Communications (Planning and Support) WG

National Training Program Wiki Main Page

Members

Lead: Kara Murphy (NESCAUM)

Members: Stern, Kaitlin (CT DEEP), John Hornback (METRO4/SESARM), Maryann Warner (EPA OAQPS), Doug Carson (METRO4/SESARM), Sarah Matthews (EPA OAQPS)

Overview and Charge

The Planning & Support WG is one of the 4 workgroups within the JTC. The WG responsibilities include, but are not limited to, assisting with coordination of course scheduling, assisting with posting and communication of training opportunities, assisting with development and use of course and instructor evaluation forms, assisting with development and use of course reports, conducting periodic conference calls and webinars to inform locals/states of general LMS functionalities and specific LMS enhancements and assisting with library maintenance. This workgroup will be working closely with the other JTC workgroups to support their efforts.

Conference Calls

3rd Wednesday @ 11:00 Central

Call 1: September 9, 2019

Agenda

• Introductions
• JTC Overview & New Organizational Approach
• Workgroup Overview
• Near Term Action Items
• Engaging JTC Calls
• Workgroup participation (please see attached flyer)
• Flexible & inviting JTC call agendas
• Tasks that will engage new participants / Engage participants so that they contribute
• Survey state/local & MJO’s on Course Catalog needs
• Discussion on the importance of reliable training needs survey
• How can we improve communication with students? What are the major gaps?

Call Notes

• Participants: Kara Murphy & Leisa Bush (NESCAUM and CARB WG co-chairs), Mary Ann (EPA advisor), Kaitlin Stern (CT), Patricia Bizoukas (MI), John Hornback & Doug Carson (Metro 4/SESARM)

• Key Points: Planning and Support WG focus – training needs assessment, course scheduling, course and instructor evaluation, communicate training opportunities, library maintenance.
• JTC calls: Make agendas more inviting and engaging to S/Ls, focus on S/L needs, Shift JTC planning to Steering Committee, Only standing item on JTC calls would be brief WG report outs.
• National training needs survey: Revise survey to standardize it and make it more reliable and so that it does not overwhelm S/Ls
• Online course catalog: Provide to S/Ls, Use as a reference document when sending out training needs survey, Include courses in APTI-Learn and courses developed by OECA and MJOs (perhaps as a starting point, use the list of courses that EPA has compiled?)
• Next Steps: After the Oct. 8 JTC call, WG will meet to discuss ways to make JTC calls more focused on S/L issues.

Call 2: October 15, 2019

Agenda

• Debrief JTC Call - new participant perspective
• Potential Collaboration with the Curriculum WG
• Short Term Action Items (Continued)- How many trainings do each MJO plan a year? How can this information be helpful to us? Discussion on courses outside of APTI – How are MJO’s collecting and recording data?
• Long Term Action Items
• Support other workgroup tasks - Planning & Support WG contact has been selected for outreach to other workgroups. How should the contact approach these check-in calls?
• Standardize an evaluation report for all MJOs

Call Notes

• JTC Calls could potentially have state and locals present on recent training successes. This would engage state and locals to participate and present activities on JTC calls.

Call 3: November 17, 2019

Agenda

• Workgroup Updates / Housekeeping - In need of new WG liaison, Ideas for recruitment for new WG members?
• Presentation on EPA’s APTI Curriculum Draft - Discussion on how this can help our course prioritization efforts
• Long Term Goals (if time allows) - Standardize an evaluation report for all MJOs, What are the benefits?

Call Notes

• Action Items: Kara – talk with Michael Vince, Curricula WG lead on how to coordinate on prioritization criteria

Call 4: December 17, 2019

• Call canceled, next call will be held January 21, 2020.

Call 5: January 21, 2020

• Call canceled, next call will be held February 18, 2020.

