Job-specific training that is equally engaging for both new and experienced public safety call handlers is important for maintaining a professional learning culture. Experienced telecommunicators take great pride in their work, but also value their time. New hires are eager to learn everything that will help them excel in their profession but sometimes need a bit longer to process it all.
Our continuing education courses accommodate call handlers of all experience levels with engaging lessons that are relevant to their job performance along with real-world examples and interactive activities allowing for the practice of their skills in a training environment.
We’re constantly refining our courses to increase engagement and provide the most effective training experience in the public safety call-handling industry. In particular, our online courses include interactive screen controls that keep students’ attention and provide captivating activities to help aid knowledge retention.
To demonstrate some of the features of our online courses, a demonstration sample can be viewed via this website. The sample provides a segment of an online lesson relating to information gathering while handling a motor vehicle accident call for service. To start the course sample click on the button below, or continue reading to learn more about our approach to online learning.
Interactive Controls Keep Students Engaged
PowerPhone courses provide value to students at any stage of their career; we understand the importance of continued learning for experienced dispatchers, supervisors, and new hires alike. Navigation controls within the course aid the student’s access to content and are designed with modern principles of adult education to improve the learning experience by letting students spend as little or as much time on a section as they require.
Allowing the student to study at their own pace empowers them to fully absorb course content and to focus on the aspects most important to their career development.
Course Structure Corresponds to Dispatcher’s Work Flow
While the sample focuses on just a small component of the topic being discussed, the layout is intended to present information in a manner that can be easily assimilated to the public safety call-handler’s workflow.
Working through the sample, notice how the course structure listed in the Table of Contents moves students from a question template through lessons on information gathering, dispatch recommendation, and the issuance of pre-arrival instructions.
Interactive Practice Scenarios Develop Decision-Making Skills
The course is designed to help build decision-making skills by training students to walk through the thought processes associated with their job performance. Reinforcement exercises are based upon simulated scenarios handling subjects similar to those students have experienced (or can expect to experience) when handling live calls for service.
To demonstrate this, the ‘Hazard Identification’ portion of the course sample requires the student to interact with overviews of five common hazards to understand how they could impact the incident and present potential hazards to the caller or responders.
The material learned is immediately put to use with a practice scenario where students are required to associate various scene condition descriptions as either hazardous or non-hazardous to scene safety. The intention being to practice evaluating the type of scene information that may or may not be of value to responders en route to the scene.
Frequent ‘Knowledge Checks’ Aid Student Retention
‘Knowledge Check’ questions are used to reinforce important topics and promote retention of the content. While most courses conclude with a more comprehensive quiz measuring overall retention, ‘Knowledge Check’ exercises help students retain information throughout the course and increases their likelihood of internalizing the lessons.
Engaging and Relevant Lessons Create a Professional Learning Culture
A culture of continuing learning is essential to a healthy public safety call-handling operation.
We believe all call handlers deserve access to the same high-quality training regardless of agency size or location and are confident that PowerPhone courses meet this objective to achieve our overall mission to connect people, processes, and technology in a way that empowers public safety and the telecommunicator within it.
