curriculum. We asked if he would share with us his personal experience and benefits gained by using our products.

Flipped Classroom Training

To start, Mike described how traditional fire training has relied on face-to-face instruction with a training officer or teacher presenting material in a classroom from a PowerPoint or delivering a lecture. Depending on the material, he explained, these presentations can be quite lengthy to cover and leave little time for actual hands-on practice with equipment or learning skills. However, once he put ATS in place, and created a hybrid model, everything changed.

“I first purchased this product over 2 years ago.  That’s when I learned about the ‘flipped classroom’ concept; we deliver the content, short and sweet, with online interactive content and then we go out and immediately jump into hands-on training. What this has allowed us to do is free up more time to do hands-on training and skills practicals.”

Pandemic Makes Training Even More Critical

After the pandemic hit, and the state closed the school, Simmons knew, as an experienced Incident Commander, that the continuation of training for first responders would be critical.

“I knew that the pandemic was going to have an impact on firefighters, EMT’s and healthcare workers. We have to have a workforce that is continually trained to be able to replace workers in order to serve the communities.”

Fortunately, Simmons already had his online training in place. While other instructors were scrambling to change their classes or develop ways to continue instruction, Simmons was able to redirect the rest of his programs online and continue with the instruction.

“For me, it worked out just fine for my face-to-face program. We just simply told students to stay home but they were able to continue to work on their interactive content such as the HAZMAT video series and completed our final two chapters in the Essentials book in the online world. Then we’ve got five days of skills that we will do to complete the program. The Action Training series that we put into place in the flipped classroom, really helped us to continue to operate and we didn’t have to shut down.”

Benefits of Online Learning

In addition to being able to continue to operate during a worldwide pandemic, Mike Simmons has found a multitude of other benefits using the ATS Interactive Online courses. “Most firefighters, police officers, and EMS workers would tell you that we are a much better hands-on learner”.

Statistics have shown, he explained, that students in a lecture setting will only retain 15 to 20 percent of what they have heard. With the ATS programs being NFPA standards-based and broken into individual learning objectives, the students can work through the focused modules at their own pace and confirm their understanding. Simmons also discovered that the design of the ATS Online courses helps the students maintain their focus.

“The students are forced to pay attention and answer questions correctly before they can advance through the program. It really helps to solidify the information and allows for better retention”.

He further observed that first completing the online training it familiarizes the students with the concepts and skills. This helps minimize training ground explanations.

“So, with the ‘flipped classroom’ concept, this takes full advantage of how we tend to like to learn in the fire service and puts them quickly into the hands-on skills.”

In addition, Simmons found that any students that were struggling with the material were quickly identified by the instructor.

 “If this occurs we can go back into the classroom and do some supplemental instructing on subject matter that is more difficult for the students to understand. Then we would do a short 30-minute review and we jump right back into the hands-on. And the review from the students is that they absolutely love it.”

Attracting the Volunteer

In the initial consultation with Action Training Systems, Mike emphasized his desire to broaden his student base. This is exactly what occurred. With the use of ATS Online Interactive Courses, the Kilgore Fire Academy has reached a student population that has never been touched before.

Mike explained that there were people who wanted to have a career as a firefighter or to be members of their local volunteer department. However, because of the time required to attend a traditional fire academy, these people weren’t able to attend. Now, with the use of the flipped classroom, Kilgore has attracted new students, reduced the “in-person” attendance time, and provided all the training needed to pass the state exam.

Simmons stated that “Many, many students tell us all the time that had it not been for this hybrid classroom concept using ATS, that they would have never been able to attend and finish the Fire Academy. Now, many of those folks have successfully gone on and changed their career and now work in the fire service.”

Overcoming Learning Disabilities

Another positive outcome for the Kilgore Fire Academy due to the use of the ATS Online learning platform is the benefit to students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Simmons noted that often these students had difficulty getting through traditional fire academy training.

He said that their inability to pass was not because they weren’t smart enough, or because they didn’t know the information, it simply was that when it came down to reading, studying, and testing, they had greater difficulty. The online courses helped address the various ways that people learn, visually, auditorily, and tactically.

He explains:

“The interactive video takes that same content that’s in the textbook and allows them to, while they’re reading their textbook, also watch the video. It helps them translate and understand the information better.”

Then the students are more prepared for the hands-on skill-building. In short, he said, this boosts the student’s confidence, and passing rates on tests have increased substantially. Which were just the results he was looking for.

 High School Programs – Reaching a New Generation

The hybrid model has also allowed Kilgore Fire Academy to develop over a dozen high school programs. Similar to the fire department and college programs, the students do their course work online and then instructors from the fire academy go to the schools to teach the physical skills that were covered in the online lessons.

Simmons further explains, “At the end of the program, in the summertime, after the high school students graduate, they come in for a 10-day boot camp to complete all their skills, their live-fire training, and State testing. With the completion of this program, they are immediately ready to pursue a career in fire service.

This is true for their volunteer base as well. Mike has 30-40 instructors that custom-build hybrid training programs for the volunteer departments in the surrounding area. After online training is completed the instructors go out to the department and train the members on hands-on skills using their own equipment and apparatus.

It also provides the volunteer members with the skills and confidence that they need to pass certification tests and the courses can assist with helping them meet their yearly training requirements.

Benefits & Value

Through Action Training Systems’ Absorb Learning Management System, which is a fully automated system, it allows one instructor to assign courses, look at the grades, tracks student progress, run reports, and keep track of all the training that has been provided to those students. It frees up that instructor’s time, which then gives them more time to focus on the hands-on skills training.

Simmons suggests checking for state and federal resources. During crises or natural disasters, there will be money allocated to help support, develop, or change current systems. For all the ways Kilgore Fire Academy has been able to utilize Action Training Systems courses, both at the college and within the community, Mike has been very pleased with the quality and flexibility of ATS and feels it has brought great value to his programs.

“So, you if look at the cost of what you pay for this program, it’s a tremendous savings. If you look at the amount of content that you receive and the benefits, you will see how efficient it’s going to make your organization at delivering classroom content and continuing education, even during challenging times such as now.”

Mike further asserted that Action Training Systems is the perfect solution for anyone needing to develop or enhance their training program.

Kilgore & Action Training Systems

The Kilgore College Fire Academy is also recognized by the State of Texas as an EXEMPLARY PROGRAM and is accredited by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection, State Firefighters’ and Fire Marshals’ Association, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. For more information visit: www.kilgore.edu/academics/fire-and-police-academies/fire-academy

For more information about Action Training Systems, and our Online Interactive Courses please visit or call:

www.action-training.com  800-755-1440