Call 6: February 18, 2020

Agenda

• Roll Call
• Debrief Steering Committee Meeting at RTP
• WG Liaison Update
• MJO Course Development Spreadsheet
• Prioritization Criteria
• Workgroup Description/Charter
• Review of Short-term & Long-term goals

Participants

• Kara Murphy (Planning and Support WG lead), Kristin Riha (Curricula WG EPA advisor and MJO Course Development Spreadsheet), Mary Ann Warner (Planning and Support WG EPA advisor), John Hornback (Planning and Support WG member), Doug Carson (Metro 4/SESARM), Michael Vince (Curricula WG lead), Laura Bunte (course prioritization criteria)

Call Notes/Key Points

• In-person JTC Steering Committee Meeting in RTP last week discussed the purpose and role of the P&S WG moving forward. Communication is a key role for the P&S WG moving forward. Kara & Maryann will act as WG Liason - will join other WG calls. Discussion on Prioritization Criteria will be continued on the next Curriculum WG, both Maryann & Kara will be on call to continue this conversation and where P&S can support efforts.

• MJO Course Development Spreadsheet: Reviewed Kristin’s draft spreadsheet that lists courses developed/updated by MJOs. Includes links to some LADCO course materials; Doug has Metro 4/SESARM course materials. What are the criteria for determining if changes are substantive vs minor?, i.e., when is an updated version of the course posted in the e-library? E-library as a shareable platform – MJO course materials are currently on SharePoint. Need for an EPA SME to review before putting in LMS e-library. Options for new spreadsheet categories: “Ongoing”:, “pending”, “completed” where dates are recorded; notes section to indicate what date refers to, e.g., RFP issued, contractor selected. Two categories – “started”, “going to start” with drop-down targeted milestone dates
• Course Prioritization Criteria: Derived from Laura’s ideas, Theresa Pella’s 2014 course prioritization WG and John Hornback’s 2017 ideas. Will apply in the development of the 3-year Training Plan (draft June 2020, final Sept. 2020). “Last date updated” may not be a good indicator of whether a course needs to be updated or discontinued – depends on whether course content is out of date/incorrect. Consider moving “new program/requirement” and “hot/emerging topic” from “Course Content” to its own category, “Criticality”

• Action Items: Kara and Mary Ann – participate in all WG calls for about 6 months to learn about WG tasks and needs. Kara – email MJOs in the next two weeks: 1) ask them to review spreadsheet data and provide updates (1 – 2 weeks to update), then work with Justin and Josh and 2) ask MJOs to send updated course materials for placement in an e-library, provide SharePoint link. Kara – schedule a call with MJOs to discuss. Michael – address prioritization criteria at March 5 Curricula WG call. Michael – send notes from Curricula WG breakout session of Feb. 12 JTC Steering Committee meeting to Kara to send to the Planning and Support WG
• To be Continued: Workgroup Description and Charter / Short-term & Long-term goals will be discussed next call.

February Liaison Tasks

• Delivery WG: Action Items: Contact EPA to discuss putting a list of instructors on the SharePoint so that all parties can access/edit the most recent list. This could be similar to how we are approaching the list of course development among MJOs.

Call 7: March 17, 2020

Agenda:

• Roll Call
• Update on SharePoint template for housing the MJO course inventory
• Liaison Updates
• Workgroup Description/Charter
• Communications Plan
• Review of Short-term & Long-term goals (if time allows)

Participants:

• Kara Murphy (Planning and Support WG lead), Mary Ann Warner (Planning and Support WG EPA advisor), Kaitlin Stern, CT, John Hornback and Doug Carson (Metro 4/SESARM), Laura Bunte and Sarah Matthews (Curricula and Planning and Support WGs EPA support), Michael Vince (Curricula WG lead)

Action Items:

• Sarah – talk to Justin Hall and Adam Baumgart-Getz about use of remote techniques to deliver some of the classroom courses that have been or are expected to be cancelled due to the coronavirus social distancing
• Kara – talk with Sarah about using Zoom to deliver APTI 452
• Mary Ann and Kara – discuss what the MJO Course Content SharePoint site might look like with additional MJO information
• Kara– ask Zac if can add to the March 24 JTC Steering Committee meeting agenda a potential JTC-EPA meeting during the AAPCA meeting in Raleigh Sept. 28-30

