Overview
The second Strategic Highway Research Program’s (SHRP 2’s) Reliability Project L32B, eLearning for Training Traffic Incident Responders and Managers, was designed to establish the foundation for and promote certification of responders to achieve the three objectives of the Traffic Incident Management (TIM) National Unified Goal (NUG). The purpose of the project was to develop and implement an e-learning system that was primarily an electronic version of the classroom training curriculum material previously developed in the L12 project and further refined in project L32A. The overall focus of the training is to motivate different stakeholder groups—law enforcement, fire and rescue, emergency medical services (EMS), transportation agencies, towing and recovery, and notification and dispatch—to acquire a common set of core competencies to promote a shared understanding of the requirements for achieving the safety of responders and motorists, quick response, and effective communications at traffic incident scenes.
Through this project, this classroom curriculum was transformed into a complete interactive e-learning training course. The existing classroom curriculum was broken down into modules consisting of two to three lessons each. To meet the needs of the stakeholders, each of the lessons was designed to take no longer than 10 to 15 minutes to complete. The intention was for the target audience to be able to complete an individual lesson during roll call or during a break. The entire course was not intended to be completed all at once, but instead taken in small segments over several days or weeks.
The project consisted of three phases:
- Phase A: Transforming the Original Classroom Curriculum into an Interactive e-Learning Format;
- Phase B: Development of Performance Support Tools; and
- Phase C: Development of an Additional e-Learning Module Specifically for Dispatchers.
The final e-learning course, which includes the additional module for dispatchers, will be delivered to the target audience through the National Highway Institute (NHI) and its web-based training program. NHI will market, deliver, and maintain the course in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Office of Operations. The performance support tools developed will be available through the FHWA’s Office of Operations website as well as a resource through the e-learning course.
The research team made suggestions for the development of additional training modules geared toward specific target audiences and a virtual “tabletop” training simulation module.