Meeting 6/20/13, 10 AM- MOUNTAIN TIME.  Video Conference

PLEASE INSERT YOUR NAME BELOW AND ANY NOTES YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD DURING CALL.

Attendees:  Rodney Sheets, Jim Kolva*, Jen Dansie*, Tj Lane(Honorary STED member)*, Joe Capesius, Mike Ierardi*, Alan Ward*, Russel Smith* (technical support), Greg Clark*, Pat Lambert*
*- video camera
Not able to attend:  Lynn Taylor,  Peter Griffiths, Franceska Wilde, Jerad Bales, David Pollock, Nicole Bogeajis

Agenda Items: 
Try to do our next meeting through Adobe Connect- OED to let us know if this is possible- more info by next call

Membership and Rotation
            Introduce New Studies Chief Representative -  Greg Clark, Idaho WSC

Jen extended 3 year commitment to 4 years (2015) to offset rotation, since a lot of members are up for rotation in 2014. Any objections, please let me know.

 NTC
            Video Streaming Memo- Sent by Jared to Water Mission Area leads (technical office chiefs, NRP, etc).  Do we want to follow up with Instructors to ensure they received the Memo?-->  Jim K.--keep technical office chiefs in the loop.
What about an Instructor email alias?
*Will contact tech office leads as follow up before contacting instructors.
           
Travel restrictions impacting Water training- Mission Critical classes can be approved- share the knowledge. 
       Intro to Streamgaging has been approved.
            Jen is updating powerpoints to make them more concise to class.
Basic Hydraulic Principles -- Bob Holmes (OSW) teaching remotely. Distance Version. Jim Forwarded email. BLM helped him with this class?

*Pat to update us--->  Need to investigate how courses are chosen as Mission Critical.  Should leadership (senior staff) be involved in decision.  Jim- group of Directors? Pat to contact OWLs and suggest same for other groups. Tj to give Pat list of approved classes and previously scheduled classes- done.
            Jen- I did discuss with my OWLs group and subsequently forwarded the lists of NTC classes (schedule, canceled, and in limbo) to all of the leadership groups. Now I don't know if the leaders of the other two groups forwarded them out and had discussion. I got no response from the central and east groups. I got limited response from the OWLS emphasizing keeping  "Streamflow Record Computation using ADVM's and Index Velocity" (which I think was scheduled) and ADCP training courses. - Pat L. 
 
CARP Training – STED’s role?
            Update- TEL possibility. Jen and Tj will present “What is TEL” (and other computer  based training ideas), July 1st 12-2pm to CARP team and discuss TEL options. 
.
                        - Emails have been exchanged between CARP and  Tj , Alan and myself regarding the possibilities of TEL and other online training modules for the new software.  They are interested in using this technology.

CARP- Very rough timeline (which will be refined and added to the Plan):
Planning: now
Developing materials: Oct 2013-Aug 2014
Pilot deployments/training: Sep-Nov 2014
Final refinements: Nov-Dec 2014
Deployment starts: Jan 2015
Deployment ends: June 2015

TEAM- Any other  ideas as to what you see as a good way to use online training to reach users during the Roll out (and beyond) of the new Aquarius software??

Joe- Smaller ‘you tube’ type videos that are individualized towards specific subjects within the software.. i.e “How to input shifts?” An example:
http://www.sontek.com/training.php

WEBSITE-
Promotion-  Propose External Training link on STED and vote.  Once that is settled we can send promotion memo- draft added below agenda

Email to Director and IT groups to add STED page to all internal WSCs webpage.    
Email to all techs and hydrologists to use the STED page for finding training.PRESENTATION- Already on Google Drive.
 
Web pages-   Suggestion: Go through the website every few weeks and click on links to ensure quality.  If you find any mistakes or outdated information, please send an email to Mike and Jen
             
New Ideas for training-

- Terry Kenney and others have been discussing TEL courses and future training access.
            Update-  There are public facing TEL courses available now.
SW Procedures URL http://training.usgs.gov/TEL/Nolan/SWProcedures/Index.html

Comments in RED from Rod Sheets.
- Promote development and use of short instructional videos that can be posted to http://gallery.usgs.gov/video_collections/Water.  Members to look over and decide if we should post to STED page- IMPORTANT
This is a great set of videos on a wide variety of topics but only 1 out of 10 is actually 'training' for our folks; many/most of them consist of informational videos (for the public audience). I think it would be good to have the link, but I wouldn't call it a 'training' link unless there were videos of specific training that we can point to specifically. 

- Idea--- Webpage where USGS employees can find free-web based training on external sites.- IMPORTANT
Jen,gallery.usgs.gov is fully Section 508 compliant, etc.  It's a great source. ditto above.

Jen, we also have a web page of our Human Capital site that lists some other training sources:
http://www.usgs.gov/humancapital/ecd/ecd_trainingsources.html
This looks like a great page (with disclaimer), but our constituency is going to have to wade through each of these to find what they need to find, which could take some time.   Can we or they organize these in a way (short descriptions) that will help technicians/hydrologists find the training that they are looking for?   Our page can be separated into groundwater, surface water, water quality, computer, general, safety, general interest, other(?) and have appropriate links from there.

