NFPA Journal - Spring 2021 - 53

There are also downsides to the new
format. During traditional in-person
meetings, the myriad side conversations
during breaks or over dinner can result
in " happy accidents, " Chase said, such as
breakthroughs in proposed language that
might offer a solution to a hotly debated
issue. That kind of organic engagement
tends to get lost in the remote setting,
Chase said. " So does the process of the

members getting to know each other
personally, which I think helps committees move forward-it sort of greases
the wheels, " he added. " Over time, if this
remote approach continues, we might see
some drop off on some of that. "

REMOTE TECH SESSION
While NFPA staff and volunteers
were working out the kinks of remote

TRAINING UP

How the pandemic helped fuel the
development and popularity of NFPA's
ambitious online learning plan
STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT ISN'T THE ONLY KEY NFPA activity
that has had to adapt to the restrictions of the pandemic-so has
the closely related effort around education and training.
Bartholomew Jae, the director of education and development at
NFPA, is quick to point out that online learning didn't begin with the
arrival of the pandemic. But the extended quarantine has helped
jumpstart its rapid adoption and improvement. Years from now,
when we look back at the myriad ways COVID changed our lives,
the emergence of online education could end up high on the list.
" Everything in online learning is being accelerated because of
this pandemic, including the student's expectations, " said Jae,
who's led NFPA's training efforts for three years. " People are much
more used to the online learning format-I don't think students are
going to tolerate what people in the business called 'page turners'
for e-learning, where you just read a page, click 'next', and answer
some multiple-choice questions. People now expect a lot more. "
Those expectations are reflected in NFPA's own ambitious effort
to grow and evolve its online training offerings. In recent years, the
organization has invested in ramping up its online library, adding
new courses and topics, and building content that is more interactive. That includes courses with more multimedia, engaging case
studies, interactive challenges, and videos of " experts sharing their
war stories, just like an instructor might in a classroom, " Jae said.
The curriculum itself has also evolved. Traditionally, most NFPA
courses have focused on a particular code or standard rather than
on how students might use the code or standard in their specific

meetings in the spring, another significant hurdle loomed on the horizon:
the annual NFPA technical meeting.
The event, which typically takes place
in the concluding days of the NFPA
Conference & Expo, is the third step
in the standards development process,
where members, volunteers, and interested stakeholders gather to debate
and vote on Certified Amending

jobs, Jae said. Efforts have been made to provide more context
and to tailor courses so that they " cater specifically to the student's
profession, their experience, and the problems they want to solve, "
he said.
With millions of people around the world suddenly homebound,
and NFPA's traditional in-person training courses cancelled indefinitely, the pandemic has provided an unexpected opportunity
to test the progress of NFPA's online learning programs. Through
November 2020, Jae said, sales of NFPA online learning courses
were up nearly 300 percent from 2019.
" We've received a lot of recent feedback from people saying
things like, 'This is like nothing I've ever taken before from NFPA,' "
Jae said. " That feels good, because we have been working hard
to shift our courses to what learners now expect when they take
online training. "
Despite the progress, Jae thinks that NFPA's online training
program is only scratching the surface of what it will eventually
become. Since the beginning of 2020 alone, NFPA has launched
13 new online learning courses, including five in Spanish, on topics
ranging from fire door inspections to construction site safety planning to the fundamentals of life safety in buildings. For the first
time, it also began offering live virtual trainings, where instruction
is offered via videoconferencing, closely replicating the in-class
experience. That growth will only accelerate, Jae said.
" We'll continue to build more topics and more levels, similar to
the graduated curriculum that you see in college and universities-
the 101, 201, 301 types of courses on the same topic, " Jae said.
" We'll keep adding courses at that pace for the next few years until
we have the breadth and depth of content that our stakeholders
need to solve the biggest problems they face at work. "
To see a complete lineup of NFPA's current training offerings,
visit nfpa.org/training.-J.R.

 NFPA's evolving online learning program includes a variety of methods to deliver important codes and standards information to users.

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NFPA Journal - Spring 2021

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