Notes:

• WG liaison updates: Training Delivery – The Planning and Support WG has taken on the task of development of a SharePoint template for managing MJO content. Josh Minorics is creating the template. The SharePoint site will initially house the inventory of MJO courses, course content and list of instructors. Josh will do a demo at the March 24 JTC Steering Committee call. Curricula – 2 S/Ls are test driving SI 105 to provide suggestions on how to update it to make it a more effective online course; Michael will be talking with Adam and Zac about MJO course update priorities – what might be done with the LADCO grant money that might be available and what EPA might do (so there is not overlap. LMS – in procurement process, no need for P & S WG interaction now; perhaps in market launch phase.
• Potential e-delivery of classroom courses due to coronavirus classroom course cancellations: Intro classroom courses benefit from student-to-student conversations. How to make sure students are learning and engaging in online learning? Tools like polling and Qs & As like MARAMA does on webinars. Is there a common platform an MJO uses that other MJOs can use, like Go to Webinar? MJOs use a shared procurement to obtain such a platform with unspent funds from cancelled classroom courses? Could Zoom be used to deliver APTI 452? In the early 2000s, a classroom instructor with Parkinson’s was able to deliver his class remotely with a camera broadcasting his image while an assistant was in the classroom.
• WG Description/Charter – propose changing the name of the Planning and Support WG to the Communications WG to provide more clarity on what the WG actually does – no disagreement
• Communication Plan: How the WG's communicate with each other and how the JTC Steering Committee communicates with the WG's. SharePoint site for managing MJO content will be very helpful to have MJO-developed content in one place that is accessible by all of the JTC.
• New task – plan for JTC-EPA meeting sometime during the AAPCA meeting in Raleigh Sept. 28-30
• Future Action items: o Determine process for keeping MJO course inventory, course materials and instructor list updated. From Feb. 14 meeting – What are criteria for determining if changes are substantive vs minor?, i.e., when is an updated version of the course posted in the e-library?

Call 8: April 21, 2020

Agenda:

• Course Catalog Discussion: Where to house catalog long-term? Development of free on-demand course flyer
• SharePoint Demo: Additional content to be placed on the SharePoint?
• Best Practices Guidance: Development & Update
• Potential face-to-face JTC-EPA meeting in conjunction with AAPCA meeting in Raleigh Sept. 2020
• Best way to recruit Subject Matter Experts & Trainers
• Update from EPA on Marketing

Participants:

• Kara Murphy, Sarah Matthews, Laura Bunte, Doug Carson, Kaitlin Stern, Zac Adelman, Jeff Gabler, Josh Minorics, Justin Hall, Jonathan Bradsher

Action Items:

• Kara – talk with Jeff and Zac about the MJO national training webinar.
• Team members – send agenda topics for JTC-EPA meeting in Sept. to Kara or Mary Ann.

Key Points:

• Online course catalog location
• Catalog is a S/L accessible Google document list of APTI, NACT and contractor-offered online courses, including a mix of free and fee-based courses will reside on the LADCO wiki until the new LMS is available, at which time, the document/its content will go on the new LMS or onto a web portal
• The functionality of the new LMS will allow this information to be searched and sorted; the wiki is more suitable for a PDF document will also keep an editable version for trainers to update, however, it will be a relatively stable document
• Course Catalog Flyer – NESCAUM proposes to create a flyer for S/L staff on the free on-demand courses that are available. Zac suggests that we include online webinar trainings that the MJO's plan to host together in the near future.
• National training webinar – the Training Delivery WG will be suggesting the MJOs offer a couple of courses to all S/Ls on a couple of topics in demand such as permitting, NSR or enforcement.
• SharePoint Content Management Demo – purpose of the SharePoint site is to house course source files so that if we change LMSs, we maintain control of the content

Instructor List:

• It needs to be accessible
• If it’s on the new LMS, it could be searchable
• It would be good to have instructor evaluations associated with instructors; can instructor evals on APTI-Learn be moved to new LMS and be made searchable?
• Could go on SharePoint if it is phone book style
• Could be housed on SharePoint now and then moved to the new LMS as long as it is in Google Docs, SharePoint or Excel format
• Any file put on the LMS must be SCORM wrapped (static)

Best Practices guidance for converting classroom to online format:

• Kara sent a draft of the guidance to Jeff and Zac yesterday; it is based on best practice suggestions from MARAMA, Gary McCutchen, Jerry Crowder and Lakes Environmental. Did we receive other best practices feedback?

