Planning and Support WG

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Members

Co-Lead(s): Kara Murphy (NESCAUM), Leisa Bush (CARB)

Members: Stern, Kaitlin (CT DEEP, Patricia Bizoukas (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy), John Hornback (METRO4/SESARM), Maryann Warner (EPA OAQPS), Doug Carson (METRO4/SESARM)

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 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 send 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 1: October 15, 2019

Agenda

• Debrief JTC Call - new participant perspective
• Potential Collaboration with the Curriculum WG
• Short Term Action Items (Continuted)- How many trainings does 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 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 Cirrculum Draft - Discussion on how this can help our course priorization 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
• Key Points:
• Criteria for determining course update prioritization: In addition to evaluating learning objectives (LOs) with such criteria as importance of, demand for, and currency of a course, resource availability, hot issues and sensitive topics, then need to apply a metric that values each criteria so that courses get a “score”. Then, once a list of scored (prioritized) courses is determined, a big picture assessment needs to be done to make sure the metric is providing sensible results. Scoring would be done at the LO level rather than the course level
• LO presentation - Determining learning objectives of current courses and comparing to new curricula learning objectives as a measure of missing course content (gaps)
• Benefits of LOs: 1) Help students and instructors understand the purpose of training and training material is then pointed towards helping students achieve that purpose. 2) Keep focus on topics/concepts that need to be taught (modularization) rather than on individual courses. 3)Minimize duplication of effort in content development (e.g., SI 105 APTI 452 and CARB 102).
• What might prioritization criteria look like? Are there missing materials for curricula LOs (gaps), Survey results and demand, Condition/age of course material, Resource constraints, e.g., SME availability, contract/grant $s, OAQPS management emerging issue priorities, ethylene oxide, e.g.
• What would trigger an audit of a LO? – change in rule, EPA management priorities, MJO priorities; plan to review periodically every 3-5 years
• How will Planning and Support WG and Curricula WG work together on prioritization criteria?

Call 4: December 17, 2019

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