App provides immersive courthouse training experience
As public safety professions are anchored in the real world, so too is the training provided at JIBC.
To ensure our recruits and students are job-ready, JIBC instructors need to go beyond classrooms and textbooks, adding scenario training to the mix and now, an online training tool for sheriff recruits.
“We found sheriff recruits would come to the training program and they didn’t have the context of the courthouse,” said Jane Dean, Program Manager, Corrections & Court Services Division at JIBC. “The instructors would have to say, ‘imagine a courtroom.’”
Now, that will no longer be an issue, thanks to the new web application for sheriff training developed by JIBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning & Innovation (CTLI).
Using a series of 360-degree still images stitched together, the application allows JIBC Sheriff Academy instructors and recruits to take a virtual tour of a local courthouse, focused on the areas that members of the BC Sheriff Service need to be familiar with.
Research indicates that more realistic training environments, result in higher retention of training and learning for students, Dean noted.
Head start in learning
Sheriff recruits are hired by the BC Sheriff Service to serve in courthouses across British Columbia, usually those closest to their home communities, before receiving training at JIBC. While they’ll eventually also be trained at their assigned courthouses, the web application now gives them a head start in their learning.
In addition to visuals of courthouse facilities, the application includes information pop-ups for each room shown and forms that would need to be filled out at certain locations, such as when someone is brought into custody, said Junsong Zhang, Program Manager, Simulations with CTLI.
In response to feedback from instructors, videos were also added depicting scenarios of potential incidents to show proper procedures to be followed.
Sheriff Academy instructors are already using the application in their classrooms, and it will eventually be added to the online orientation provided to sheriff recruits.
Future applications for other areas of study
The newfound skills gained from creating the online tool – from capturing the images with a 360-degree camera, editing the content, and producing a user-friendly final product – will also be put to good use in the future as CTLI is looking at other areas of study at JIBC where such technology could improve the learning experience.
Certainly, such online tools are a cost-effective way to provide a valuable orientation to students of their future workplaces, no matter where they’re located. But perhaps more significant are the educational benefits of such tools to a new generation of students who thrive with the help of technology-based teaching aids. It’s another example of how JIBC helps students and recruits become job-ready for public safety careers, where preparation is key to success.