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TQM Training Section
Total Quality Management Training Section Now Open
15 October 07

The Emergency Services Training Project is proud to announce a new section on Total Quality Management. This section will focus on training materials on the subject of implementing a TQM style of management within your agency. Our first offering in the area is the recently updated and revised Third Edition of the book, "TQM for Emergency Services - An Introduction" and it is being released under the Creative Common license. Look for supplemental training materials to be released in the near future.

OpenISES Project News
Agency Personnel and Training Database Schema Now Available
Archive

The OpenISES Project has now made available the database schema for the Agency Personnel and Training Database created by Mike Harris. This database project is envisioned as the core project around which numerous other agency or service specific programs will be created. We are looking for someone to step forward and take the role of lead developer on this project. Take a look at the ground work that has been laid down, and let us know if this is something you think you may be interested in.

Emergency Services Training Project
Welcome to the Emergency Services Training site. This project is being developed as part of The OpenISES Project (Open Information Systems for Emergency Services).
Introduction
The goal of this project is simple, yet expansive; to create a library of emergency services instructional material. The project will consist of several general topic areas, such as medical training and Total Quality Management. Within each area you will find lesson plans, classroom presentations and resource materials. We will also be looking into creating on-line training courses using the SCORM format.

The access of the project to a world-wide audience creates exciting opportunities, yet also places monumental obstacles along the path. Simply having the materials translated into various languages will be an enormous task unto its own.

Implementation
This project, unlike other OpenISES projects, is not a software program but is envisioned as a collection of materials and resources that can be used in an emergency service training environment. Like other OpenISES projects, we strive to make it available on as many different platforms as possible, while still subscribing to the ideals of being freely available and open source.

Fortunately, the ISO has approved a standard for computer documents called the Open Document Format (ODF). ODF has been approved for word processing documents(*.odt), spreadsheets (*.ods), and presentations (*.odp). These formats are now incorporated or soon will be incorporated into nearly every mainstream office suite, including OpenOffice.org, Koffice, AbiWord, etc. There is even a SourceForge project that has created a plug-in for Microsoft Office to allow it to read and save documents in this format.

Given the ISO certification and the world-wide acceptance of the Open Document format (many governments across the world are mandating its use), it only makes sense that the materials created for this project be delivered in this format as well. In addition, the Adobe Acrobat format has become a standard that nearly every system has the ability to read. Therefore, all of the documents being released under this project will be in the Open Document format or Adobe Acrobat format.

Bob Austin is the lead developer on this project and has been working on creating the basic infrastructure/guidelines of the project, as well as some of the first templates and materials to be released. As with the other projects in this series, we are always looking for additional developers to assist in creating the materials that we will be offering.

Current Projects
There are currently two active projects. They include the EMS Medical Training Project and the Total Quality Management for Emergency Services Project.

The Medical Project is a collection of lesson plans and associated materials that can be used during the instruciton of students at any EMS certification level. The various classes are broken down by topic instead of certification level. This will offer you the ability to pick and choose the right lesson for your class. Take a look at the roadmap to see what class materials are currently available, and what materials the project is looking for.

The TQM for Emergency Services project offers the materials to conduct an introductory class. If your agency is looking to improve its service, changing to a TQM style of management may be just what you are looking for. This section includes the Introduction book, and will soon have the associated lesson plans and presentations.

Templates Package
This package contains templates for use in the OpenOffice suite of programs. Templates include a lesson plan and presentation outline. You can use these to have your materials match the other items in the project.

Discussion Forums
We have setup a forum to discuss issues related to the creation of training materials. If you have any comments that you feel will be of use to the development team, please post them in the forum (http://eduforge.org/forum/?group_id=157).
The OpenISES Project

The goal of the OpenISES Project (http://openises.sourceforge.net)is to create open source software and materials that is aimed to fill the needs of the emergency services community. There is a need for open source training materials in the emergency service community, and the OpenISES project is trying to help fill that need.

The Medical Training Project for EMS is the first non-software project developed for the OpenISES Project. This is being followed by the Total Quality Management for Emergency Services project. Look for more of these over time.