Fresno Fire Learning Management System

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In an effort to streamline efficiency and save time, money and resources, Fresno Fire Department began using an electronic Learning Management (LMS) System for training. "Part of our plan long term was to develop a way to provide training to the crews without always bringing them down here," explained Deputy Chief and Training Officer Mike Despain with the Fresno Fire Department.

Using an LMS system for training saves the department money in a number of ways. Deputy Chief Despain remarked, "It's not only transportation cost. There's a cost for them being out of the district, coming down to training and going back. But there's also, in terms of developing curriculum, a lot of time the curriculum can be shared with other departments."

Training Officer Despain also expressed how the sharing of information with other agencies through their LMS system has many advantages. "What I have seen, having worked for a number of different organizations, is that the training division in the department next door, about 80% of their work load is the same as ours. There's no difference. Each organization may have their own special needs that they'll work on, but we can share that curriculum and basically take advantage of our training officers working on our specific stuff, things that we share. It becomes more efficient," he stated.

Because Fresno has their information backed up on their own servers, they have the information ready in case of an audit, or if they chose to switch LMS providers.

According to Despain, once users log-in to the system, it will read them individually, know what training they are required to do, what training they have already completed, and then record the training that they have completed into Fresno's database.

There are a multitude of LMS providers. A simple google search can lead you to most of them. Learning Management Systems [LMS] are able to do all of the following:

•    centralize and automate administration
•    use self-service and self-guided services
•    assemble and deliver learning content rapidly
•    consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform
•    support portability and standards
•    personalize content and enable knowledge reuse


Author:William Leatherman - Video, Renee Marquart - Text