Development of innovative electronic learning products for worker safety and health training in hazardous waste and chemical emergency response. (Fellowships, Grants & Awards).

The NIEHS Worker Education and Training Program (WETP), in considering the development and application of advanced training technology (ATT) to worker safety and health training, has realized that there is a substantial challenge in translating this new technology to our awardee organizations. This challenge is associated with the fact that each of the WETP awardee organizations is different with regard to its training target audience, the computer literacy and access to such technology among its target audience, the work its training target population performs, and training delivery methods and means, among other factors. In many ways, these challenges reflect the current reality of delivering job-related training content to any adult population in the United States. The "digital divide" in its various manifestations is a reality for anyone who attempts to use ATT approaches to effectively reach target populations with low levels of computer experience and knowledge. This concern for hazardous waste workers and chemical emergency responders has been particularly acute for a high-risk target population, which is characterized by ethnic and cultural diversity, low levels of formal education, and minimal prior computer fluency.

The NIEHS encourages applicants to this Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) RFA to review the relevant program documentation, to pursue partnerships and collaboration with WETP awardees, and to design new electronic learning products that can extend the existing NIEHS curricula and training programs into the digital world. The following four areas describe the type of electronic learning products that will be supported under this SBIR RFA. Examples include but are not limited to:

1) Products to support electronic collaboration in safety and health training: "E-collaboration in safety and health training" involves enabling collaborative development of course materials by personnel widely separated geographically within the same organization and between collaborators working for different organizations. In addition to traditional face-to-face meetings and phone calls, a number of electronic tools and online approaches can be used to facilitate distributed teams in their creating or updating of instructional products. These capabilities include e-mail, mail list groups, bulletin boards, chat rooms, threaded discussion groups, FTP, and Web-enabled database-oriented development tools.

2) Products to support electronic certification in safety and health training: "E-certification in safety and health training" involves preparing and maintaining instructor competence as a critical issue in creating and maintaining the quality of health and safety training delivery and assuring adequate worker protection. This ATT option entails the use of online resources to improve instructor competence. The role of the instructor is highly valued in the WETP. Many grantee programs have systematic approaches to train, certify, and maintain instructor competence in both the content matter and in teaching skills.

3) Products to support electronic teaching in safety and health training: "E-teaching in safety and health training" encompasses live or virtual classroom training as a significant part of effective safety and health training deliver. A key WETP core value relative to ATT is to preserve the role of the trainer/instructor in classroom-like environments in the modeling, teaching, and verification of skills and knowledge. This ATT option for safety and health training delivery looks directly at ways technology can be used appropriately in live instructor-led, face-to-lace, and virtual classrooms.

4) Products to support electronic learning in safety and health training: "E-learning in safety and health training" involves technology deployment to provide individualized or small group-based training in learning centers, in a technology-enabled "smart classroom," or to learner's desktop is a core part of the technology-supported learning process. As an ATT option, electronic learning is used to enable individualized learning at the learners' convenience and own pace prior to, as part ok after, or in place of classroom training. Electronic learning capability is now available to learners at their workplace (desktop, shared computer/kiosk, or learning center) and optionally at home or at the union hall. While multimedia computers connected to the Internet are much more widely available each year, care must be taken to ensure that a targeted set of learners will in fact have the needed access to work stations or learning centers.

The deadline for letters of intent is 17 March 2002, with final applications due 17 April 2002. Applications received in response to this RFA are to be prepared as described in the PHS 398 instructions, which are available at http://grants. nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html. Applicants should follow the instructions for SBIR Phase I submission with the modifications as noted in the online version of this RFA, available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/ RFA-ES-02-002.html.

Projects may be presented for SBIR/STTR support at all stages of learning technology development. Projects will be evaluated on overall innovation and success potential. Future support will be contingent upon NIEHS programmatic evaluation to ensure that the investigators are accomplishing milestones and time lines presented in the original application.

Contact: Joseph T. "Chip" Hughes, Jr., WETP, Division of Extramural Research and Training, NIEHS, PO Box 12233, 111 T. W. Alexander Drive, MD EC-25, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA, 919-541-0217, fax: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]; Sharon Beard, WETP, Division of Extramural Research and Training, NIEHS, PO Box 12233, 111 T. W. Alexander Drive, MD EC-25, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA, 919-541-1863, fax: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. Reference: RFA No. RFA-ES-02-002