Call 9: May 19, 2020

Agenda

• Roll Call
• Completed Projects
• Prioritization Criteria

Participants: Jeff Gabler (WESTAR),Michael Vince (CenSARA), John Hornback & Doug Carson (Metro 4-SESARM), Jackie Burkhardt (MARAMA), Kara Murphy (NESCAUM), Laura Bunte, Adam Baumgart-Getz, Jonathan Bradsher & Mary Ann Warner (EPA)

Action Items

• MJOs – send their list of training coordinators to Kara & Mary Ann
• Kara – schedule a meeting in June of training coordinators to discuss prioritization checklist
• Jackie – send MARAMA training needs survey to meeting participants

Key Points

• 3 recently released products – Flyer of free cost online courses, Best Practices from eLearning, Course catalog (offered by MJO instructors & EPA)

Prioritization checklist for new courses to be developed

• Criteria in draft checklist based on course demand, course content, course format and resources
• Desire to get more specific training needs that are based on curricula learning objectives, e.g., rather than “permitting”, instead, “introductory permit review” or “intermediate NSR”; is the request on our plate?
• By Sept., create a training plan for 2021 – 2023 that includes new course development and existing course update so can plan for SME time – 4 -5 courses in 2021 & up to 20 courses in 2022 & 2023
• NESCAUM’s training needs assessment approach – used MARAMA’s needs survey to update NESCAUM survey
• In survey to Air Directors, “Any course topics not identified on APTI-Learn curricula?”. If so, follow up phone call with Ads to get specific needs.
• Will walk ADs through the new prioritization checklist
• 2 sets of priorities when asking states for their training needs: Courses they want to have taught and number of staff needing training & Courses that need updating or developing. Training coordinators, program managers and air directors each have different information. Good to have consistency nationally of training needs
• Put functional area courses, like permitting, modeling, planning or monitoring on regular update schedules; new topics come to MJOs, don’t need to solicit
• Prioritization criteria would be used to assess the need for new course material to fill gaps between the updated curricula learning objectives and available course material that match those LOs
• Even though MJOs have surveyed states for their training needs and responded with training courses, there are apparently additional needs, like the well-attended MOVES online training offered to SESARM & LADCO states
• Prioritizing the creation of course material to fill gaps between new curricula learning objectives and available course material that match those LOs
• Webinar of state training coordinators to discuss known gaps and what their program managers need

Call 10: June 16, 2020

Agenda

• Upcoming webinar: National Air Quality Training Program – How States and Local Governments Can Convey Their Needs
• Monthly or Bi-monthly Flyer on JTC WG Activities
• Fall 2020 JTC Meeting (draft agenda attached)
• Discuss remote options
• Discussion on Class List for New Employees

Participants: – Jackie Burkhardt (MARAMA), John Hornback & Doug Carson (Metro 4/SESARM), Kara Murphy (NESCAUM), Kaitlyn Stern (CT), Laura Bunte & Mary Ann Warner (OAQPS EPA)

Action Items

• Doug – check with Josh Minorics whether new LMS will have a team collaboration feature
• Kara – draft a template for a periodic flyer that summarizes JTC WG activities
• Mary Ann – ask Justin Hall and/or Josh about EPA accessibility to a virtual platform for holding the Fall JTC-EPA meeting
• Kara – add virtual platform availability to July 1 Steering Committee meeting agenda (for JTC-EPA Fall meeting and for virtual delivery of NACT courses)

