Study of Topics for Distance Education: A Survey of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Employees

摘要

The Division of Education Outreach (DEO) at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) commissioned this study. The objective of the study was to identify the training topics and distance education technologies preferred by potential training participants prior to planning and implementing a distance education strategy. The focus was on positions involving conservation and environmental education and outreach programming rather than on all positions in FWS. This limitation was enacted in order to frame the study such that it could be conducted in a feasible manner and meet the informational and planning needs of the study sponsor. We conducted the study in two phases. Each phase included a survey. In the first phase, we used a survey with primarily open-ended questions to solicit responses that would indicate areas in which training would be useful. We sent the survey to 72 FWS employeesfour supervisors and four nonsupervisors from each region. The response rate to the survey was 61 percent; all regions were represented. The responses were qualitatively analyzed and yielded five thematic content areas for training: creating and maintaining partnerships (partnerships), technology, program planning and development (program planning), outreach methods to engage the community (outreach methods), and evaluation methods. The second phase of the study involved the development of a survey to assess preferences for training on the five topics identified in the first survey and preferences for six distance education technologies. The distance education technologies included satellite television, video conferencing, audio conferencing, computer mediated training, written resources, and audio resources. A section of the survey included instructor-led training (ILT), both onsite at the NCTC campus and offsite at other locations, in comparison to the distance education options. The survey included a section in which respondents indicated what level of information was needed for training in the five topics. The second survey was sent to a sample of 1,488 FWS employees. The adjusted response rate to this survey was 64 percent. The results indicated the respondents had clear preferences among training topics and distance education technologies.