British Columbia Forestry Legislative Training –
Online classroom technology applied throughout BC
The Issue
In 2003, the British Columbia government planned the introduction of sweeping
legislative changes to the acts and regulations that govern much
of the approximately 26 million hectares of publicly owned and managed
forest lands – one of the richest tracts of managed forest land in
the world. Changes being made would impact government managers, industrial
forest users and small-scale licensees, consultants who worked supporting
the forest industry, and professionals from three sectors whose professional
judgment would carry new weight under law. A training program was
required that could reach out to agency staff and the various forestry
stakeholders throughout British Columbia. Delivery would need to reach
more than 6000 individuals, preferably within weeks of the legislation
being passed into law. As well, this had to be accomplished at lower cost
than previous training programs, and with a minimal impact on ministry
staff resources. Given the scope of change being undertaken, it was believed
that consistency of message being delivered was critical for program success.
The Solution
Our proposal called for a blended approach to delivering training. We proposed using a combination of train-the-trainer sessions with pre-recorded presentations by key policy specialists to achieve the consistency in content and delivery demanded by the client, and to ensure that training could be delivered by non-specialist facilitators within the short time available.
We followed this delivery, approximately one week later, with live online question and answer sessions where participants, who had time to digest presentation content, could ask questions of the policy specialists. This was delivered using the online classroom/collaboration software, iLinc. Policy specialist and panels of up to six specialists were set up in web broadcast facilities established in major centres such as Victoria or Prince George. From these broadcast centres, the specialists delivered live, short, topic-specific presentations to participants who dialed in (over the Internet and the Provincial WAN using iLinc’s VOIP and data-sharing capabilities) from more than 30 pre-established locations around British Columbia. As well, an online web resource was set up to house all pre-recorded presentations, and all questions and answers, for participants to view asynchronously.
The Result
All training was delivered within four weeks following the tabling of the legislation. It reached out to more than 6000 individuals with a per person delivery cost of approximately half of the earlier training program. All five key success factors (number of people trained; developed on time; delivered on time; consistency of understanding; and quality of delivery), established for the training were achieved. This was reflected partially in the response by more than 90% of participants who returned evaluation forms that the training had met all learning objectives. For the client, the Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Forester of the BC Ministry of Forests expressed great satisfaction with the work carried out by the contract team, including comments to all involved that included… “The exceptional dedication and professional work of… Tim Mock and his team at TM NewMedia merit special recognition. Projects of this nature place enormous pressure on people to perform in short timeframes and I am very grateful for your willingness to go ‘that extra mile.’ Thank you.”
The contract team was invited back by the client a year later to
develop
and implement a smaller amendments training program.