Forecast Improvements
WDTB Project 10 – Warning Decision-Making Research and Training: Department of Commerce and NOAA Distance Learning Training Development – The Nation’s Weather Enterprise
Funding Type: CIMMS Task II
Objectives
Repurpose materials from a live workshop to create a distance education
module that allows both public and private sector meteorologists to better
understand the roles of each sector in the Nation's weather enterprise.
Accomplishments
During the past year, CIMMS staff has used its expertise at developing
distance learning materials to create several web modules for both Dept.
of Commerce and NOAA management. These included a series of modules based
on a short course at the Public-Private Sector Partnership Conference
held in June 2006 at Howard University and on the DoC transition to employee
performance plans.
By transferring these materials to web modules, information was provided to a wide audience on the nature of the Nation’s Weather Enterprise and the relationship between both the public and private sectors to meet the Nation’s need for weather information, as well as educating Dept. of Commerce management about a significant change in employee performance evaluation. The Dept. of Commerce modules were produced at the request of the Office of Human Resources Management. The Public- Private Partnership course was produced through a request from the NOAA/NWS Office of Strategic Planning and Policy. Both sets of modules have been deployed using NOAA’s Learning Management System.
Focusing here on the Public-Private Partnership for weather, about 50 people representing both the public and private sectors attended the NOAA and NCIM Public-Private Partnership Workshop in June 2006. The workshop was created by John Toohey-Morales and Ed Johnson after the revision of the NOAA Partnership Policy. It was becoming clear to them that there were distinct differences between how the public and private weather sectors function. While there were many things the two sectors shared, there were also dramatic differences that made working together very difficult. This workshop was designed to educate both sectors about these differences to help them forge effective partnerships that grow the weather enterprise as a whole.
In order to reach a broad audience, the original workshop was modified by CIMMS staff at WDTB into a set of distance-learning modules. The first three modules explain the roles and capabilities of each sector, describe how the sectors overlap and complement each other, illustrate some examples of how the two sectors have partnered successfully, and explain the NOAA Partnership Policy so that people can access and use it to improve the enterprise. A lunch talk by a former NOAA Legislative Affairs Officer is included in video clip format. He reminds everyone about how Congress works, the role Congress plays and does not play in the enterprise, which House and Senate committees are most relevant, and how to work with Congress. The remaining modules become increasingly interactive, first through a dialogue about how planning, funding, terminology, and work culture differ between the sectors. Then, participants have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in two case studies that have no clear solution. The module was completed in November 2006 and released on CD-ROM at the AMS Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in January 2007.
This project has been completed.
Publications
The Nation’s Weather Enterprise: The Public-Private Sector Partnership:
http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/courses/PPP/index.html http://www.ncim.org/pppcourse2006/
Dept. of Commerce Building Results-Oriented Performance Plans: http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/temp/commerce/lesson1/player.html http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/temp/commerce/lesson2/player.html http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/temp/commerce/lesson3/player.html
LaDue, D.S., P. L. Heinselman, E. R. Johnson, J Toohey-Morales, P.W. Thomas, and E.A. Mahoney, 2007: Forging a public-private partnership through adult education. 2nd Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research, San Antonio, TX, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM P1.2.
CD-ROM logo (top) and example module (bottom) from The Nation’s Weather Enterprise: Public-Private Sector Partnership distance learning course. Navigation through the module is facilitated by the menu at the left. This module discusses some of the different questions that are relevant to NWS forecasters in the event of a land-falling hurricane.