IDS Courses
Instructional Design Systems Used in All Certified Courses
Introduction
Currently, the Florida Animal Control Training Commission only offers courses developed by the American Animal Cruelty Investigations School (AACIS). This is due to AACIS developing and maintaining training curricula for three disciplines: animal control, law enforcement, and animal sheltering. Industry experts from each of the three disciplines serve as institution staff and develop all basic and post-basic training curricula. It is critically important that the training curricula remain current addressing crime trends, societal changes, and proven best practices and always mirroring the requirements of the officer/technician’s job. Equally important is the need for continuous improvement and to ensure training meets current needs.
AACIS’s training programs are maintained on a continuous cycle including a job task analysis, task and instructional analyses, topics scope and sequence, course development, field test, implementation evaluation, and improvement. This cycle is based on industry recognized standards of the Instructional Systems Design recognized and used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (Curriculum Maintenance System).
Job Task Analysis
Job Task Analysis is compliant with Section 943.17 of the Florida Statutes. This is used as the basis for the development of all AACIS training curricula. This is a formalized process recognized as an industry standard for identifying and collecting information relating to performance standards, job knowledge, skills, attitudes, abilities, personal characteristics, and physical requirements. As goals and training objectives are developed from the job task analysis, those same objectives are used to formalize the item bank for the Florida Animal Control Officer certification exam. Formally linking this this information throughout the development of the Florida Animal Control Officer certification curricula helps ensure the certification exam is legally defensible as a tool for establishing entry into the professional and practical in its use. Dozens of officers and other subject matter experts are used in workshops and occupational surveys to complete the job task analysis process.
Course Development
Subject matter experts are used to develop training materials, instructor guides, handbooks, and videos. Lectures give detailed information regarding each of the training objectives, which cover both cognitive and psychomotor learning. The instructor guides focus primarily on outcomes and lay out lesson-by-lesson training objectives to be covered, along with any required activities such as practice of exercises or scenario-based training. A legal review is conducted by AACIS General Counsel of the entire curriculum to ensure it conforms to statute.
Field Test
The transition from development to implantation is enhanced through field tests. When courses are field tested, the course development staff are able to judge the structure and to some degree the content to see if the training can be delivered as intended. It is also the first step in identifying gaps in the training. Crucial to the field test is constructive feedback from instructors and students.
Implementation
When a new or updated course curriculum is implemented, it is given an effective date and version number. This establishes when the changes will be implemented; new versions have a new version number. This versioning system is important to student who may have taken an older version that does not include content capturing new information.
Evaluation
As in the field test, the collection of data for evaluation of the curricula is both a formal and informal process. A special e-mail address for training curriculum allows any instructor, student, or representative to provide feedback on training and officer performance. This instructor guide includes an instructor feedback form that is used to provide input on structure and content to the institution staff. All feedback collected are analyzed and used to measure the effectiveness of the training and make changes, some as minor as a typographical error or as major as changing the delivery format.
Continuous Improvement
Beyond field tests, regular feedback, and program evaluations, the curricula are updated annually in accordance with legislative changes that would otherwise render the curricula out-of-date. In between the annual revisions, Curriculum Alerts are distributed to district representatives and instructors as needed to make immediate corrections where errors are found, or legislative changes are due to take effect. A revalidation of the job task analysis is also conducted every four to five years after the initial program start date to ensure that the curricula continue to mirror the job.
Benefits to the Criminal Justice, Animal Control, and Sheltering Community
Instructional Systems Design offers the following benefits to the criminal justice, animal control, and sheltering community:
- Curricula are continually updated to remain current.
- Training programs reflect the most current changes to statutes and case law.
- Active involvement and input are essential from law enforcement, animal control, and sheltering staff.
- Certification examinations are based on student performance objectives linked to the job task analysis, which defines the job.
- Classroom requirements guide instructors in meeting the learning goals of the curriculum.
- The training programs are standardized with like expectations and outcomes across the state.
Record Keeping, Maintenance, and Security
The American Animal Cruelty Investigations School keeps digital records of all certifications indefinitely. These records are maintained in an encrypted triple redundancy protocol that includes cloud-based and local storage utilizing a geo-diverse strategy for security. As a private institution, all training records maintained by AACIS are not subject to F.S.S. 119 regarding public records requests. However, AACIS will provide training records for verification of training to appropriate entities on a need-to-know basis.
Training Program Feedback
The American Animal Cruelty Investigations School requests feedback for both basic and post-basic training courses. Please e-mail specific comments to [email protected].