Jen, not sure if you were aware but the Office of Groundwater has pages with links to outside, self-study courses.  For example,http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/training.html#usgsself

 I would use the general link http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/training.html. The link given points to self study, not general groundwater training.

Also, Jen, right now until September 30, 2013, all Skillsoft courses in DOI Learn are free!  There's a bunch of 'em too.  To continue the Skillsoft courses, tho, when and if we get a new LMS to replace DOI Learn, it may be up to each Agency in DOI to buy the licenses.

Here is the skillsoft link: https://doiu.doi.gov/skillsoft/

There's also the following sites with free courseware:

Open Education Database:
http://oedb.org/open/subjects/science/
I would make the link more pointed to our constituency and have it go to this link (searching for "Water" in "Science" courses--http://oedb.org/open/search-results/?search-course=water&search-subject=Science
At the very least tell them specifically how to search the site.  I would rather take them to water, than having them poke around to find it.


 

MIT OpenCourseware:
http://oedb.org/open/subjects/science/  This is the wrong link--correct link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ or
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#science-technology-and-society is the same as is given in the human capital site above.

Coursera:  Free blended-learning and on-line learning courses:
https://www.coursera.org
Nice link, but doesn't' work that well in Internet Explorer (does in Google Chrome). 

These sites would need a disclaimer.
Proposed disclaimer from Tj:  "Hypertext links and other references to non-USGS products and services are provided for information only and do not constitute endorsement or warranty by the USGS, U.S. Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government, as to their suitability, content, usefulness, functioning, completeness, or accuracy."

See disclaimer on  http://www.usgs.gov/humancapital/ecd/ecd_trainingsources.html

JOE and ROD - any other external training sites that we should consider??

http://www.sontek.com/training.php
http://www.sutron.com/customerservice/trainingPresentations.htm
http://www.rdinstruments.com/learning_center.aspx

AI: Nicole – Work with Alan on an RFP process and a document describing a plan of suggested TEL classes that may be threatened in the near future with the 20% reduction in travel and find an audience to gain leverage.
    IS THIS STILL BEING WORKED ON??? Alan-RFP got derailed this year.  Still on hold; don’t think in FY13, hopeful for FY14 (RFP -> covers 50% developer/instructors time). Alan->Have a focus year next year on Water (and Aquarius/CARP)? 
            Will leave this on the AI list as we may pursue the RFP more towards Water-CARP process in FY14.

Round Robin- Please share ideas.

Alan- STED Brochure- Alan will update the original brochure to edit new members. 
            Any other edits need to be suggested at this time. Please send those suggestions to the team.
            *Mike will get original to Alan and Tj.

Current Action Items:
External Training links- first vote on it, decide on content, then work with Mike on how we post it on website.
CARP/STED- Tj and Jen to present ‘ What is TEL?” July 1st
STED Brochure- Updates to member page- Mike sent Tj original file and OED will update.
Website Promotion email

 
✲  Next meeting:  August 22, 10 AM  Mountain Time

more Information on Action Items since last meeting.

 
New Training Ideas:
AI: Jen to talk to Data Committees about their website. 4/16/13- WestDAC responded, will attached email notes at later date.  Tips&Tools on their page will be a place for informal Tip Sheets
AI: Joe C to look at some vendor training links, in coordination with Jen.
4/17- Found vendor links on HIF page, but mostly product info- add to STED page.

STED webpage promotion and
            AI: Rod and Jen to work on email to Jerad- 4/16 Rod wrote initial email,
            AI: Do we want to add Data Committee Depot link to that email?  Ask DC if they plan to add external training to their website with vendors, etc.  4/16- WestDAC in complete favor of this!

External training links on webpage:
            AI:  Tj to get Rod disclaimer (done 4/16) for external links and STED to vote if we want to add external training on sted page.  Mike can add it however we want on the STED page.
           

To: Directors, Water Science Centers
From: Jerad Bales, Acting Associate Director for Water

Directors,

I realize these are trying times, but the Water Mission Area is still dedicated to getting access to technical training for our employees. We all must look at alternatives to training we have historically offered. Many of these alternatives can be found at the Scientific and Technical Employee Development Committee web page (STED--http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/STED/), including Technology Enabled Learning (TEL) courses and external sites where employees can access blended and remote training opportunities.  I would like to also encourage the use of the Data Committees- National Hydrologic Data and Information Depot as a source to find quick links, the latest news, and national water data conference announcements.  It is beneficial to promote these National webpages to Water Mission Area employees to access training/links and keep those updated, instead of each individual WSC.  Please find links below.

Please encourage your webmaster or IT person to provide these links on your internal web site, and advertise to your employees that these links are available.

I also want to remind instructors and students alike that if you believe a course is 'mission critical', that I need to have a formal request....

STED- Scientific and Technical Employee Development (STED),  Training page
http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/STED/index.html

Data Committees- National Hydrologic Data and Information Depot
http://staging-water.usgs.gov/usgs/orh/data/

Thank you.