Attendees: Jen Dansie* Jim Kolva, Nicole Bogeajis, Pat Lambert*, David Pollock, Alan Ward*, Greg Clark (*- video camera)
Not able to attend: Peter Griffiths, Mike Ierardi, Joe Capesius, Franceska Wilde, Lynn Taylor, Rod Sheets

✲ Next meeting: October 24, 10 AM Mountain Time

STED Brochure- Tj updated the STED brochure with new members. Printed and given out by NTC Water training classes.

Membership and Rotation
Lynn Taylor to rotate off. I am working with Dane Ohe on a replacement.
Lynn- Thank you so much for your dedicated service over the years!!!

NTC
RFP process- Should STED recommend RFP to WATER only this year for AI
training (CARP)?? The RFP has not been approved by Headquarters yet. This is a
good idea, if there are no other priorities for TEL development in Water. Think
about other classes that need to be developed or re-developed. Monies must be
spent within the fiscal year.

Video Streaming Memo- Sent by Jared to Water Mission Area leads
(technical office chiefs, NRP, etc). Sent May 9, 2013. Wait maybe until a new
Werkheiser email comes out for timing.
  -- Should we send email to Technical Office Chiefs to follow up? Maybe Alan
can write up? Bill Cunningham, Nate B., Robert Mason, Donna Myer.
-- Jim- As long as technical office chiefs are cc’d, the email should include
instructors.
-- AI- Alan will compose a follow up email.

Intro to Streamgaging will be held Sept 10-13, class is full. :)

CARP Training – STED’s role?
Update- TEL possibility. Presentation went well and CARP team is very interested in TEL.

Email from Chuck Schalk-
Hi, Jen. Doing well, and hope you are too.
The training team has 2 immediate priorities: a well-developed curriculum plan that will lay out all of the
training goals and means to accomplish them, and getting any TEL based training started. The former is
most important; as we determine what the curriculum is, we'll decide what should be TEL and what should
be classroom. Our goal is to have the curriculum plan done by the end of December, but I'm actually hoping
for a lot sooner than that.

I've been in conversations with Nick Stasulis in our office. Nick took the TEL training (if that's the right term)
from Tj a couple of years ago so he could work on a hydroacoustics TEL course it was good to have the
info from Tj's perspective, and now it's good to have it from the end user's perspective.
We aren't sure whether we'll be able to do as much on the training prep side in 2014 as we'd originally
planned because of sequestration issues. We're still hopeful, but trying to remain realistic.

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??

WEBSITE
Promotion-
  External training on STED page has PASSED. Just to get links added to page- work with Mike I. Rod S. has listed the links below.
  Email to Director and IT groups to add STED page to all internal WSCs webpage- see below. Thinking of one email instead of 2??.
  Keep 2 emails- Pat

  PRESENTATION- Already on Google Drive.

These external sites would have a disclaimer as follows:
"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."

Franceska’s recommendation “this information is provided, courtesy of the vendor, for the
benefit of those USGS field operations in which the equipment shown is in common use. Posting
this link does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government of one manufacturer or type of
equipment over another".

Rod Sheets has compiled list for external training links, thanks!!! WE can add/delete links as needed. I am hoping for 2 volunteers to look through the links and give feedback, so we can move forward and get this added. If you something to add, please let me know.

Greg looked through the links and made suggestions- add email below.

Useful training links, including instructional videos, self study modules:
http://gallery.usgs.gov/video_collections/Water

groundwater training--> http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/training.html

Geophysics-->http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/bgas/schedule.html

surface water training-->http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/osw/training.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3099/
http://wwwrcamnl.wr.usgs.gov/sws/SWTraining/Index.htm

water quality training-->http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/owq/training.html

General Information Technology, Microsoft, Budget/financial management, Leadership/supervisory, Acquisition management
https://doiu.doi.gov/skillsoft/

Links to many external training opportunities
http://www.usgs.gov/humancapital/ecd/ecd_trainingsources.html

External Links to Training (appropriate disclaimer):
Specific to Hydrologic Instrumentation (this is just a sample of manufacturers
websites in no particular order
if anyone would like a manufacturers' training web site added, let us know):

SONTEK: http://www.sontek.com/training.php

SUTRON: http://www.sutron.com/customerservice/trainingPresentations.htm

Campbell Scientific:http://www.sutron.com/customerservice/trainingPresentations.htm

