Classroom in Your Home Room

• NCJ Number: 224040
• Date Published: April 2008
• Length: 3 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2005-MU-CX-K077
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

This report reviews the Pennsylvania Center for Juvenile Justice Training and Research's experience with using the Community Corrections E-Learning Collaborative (CCELC), which has offered nationwide online learning opportunities to the corrections community since 2004.

Abstract

Several States have made the national CCELC courses mandatory, but Pennsylvania was the first to request development of a course tailored to a State's specific training needs. The Pennsylvania Center for Juvenile Justice Training and Research (CJJT&R) was interested in creating an online course on Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act for newly hired correctional officers as well as probation and parole officers. CCELC provided the expertise in online course development, course conversion, and production of all aspects of the course. CCELC also trained and mentored the CJJT&R facilitators in online teaching. The CJJT&R will maintain the course content on the Web and update and enhance it as needed. The online course uses multiple media such as video, slides, and graphics; and spreads what would have been a full day of classroom training into 90-minute segments each day for a week. Pennsylvania's experience shows that the development of online courses tailored to local and State training needs can be cost effective, because agencies save money on hotel costs and no time is lost out of the office. Further, with online training offerings available monthly, no corrections officer is on the job for more than a few weeks without taking the Juvenile Act training. The online class also often helps individuals improve their computer skills.