SHOW me – don’t tell me! A great way to meet this demand is to use full-motion digital video to create stand-alone training programs or to demonstrate procedures within a multimedia training format. In the mobile world, “mini” video tutorials provide quick refreshers lasting no more than a minute or two.
Helicopter Wire Strike Avoidance
The Need
Wire of all descriptions – transmission cables, telephone lines, guy wires, gondola supports, and many more – criss-cross the world. For military helicopters flying at ultra-low (nap-of-the earth) levels to ensure maximum concealment, they present a deadly hazard. To help military pilots visualize the hazards and employ avoidance procedures in various operational situations, DND invited proposals for an imaginative instructional video program.
Approach
Teaming up with a video and animation production firm, Androcom worked with Canadian Forces wire strike avoidance experts to develop a training video featuring vignettes based on common hazard scenarios. Combining live-action footage with scene-setting animation, the nature of each hazard was vividly demonstrated, along with environmental hazards and human factors that present additional risks. Similar techniques were used to demonstrate avoidance procedures. This highly successful training video earned First Prize in the Aviation and Space Writer’s Competition in Washington, D.C.
On-demand Mentoring
The Need
To meet the challenge of “corporate memory loss” arising from staff departures due to retirement and job rotation, the IAEA Department of Safeguards implemented a Job-Related Knowledge Retention Program. Well in advance of a known departure date, the program tasks a staff member’s supervisor with capturing the departee’s essential knowledge. The question was: what is the best way to explain to supervisors what they are expected to do?
Approach
To assist the supervisor in performing that duty, a concise, just-in-time, online tutorial was created. To reduce time demands, the tutorial consists of several 1-2 minute “personal video briefings” by departmental knowledge management experts, each complemented by a short reference text. For supervisors who want more detail, a written procedure and associated forms are made available in the Reference Documents section.
Safety Procedures
The Need
When local hazards pose a risk to children, one of the best ways to protect them is to teach hazard avoidance in a Schools Outreach Program. That’s what the DND UXO and Legacy Sites Program decided to do to help protect kids in communities close to former military bases and ranges where unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO) hazards might still exist.
Approach
Androcom President, Ken Desson, directed the development of a suite of outreach materials including lesson plans, posters, physical props, handouts and, notably, a 6-minute video on UXO hazards and safety tips geared to the needs of children in the 8-12 age range. The video features an animated host called Li’l Uxo who narrates the program and appears on screen from time to time to point out hazards and explain how to respond. A companion video was developed for senior high school students and the general public.
Industrial Safety Training
The Need
In heavy industries such a steelmaking, high temperatures in the vicinity of smelting and rolling operations – especially during summer months – pose risks to worker health and safety. Unless appropriate mitigation measures are taken, production workers may experience conditions such as heat rash, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Teaching workers to recognize the symptoms of these conditions in themselves and others, and to take appropriate action, is critical to protecting health and well-being.
Approach
In partnership with Algonquin College Corporate Training, Androcom worked with Ivaco Rolling Mills, a steelmaker based in Hawksbury, Ontario, to develop a 15-minute instructional video that explains the physiology of heat stroke, identifies risk factors, and uses actors to demonstrate the increasingly serious effects of heat on the body. Presented by a facilitator with expert knowledge about heat risks – the video also demonstrates how individuals and their workmates should respond in cases of heat-related illness. After viewing the video, workers must achieve a score of 80% on a five-question multiple-choice quiz. If they aren’t successful on the first try, they review the video, ask questions of the facilitator, and try again until they succeed.