YSI: http://www.ysi.com/events.php

HydroLab: http://www.hydro-systems.com/training/overview

Vaisala: http://www.vaisala.com/en/services/training/Pages/default.aspx

RD INstruments: http://www.rdinstruments.com/learning_center.aspx

In-Situ: http://www.in-situ.com/resources

Solinst: http://www.solinst.com/OntheLevel/TechnicalTraining/html

Specific to hydrologic technician training:

Gateway Community college: http://www.gatewaycc.edu/hydrologic-studies
Spokane Community college: http://www.scc.spokane.edu/?waterres
Rickley Hydrological Company: http://www.rickly.com/HS/TrainingServices.htm

Specific to Chemistry

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#chemistry

Specific to Hydrology/geology

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences

Specific to Biology

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#biological-engineering
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#biology

General--to Chemistry, Energy/Earth Science, Engineering, Physics and Statistics/Data Analysis (Google Chrome only)

https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming&lngs=en&cats=energy,ee,physics,chemistry,stats

Below is some discussion on the external training links. I believe most have been discussed and/or resolved.

Alan -Nice disclaimer. Just need to assign someone(s) to keep the list current! Since the list could
become exhaustive, we will need to come up with a max number of STED is willing to have on there at a
time. Up to 20?

Greg- I think it needs to be fairly limited in scope and targeted towards a few sites that would be most
beneficial to our folks in water. I don't think we want pages and pages of links to external training. Unless
the list is targeted and concise, folks won't take the time to look at them. Jen agrees.

Franceska-
Let me start by stating my recommendation: Hyperlink to third party videos is okay, but not a video
downloaded to the STED page. We will not download to STED page.
Because of discussions and some research we have dealt with in OWQ regarding this topic, I asked for
comment from our very astute and well informed webmaster, who also happens to be the webmaster for
OGW. Here's the essence of his response mixed with mine for your consideration:

● A rose by any other name is still a rose, just the same. In other words, the disclaimer seems
to be serving only as a smoke screen in this case. By posting a curated list of external
resources we do lend the vendors and all their products credence; i.e., "this is not an
endorsement (wink wink)."

● Since the STED page is an internal only web page,why can't STED recommend vetted, quality
training sources, without suggesting that it's not an endorsement? We just can't make those
recommendations to the public. (We recommend conferences, software, equipment, etc.
internally all the time.)

● Because the STED page is for internal access only, we should just state what the purpose
of providing the link to the video is, is not, and for whom; e.g., "this information is provided,
courtesy of the vendor, for the benefit of those USGS field operations in which the equipment
shown is in common use. Posting this link does not imply endorsement by the U.S.
Government of one manufacturer or type of equipment over another". Added this information to
disclaimer to see if STED wants to add.

● The OGW webmaster states that the google doc sent out mischaracterizes information on
the internal OGW training page. OGW does not recommend any third party training courses
on that page. We recommend USGS resources for selfstudy, as well as a handful of
textbooks. Only the textbooks are non USGS products. corrected, see belowJLD

● OGW posts their webinars online: http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/cyberseminars/index.html#past

● They don't necessarily want everyone streaming all these training videos over the internet (as
opposed to downloading and watching them): video streaming of HD videos can add quite a
load to the network, and for some offices that might be a problem. Mike to explain?

● If interested, talk to Dave Hebert in OCaP about an internal video gallery to host internal USGS
video, such as training. To get posted to the public gallery, the video has to go through OCaP
review and be publicly releasable which limits what we can do/say in the videos. (The OWG
webmaster is in the middle of finishing development of two geophysics training videos, so is
steeped in this right now.)

STED Any thoughts on this?

Web pages-
Suggestions:
   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
   Is there a way to track what links are using? If links are not being used, should we remove
them, etc.
   Define the reports.

Round Robin- Please share ideas.

Data conference- week of Sept 8, 2014, National hosted by ?
Data chiefs meeting in Reston- National meeting October
22-24th, pending approval.

Current Action Items:
Add external links to STED page
Alan to send out follow up email on Streaming memo
Memo for STED website promotion to Jerad to send out to WMA.

✲ Next meeting: October 24, 10 AM Mountain Time
more Information on Action Items since last meeting.

New Training Ideas:
External training links passed the vote.

STED webpage promotion
AI: Rod and Jen to work on email to Jerad- 4/16 Rod wrote initial email,-
done just needs review
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! YES
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- passed. 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://stagingwater.usgs.gov/usgs/orh/data/
Thank you.

