Not your father’s ICS training

Like almost everyone else, the District of Columbia stopped all in-person ICS training in March, 2020. We knew it was the wrong message to send to our people in the field, that at the beginning of the most critical incident in a century, we were no longer training their replacements and support staff, but we didn’t have an alternative that would work. Now we do, and it’s rapidly becoming a popular approach.

(I use “we” when talking about DC’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency training and exercise team, for whom we began consulting in January 2020.)

Later in 2020, the team worked to establish a plan to bring back training. We knew we weren’t going to do the online version of “Death by PowerPoint.” The team decided to build an online, self-study, interactive course with all the didactic material for ICS-300, and then conduct a one-day, “live” online review and capstone exercise.

FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) was skeptical at first, but they supported our efforts and have since become big fans of this process.

My partner likes to say that converting an in-person course to online delivery is a bit like converting a novel to a musical. It’s the same story, but the presentation must be completely reworked to recognize the limits and potential of the new format. You can’t just stand on stage and read the book.

Adopting the mantra “Let’s build practitioners, not certificate holders” we introduced a workbook that learners download at the beginning of the self-study course. They demonstrate their learning through short-essay answers to questions in the workbook for each section of the course, and complete ICS forms as well. When the workbook is reviewed and approved by an instructor (and we DO send some back for review and improvement) the learner is invited to sign up for the next “live” online capstone session. In that session, limited to 8 learners at a time, they are assigned roles in an IMT and work through one cycle of the Planning P, creating appropriate ICS forms online using Google Sheets.

Advantages:

• Students learn the material from a consistent source, on their own time and in their own space. This is ideal for responders whose departments can’t let them go for a three-day in-person class. It’s also great for those who can’t find classes near them, as well as those who are caregivers or otherwise have limited travel options. We have had participants span as many as 14 time zones around the world for the live sessions, some caring for loved ones during the breaks.
• There’s no back row. Students demonstrate their learning individually, through the workbooks, and collectively on “game day.” With two instructors and 8 learners, everyone participates.
• Learners spend more time on ICS-forms, and gain comfort with the key meetings in IAP development.
• The world-wide learner pool provides geographic and disciplinary diversity, which is always cited as a key benefit during our hotwashes.
• The instructors stay sharp. As I tell the learners each session, "This is NOT the same course we taught last time, because YOU are not the same. Your participation, questions, and contributions make it new, and often improve the way we deliver the next session. Example: after this article was originally published, a learner started a discussion about "stakeholders" and the fact that they need to be considered in developing objectives. We include that point now (and it gave rise to another article "Incident Management - For Whom?"

Since January 2021, we’ve seen about 250 people complete ICS-300, and over 100 complete ICS-400. Level 1 evaluations are overwhelmingly positive, and everyone has successfully passed the final exam.

As further validation of the concept, EMI has indicated that when they revise the All-Hazards Position-Specific IMT courses, they will use this same concept: self-study for learning the material, then intensive, hands-on (in-person) work sessions to build comfort and competence with each position.

Kudos to the team: Bureau Chief Jon Stewart and Travis Cryan, both of whom have since left HSEMA; Patrick Maury, who mastered the Articulate platform for self-study course development, and who oversees instruction as State Training Officer; and fellow consultants Kevin Molloy, who engineered the conversion to DC’s new learning management system; and Cody Grasty, my co-instructor. My role is content development/adaptation for the courses, and I serve as co-lead instructor for both courses. I also review the learners' workbooks, and sometimes provide some individual guidance to help people prepare for the capstone session.

DC’s program is available for any state that wants to teach ICS this way. Reach out to me for help. Or send your learners to DC’s system – HSEMAAcademy.com