Online Training Program Overview
The Blue Card online training program is a 40 to 50 hour course that teaches the cognitive portion of the Blue Card IC certification program. The online program is based on the Fire Command curriculum package. The training material is organized around the IC's checklists and the professional qualifications of the Blue Card Incident Commander standard. All of the online content has been developed in a manner to support, compliment and integrate with NIMS.
The online program marries the critical concepts of incident management, strategy & tactics and key firefighter safety requirements with high-fidelity structure fire simulations and subject matter expert inputs. This moves the material beyond the theory into the actual application of the work. Using the Internet to package and deliver the training provides a much more interactive experience for the student. Hot coaching via short video clips from subject matter experts reinforces and standardizes the material.
Online training offers many advantages. It is more affordable, the student can access it anywhere there is an Internet connection, it keeps units in service, it standardizes the cognitive delivery of the material, the student's progresses at their own pace and completion is recorded and tracked within our record keeping system. Recent studies indicate that students learn and retain more with an online approach versus traditional educational methods.
Program "Enforcement Rules": because the Blue Card on-line training program ties directly into a certification program, the student is required to view and listen to, all of the programs content in order to satisfy all of the standards cognitive, knowledge based training requirements.
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Blue Card Core 8 Functions of Command Menu
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Enforcement applies to all the individual training modules. The Command Function modules must be done in order, sequentially, starting with the Intro module. Students aren't able to open up another Command Function module until the current training module is 100% completed
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Top menu bar on all of the training pages
Online training system web page formats and enforcement
The Blue Card online training program is comprised of several different types of internet templates that will be used throughout the training program. These templates include:
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Contain a single video that must be viewed in its entirety before being able to advance to the next slide in the program. Video pages can contain a subject matter expert or a video segment out of the Fire Command video package that is associated with the Blue Card training program. Enforcement - Each video must be viewed in its entirety before the Next button will turn green to advance. Videos cannot be scrubbed through. Once a video has started playing, the only option a student has is to start and stop the video until it has finished playing.
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Text pages give a detailed synopsis of the Type 4 and 5 Hazard Zone IC certification standard's professional qualifications (Pro-Quals). The reference textbook that is used for the standards testing is Fire Command 2nd edition. The cognitive testing portion of the online program is covered later in the document.
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Text Page Enforcement
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Every text page is enforced with a timer that is represented by a RED bar that scrolls from one end of the screen to the other. The red bar represents the total words contained in the slide and it scrolls at the rate of reading 300 words per minute (80 words per minute faster than a 12th grade reading level). Once enough time has elapsed (based on the number of words per slide) the Next button will turn green and the student can advance to the next slide.
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Test Your Knowledge Pages
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There are several "Test your knowledge" web pages throughout the training program. These pages provide excellent exercises for the student because they put the reading material into practical application. None of the Test Your Knowledge questions or the scenario exercise questions correlate into the student's final grade. So if they miss one of these, they shouldn't worry. It doesn't count against the student's cognitive assessment grade and several of the test your knowledge pages have 2 or more right answers based on the different tactical options for the scenario.
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Test Your Knowledge & Radio Traffic Pages Enforcement
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Online Testing System
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The reference textbook for the cognitive online testing portion of the IC certification program is Fire Command 2nd Edition. There is a Fire Command e-textbook provided to the student with each online subscription. The cognitive tests throughout the modules count toward their overall completion status, please study the reference material provided prior to taking the online tests.
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The Blue Card on-line cognitive testing system is set up so the users gets one (1) - ten (10) question test at the end of each Command Function module. There are over 40 questions in the test bank for each Command Function (over 300 available questions for the entire program). Each Command Function test randomly selects 10 of the 40 questions at the end of each module. Each question's multiple choice answers are jumbled each time that question is displayed in the system. This offers a test bank of over 1,200 possible right answers.
Students must have a minimum passing score of 70% in order to receive their online training certificate. Instructors can see their students overall online test scores when viewing their department rosters. Students can also see in their dashboard more detailed information on their individual module test scores.
Each student gets three (3) attempts to pass a module test with a minimum score of 70%.
1st Attempt - Occurs at the end of each Command Function module with a 10 question multiple choice test. If the overall test score is under a 70% average, they will get 2 more attempts to pass the modules cognitive test. Please study the reference material provided while in the testing process.
2nd Attempt - The student will be able to take the 2nd test as soon as they finish their online module with a failing score (below 70%). The second test will also be a ten (10) question multiple choice test. If the student achieves a score of 70% or greater, the training module will be completed and the next Command Function module will become available. If their 2nd module test score is under a 70% average, they will get one (1) more attempt to pass the test and they will be locked out of the training modules for 72 hours.
3rd Attempt - After being locked out of the modules for 72 hours, the student will be able to take the same structured test as test #2. If the student achieves a score of 70% or greater on test #3, the training module will be completed and the next Command Function module will become available. If their 3rd overall test score is below a 70% average, the online training module will be reset to an un-scored status and they will have to take the entire online training module over again in order to participate in the testing process a 2nd time. The Blue Card cognitive testing system directly reflects and complies with all other accredited fire service testing and certification programs.
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