Videos in Training

When I set up a live streaming video network in my previous position, we provided 40 Hour Hazardous Waste training for our company through a virtual training system. 40 Hour Hazwoper as it is called has very strict rules on what content is presented and the timeline for the course. That being said, OSHA, the agency that oversees the Hazwoper regulations has very few strictures on how the training is completed. Although this lack of oversight on how to present the content would lend itself to any type of teaching perspective, we used the transmission perspective to provide the content.

However, in order to help develop a better understanding of safety culture and the information we provided several videos of real-world accidents and fatalities. During the videos, we asked the trainees to provide a summary of the video and what tools they were learning about in the class could have been used to prevent the accident. This could be seen as a developmental perspective, as we were helping them use the information in new and unique ways, asking them to create original thoughts and to think creatively using the tools we had provided. 

On further reflection though, the method we used to provide the information, the manner by which we solicited the information, graded them, and reviewed the information with the class was very much in line with what we've learned about the transmission perspective.  Maybe it could best be called "transmission with a dash of developmental." 

One of the aspects that kept this transmission was the number of people we were training, the style and method of training, and the techniques used for the knowledge transfer. Although it would have been preferable to use developmental, the amount of attention and limitations on time tended to make that difficult. Secondly, and more importantly, the trainees were new to the industry, had no experience, and needed the information delivered to them in a simple, quick, efficient, and easy to digest manner. The nature of the virtual setting, 5 eight-hour days, also meant that the trainees did not have a setting that lent itself easily to the developmental perspective.