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NFA Online Mediated Course

National Fire Academy Online Mediated Instruction Course

The National Fire Academy is currently recruiting students to help pilot test its first online instructor mediated course, Advanced Principles of Fire and Emergency Services Safety and Survival (C249).  The course will be delivered through NFA Online at: www.nfaonline.dhs.gov

An online instructor mediated course balances self-study components with interactions and discussions between the students and the instructor.  This course is done in an asynchronous fashion.  Students and the instructor will likely be online at different times and will post and respond to discussions on their own schedule.  After reviewing the self-study materials, the students will have the opportunity to participate in discussions with other students on various assigned topics.  The instructor will open each module, provide feedback on assignments, summarize discussions, and provide mentoring to meet the unique needs of individual students.

This course is being offered in conjunction with the colleges and universities that comprise the NFA'sDegrees at a Distance Program. Students who successfully complete this course may be eligible to receive college credit from one of the following schools:

For more information concerning college credit eligibility, please contact: NFAOnlineHelp@fema.dhs.gov

Prospective students should have a thorough understanding of the course requirements before submitting their application.  Please familiarize yourself with the course requirements and review the Sample Module Lesson Assignment (shown below).  Please Note:  This is a college-level, writing intensive course.  You will be expected to adhere to the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Guidelines for all written assignments.  A tutorial for this format can be found at: http://www.apastyle.org/

Please Note:  This is a 12 week course.

Course Description

This course examines the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives (FLSI) - hat they mean and how they can be adapted by every fire and emergency service organization. The 16 FLSI were developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) with the support and consultation of virtually every major United States fire service organization. The goal of this course, set at the supervisory and managerial level, is to formulate and put into practice health and safety procedures that address firefighter injuries and fatalities. The course will also focus on the need for a culture change, especially regarding how decisions made at the managerial and operational levels can exert influence to ensure that "everyone goes home."

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate methods for advocating and implementing culture change in the fire and emergency services to decrease and, hopefully, prevent line-of-duty injuries and deaths.
  • Recognize the need for the collection of fire-incident data, explain who collects data, analyze the "fire problem" in the United States with current data, and understand how research leads to new technologies, best practices, and culture change.
  • Describe the need for investigating a fatality/injury/near-miss, list the essential components of and explain how to conduct an investigation, and formulate how lessons can be learned from near-miss investigations.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of wellness, fitness, and behavioral health as these issues impact firefighters and their families. Understand the principles of Crew Resource Management (CRM) and apply risk management principles to scenarios involving incident management at all levels.
  • Demonstrate how national fire service standards for training, certification, and accreditation programs can be adopted at the local level.

Student Selection Criteria

Fire/EMS service management personnel (company officers, shift supervisors, training/prevention/safety officers, chief officers, directors) who have health and safety responsibilities with the ability to implement departmental process improvement addressing prevention of personnel injuries and fatalities.

Class Size: 25 students

Course Requirements:  The course includes five modules; one module will be released on-line every two weeks.  For each module, participants will be required to:

  • Complete the required textbook readings.
  • Complete the on-line content, which includes participation in discussion forums and the submission of an individual written paper for each module.  A sample module lesson assignment is included below (all module lesson assignments have similar requirements).
  • Interact with instructor and other student participants.

Costs and Fees: This course is offered free-of-charge.  Students will be required to purchase a text book.