Greg went through the links below and provided feedback in green. Thanks Greg!
USGS

Useful training links, including instructional videos, self study modules:
http://gallery.usgs.gov/video_collections/Water (looks good, lots of
informational videos)

groundwater training--> http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/training.html
(good location for groundwater courses and training info offered by USGS)

Geophysics--> http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/ogw/training.html
(another excellent site for geophysics training)

surface water training-->http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/osw/training.html
(excellent link to available training especially for Hydrologic Technicians)

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3099/ (another excellent
training link for technicians. (especially valuable since many of the photos are
from Idaho – ha!). I did find that a couple of links from this site to other sites
were broken)

http://wwwrcamnl.wr.usgs.gov/sws/SWTraining/Index.htm (looks good)
water quality training-->https://doiu.doi.gov/skillsoft/
(nice organized list of water quality courses within the USGS)

General Information Technology, Microsoft, Budget/financial managmenet,
Leadership/supervisory, Acquisition management

https://doiu.doi.gov/skillsoft/ (this link takes you to FY2012 courses and is
no longer valid. A more appropriate link may be

http://www.skillsoft.com/Catalog/ although this site does not appear to be DOI
specific)

Links to many external training opportunities
http://www.usgs.gov/humancapital/ecd/ecd_trainingsources.html (nice
USGS gateway page to outside training opportunities)

External Links to Training (appropriate disclaimer):
Specific to Hydrologic Instrumentation (this is just a sample of manufacturers
websites in no particular order

if anyone would like a manufacturers' training web site added, let us know):

SONTEK: http://www.sontek.com/training.php (nice link to a multitude of
training videos and webinars associated with using acoustics)

SUTRON:
http://www.sutron.com/customerservice/trainingPresentations.htm (good site
for troubleshooting specific types of Sutron equipment. However it does require
downloading ppt presentations)

Campbell Scientific: http://www.campbellsci.com/training (this link is
simply a list to when and where courses are being offered for using Campbell
Scientific Equipment. Not much else to this link)

YSI: http://www.ysi.com/events.php (similar to previous)

HydroLab: http://www.hydro-systems.com/training/overview (similar to
previous but much more informative with lots of nifty videos)

Vaisala: http://www.vaisala.com/en/services/training/Pages/default.aspx
(personally I’m not quite sure what Vaisala is; appears to be a weather
technology site. This site seems of little utility for USGS water folks)

RD INstruments: http://www.rdinstruments.com/learning_center.aspx
(good training site for RDI products and how to use them)

In-Situ: http://www.in-situ.com/resources (good link, lots of good
information and downloads on In-Situ equipment and how to use it)

Solinst: http://www.solinst.com/OntheLevel/TechnicalTraining/html (The
Technical training link is broken. When I searched the Solinst homepage for
training I got a catalog from 2006. If we want to keep this site, we should
probably link to the Solinst homepage at http://www.solinst.com/

Specific to hydrologic technician training:
Gateway Community college:

http://www.gatewaycc.edu/hydrologic-studies (not really a training page per se,
but a link to the Hydrologic Studies program at GateWay Community College.
Would be a good resource for those seeking an academic degree)

Spokane Community college: http://www.scc.spokane.edu/?waterres
(same as previous for Spokane Community College)

Rickley Hydrological Company:
http://www.rickly.com/HS/TrainingServices.htm (This site is pretty worthless as
far as training. It essentially indicates that Rickly can provide training services if
you hire them to do so. The training they offer can be accessed through USGS
websites.)

Specific to Chemistry
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#chemistry (Essentially lists many (maybe all)
of the chemistry courses offered at MIT. Can download the course lectures,
problem sets, and practice exams as pdf files. This would be an excellent resource
for starting from scratch or reviewing your knowledge.)

Specific to Hydrology/geology
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences
(same comment as for previous link)

Specific to Biology
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#biological-engineering
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#biology
(same comment as for previous link)

General--to Chemistry, Energy/Earth Science, Engineering, Physics and
Statistics/Data Analysis (Google Chrome only)
https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming&lngs=en&cats=energy,e
e,physics,chemistry,stats

(not quite sure how this site works, but there are some excellent courses here
that one can sign up for and take over a period of weeks. An account needs to be
set up so you can access the courses. I’m not sure if there is an associated fee or
not.)