Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy

The full 14-module Academy is an individual enrollment. The student has a full-year to complete the Academy and the graduate receives a certification upon completion.

Group discounts are available (click the Contact Us tab to inquire about discount pricing).

While there is no graduate certification offered, individual modules can be purchased a la cart and watched as a group.  There is only one log-in credential provided per course and access is for 30 days.

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The content of this on-line Academy has been presented live to more than 87,000 firefighters, police officers, EMTs, paramedics, dispatchers, emergency managers, aviation personnel, medical professionals, military and industrial workers throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Academy students have full access to 14 courses self-paced online courses.

Supervisors are able to monitor the progress of each participant, including who is logging in, how much time they are spending on each unit and their performance on quizzes.

Course 1: Foundations in Situational Awareness

Most first responders know, intuitively, that strong situational awareness is an important aspect of safety. However, many do not understand what situational awareness is, how it is developed and how it can erode while working in high risk, high consequence environments. This program provides you with a working definition for situational awareness and explains how it is developed. Specific examples of barriers that can erode awareness will be discussed.

Course 2: Situational Awareness and General First Responder Safety

This program discusses the important connection between situational awareness and first responder safety.

Course 3: Stress and performance

This course provides students with the opportunity to learn about stress – both good and bad – and the impact stress can have on first responder performance while working in high risk, high consequence environments.

Course 4: Decision making

This course teaches the process for making decisions under stress. Participants will learn about the traditional decision making process and the dynamic decision making process uncovered by Dr. Gary Klein called Recognition-Primed Decision Making process.

Course 5: Barriers to situational awareness – an introduction

The course teaches what situational awareness is and how it is developed. Participants are introduced to research on situational awareness, including a model for developing situational awareness in dynamic environments developed by Dr. Mica Endlsey. The course includes an introduction to the barriers that challenge first responder situational awareness.

Course 6: Staffing barriers

This course discusses staffing issues as barriers to first responder situational awareness. This course explores how the quantity and quality of staffing can impact first responder situational awareness.

Course 7: Communications barriers

This course discusses communications issues and how they can impact first responder situational awareness. One of the greatest assets we have is our ability to communicate complex information. Complex communications can, however, lead to tremendous challenges for first responders, especially while operating in dynamically changing environments where communication between individuals and teams often occurs while being physically separated.

Course 8: Workload barriers

This course discusses the challenges of workload and how a heavy load can impact first responder situational awareness. Oftentimes in high stress, high consequence, dynamically changing environments the workload on responders can become overwhelming and it may compel responders to multitask. This can cause significant issues with situational awareness.

Course 9: Human factor barriers

This course discusses why and how human factors present some of the most challenging barriers to first responder situational awareness barriers because many human factors are difficult to control.

Course 10: Attention management barriers

This course discussed the challenges of attention management. Participants will learn how to pay attention to environmental stimuli and the barriers that can impact a responder’s situational awareness.

Course 11: Mission and goals barriers

In this module we will discuss the role that mission and goals play in the formation of situational awareness and how important it is to be on the same page with co-workers. This unit will also discuss challenges with creating a unified mission and consequences that can be created when the mission is unclear or non-existent.

Course 12: Shared mental model barriers

This course explains what mental models are and why they are so important in the process of developing and maintaining situational awareness. Participants will also learn how flawed mental models can impact situational awareness.

Course 13: Teamwork barriers

This course discusses shared situational awareness and the importance of ensuring team members have a common operating picture – sometimes called a “shared frame” or “being on the same page.” While individual situational awareness is critically important, it is equally important that team members share a common understanding of what is happening and what potential risks lay on the horizon.

Course 14: Best practices

This course discusses best practices for developing and maintaining situational awareness in high stress, high consequence, dynamically changing environments. Best practices for how to prevent, or overcome, situational awareness barriers.

Bonus Content

Throughout the Academy, participants will be provided bonus content that will include references to books, videos and other resources for additional learning. Participants will also receive a comprehensive list of references and used while the creator of the Academy conducting original scientific research on issues related to first responder situational awareness and decision making under stress.

Books

Each course also includes cross references to books written by the Academy creator. While adding valuable content to each course, the books are optional reading for Academy participants.

The books referenced throughout the Academy include:

• Situational Awareness Matters Volume 1
• Situational Awareness Matters Volume 2
• Situational Awareness Matters Volume 3
• Fireground Command Decision Making: Understanding the barriers that challenge situational awareness
• Situational Awareness for Emergency Response

These books are available in our online bookstore (click the “store” tab at the top of the SAMatters.com website).