Key Points

• Prioritization webinar – Mon., June 22 2-3:30 ET; Laura will present prioritization checklist; >80 state training coordinators have registered
• Flyer with JTC WG activities: Close loopholes in communication & inform non-WG members (JTC Steering Committee, training coordinators, MJO S/Ls, management, etc.) of activities. Steering Committee could then focus more on planning instead of the day-to-day operations of the WGs. Issue flyer bi-monthly, perhaps monthly if needed. Content – high level info such as deliverables, areas where feedback is needed, etc. Kara & Mary Ann would contact each WG to get this info.
• JTC communication tool – is there a team collaboration section on the new LMS where JTC WG information can be housed?
• Increase engagement with the S/Ls, e.g., monthly call on LMS outreach w/training coordinators
• Fall JTC-EPA meeting: Engage training coordinators – perhaps 1 day roll-out of LMS. Plan for a remote meeting due to unknown timeframe when we will be able to gather together (duration of COVID-19 social distancing period unknown). Platform for hosting meeting virtually. Go To Webinar (MARAMA & CenSARA have this system). Zoom for breakout room capability? Cost involved. Visual contact with speaker(s) desirable.

Call 11: July, 2020

Agenda

• Review Draft Workgroup Flyer
• JTC Meeting - Platform? Number of Days? Date? Agenda feedback? Keeping best practices in mind
• GoToWebinar training for NOWCC instructors & Training Coordinators

• Review Draft Workgroup Flyer (attached)

-Recent activities for Communications WG – Development & prep for Fall JTC mtg -Action Items for Communications WG – Developed draft agenda, to comment, click here -Likes keeping WGs informed, likes high level info -High level w/o technical details so states could understand -Maybe remove deliverables & just keep recent activities & action items -Maybe just recent activities. E.g., trying to move classroom to virtual -Next step – MAW & Kara populate for Communications WG -Process for keeping it updated. Bimonthly might make easier.

• JTC Webinar Meeting (agenda attached)

-Platform? Number of Days? Date? Agenda feedback? Best Practices? -SC or JTC? SC but perhaps session open to training coordinators & full JTC on relevant topic, e.g., LMS -NACAA & MARAMA provided comments – MARAMA - 10 hrs of topics, split out over 2 days. Presentation on best practices for delivering online training. -NACAA suggested not over 3 hrs of content at a time -Host over weeks/months, reserve 2-3 hrs of time to address 2 or 3 topics. Schedule/agenda. -This Fall? – Sept is a terrible time because of converging of a lot of work. Perhaps lighter lift from EPA on earlier sessions, like WG charters. LMS roll out session would be hard to have in Sept bec it will not have been rolled out yet. Tee up topics at the right time so can be more meaty. -If set up over a few months or weeks, can set up conversations when ready to be addressed, e.g., LMS -Hold off to the new year? -Once LMS comes out, need to convene & create lead-in to future topics. Set of LMS webinars start this process in Fall. Perhaps mid to late Oct. Should bring up at SC call for endorsement. Need an FYI call before roll out. General call. *MAW & Kara – work w/Jackie & Sue about marketing plan for LMS rollout. -Unsure of timing for LMS training -Contractor will help w/education -AAPCA hosted their spring 2020 meeting virtually and is planning to host their fall 2020 meeting via a series of online meetings over a period of a few weeks

• GoToWebinar training for NOWCC instructors & Training Coordinators

NESCAUM hosting some virtual trainings. Need process in place for preparing instructors for training. # sessions for instructors to feel comfortable? Easier to practice Go To Webinar w/a small group. When large group of NOWCC trainers, many ?s -Thank you to NESCAUM for willingness to be first off the block. MARAMA has been really helpful

• Other Items?

-Prioritization checklist -Concept of checklist introduced in June – OAQPS, RO, S/Ls, Tribes. Still receiving add’l input. 98 requests from 24 organizations. All over the map w/topics. All curricula touched on. Some outside scope requests, most relevant. Foundational to advanced. Assessing info & will float draft 3-yr plan for comment. Can’t do all 98 but will retain ideas for out years.

Call 12: August, 2020

• New WG Project - Creating a Flow Diagram for JTC Decision Making