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Frequently Asked Questions About CWLA's Foster PRIDE Digital Curriculum
The Foster PRIDE Digital Curriculum isone of the innovative professional development components of the PRIDE Program.
PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education) is an international best-practices model for developing and supporting foster and adoptive families. PRIDE is designed to strengthen the quality of family foster care and adoption services by providing a standardized, consistent, structured framework for the competency-based recruitment, preparation, and selection of foster and adoptive parents, and for foster parent inserivce training and ongoing professional development.
For more information about how you can use PRIDE's 14-step process to help your agency's resource families ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of the vulnerable children in your care, view to PRIDE Program description.
The answers to the following questions are intended to enhance your understanding of this program and increase the probability that this format for professional development will help you meet your agency's goals of supporting and retaining competent resource families.
- What is the Foster PRIDE Digital Curriculum's story?
The development of the Foster PRIDE Digital Curriculum (FPDC) was funded by the U. S. Department of Education's Learning Anytime, Anywhere Program, designed to provide educational opportunities for individuals who are unable to easily access traditional methods of training. Foster parents fit these criteria, as their responsibilities caring for children with multiple needs may make it difficult for them to attend training outside of their homes. The grant involved a partnership between Governors State University in Illinois, CWLA, and six public state child welfare agencies.
- What is the relationship between FPDC and other PRIDE model training?
FPDC provides a consistent, standardized version of foster parent training. It evolved from the PRIDE Core (inservice training) modules that have been available in print book form. The CD-ROM version is a derivative of the same material, with some updates and modifications, contained in each of the nine modules' trainer guides and participant workbooks (PRIDEbooks).
As with all other PRIDE resources available through a classroom/group training format, FPDC is designed to teach knowledge and skills in five essential competency categories:
- protecting and nurturing children;
- meeting children's developmental needs, and addressing developmental delays;
- supporting relationships between children and their families;
- connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime; and
- working as a member of a professional team.
Using the same combination of cotrainers featured in all PRIDE classroom/group training programs, a child welfare professional and a foster parent professional greet the at-home learners and guide them through each module. A module may comprise one or more sessions, and each session takes three hours to complete. With the exception of Module 3 (which is three hours in length), all the modules include at least two sessions.
- Should our organization have resource parents use this program instead of attending the classroom/group training?
The CD-ROM version of Foster PRIDE Core Training has been developed to strengthen the organization's overall capacity to provide ongoing professional development for its entire cadre of resource families. It should be considered as a supplement to, not a substitute for, classroom/group training. Research has shown that consistent, standardized professional development is an important component in foster parent retention. This format should be considered as one performance improvement tool in a competency-based, systemic approach to providing ongoing support to valued resource families.
The FPDC format provides an at-home alternative to caregivers who are unable to participate in classroom/group training. For example, foster parents, for a variety of reasons, may not be able to attend one of the sessions of a Foster PRIDE Core Training Module. By using the CD-ROM version at their convenience, they will now be able to achieve the same learning objectives they missed. Also, FPDC provides a cost-effective solution to closing the proximity gap, should your organization provide training to foster parents over a large geographic area.
No matter the reason for this format being a better alternative for meeting the educational needs of particular foster parents, it should be part of the "blended learning" your agency provides. Although blended learning is not a new concept, it has been growing in popularity in the filed of training and professional development. This practice uses traditional instructional face-to-face teaching with synchronous or asynchronous technologies to provide learners with a learning environment that appeals to a variety of learning styles.
- How do the content and learning activities differ from the classroom/group training program?
With the exception of some modifications and updates--based on more recent changes in federal policy and practice--the same familiar content has been adapted for media-based instruction.
At-home learners meet other experienced foster parents, adoptive parents, child welfare workers, former children in care, adults who were adopted earlier, and child welfare program managers by clicking on their pictures at the beginning of each session. Throughout each session, learners have an opportunity to hear about their life and work experiences and suggestions related to particular issues covered.
Interactive classroom exercises have been transformed into media exercises, and written case studies are now dramatized. Because of the nature of the linear instruction, learners must participate in every activity. This is very different from the classroom/group setting in which some foster parents may not be willing or able to share their ideas or respond to the learning activities and the trainer's guidance and inquiry.
The most significant difference is the CD-ROM format allows anytime, anywhere use. Learners can proceed at their own pace. For instance, they may want to work for only 30-minute intervals over a certain period so their learning time won't compete with meeting the complex tasks associated with their many roles and responsibilities. Multiple users (up to five per computer) are treated separately in that individuals are recognized when they click on their names as they return to the exact place in each session where they left off.
- What are some examples of this media-based instruction?
This media-rich (graphics, audio, video, and multimedia) approach to learning caters to visual, auditory, and tactile learners. Users can watch and listen to speakers, or turn off the sound and read the text, or read the text while they listen to what is spoken. Icons or images are enhance the text and concepts.
In the multiple "Speaking from Experience" segments, experienced foster parents, adoptive parents, and other child welfare professionals offer suggestions related to meeting the specific challenges of parenting children in family foster care. These are insightful and credible, and the process tends to make at-home learners feel like they're interacting and affiliating with their peers and other professionals.
This solution-based learning includes tests such as quizzes (true/false), multiple choices, matching (puzzles, drag and drop games), and drill and practice exercises. These interactions enable users to retain information and foster reflective learning. After answering questions, the cotrainer gives nonjudgmental video or audio feedback.
Print vignettes and case studies written for the classroom/group training are now dramatized only to a point at which the learners break away from the story to select one of the multiple choices regarding what they would do as the foster parents in that situation. Depending on their answers, the scene plays out and the learners are able to see the outcome of their choice. No choice is labeled as wrong, but one choice is acknowledged as the best response.
Often, learners will be asked to make text entries and to save their work. At the conclusion of many of the sessions, they are asked to complete an assignment based on one or more of the learning objectives for the sessions. This serves as their own "transfer of learning activities." All saved text entries can be printed and shared with other child welfare team members. Depending on the system your organization establishes for maintaining records and tracking the users' learning, the text entries may be sent electronically to the designated person or department.
- What personal attributes are required for users of this format to obtain the maximum return on their investment of time and energy?
FPDC users must have basic computer skills and be self-directed and self-motivated. They must be comfortable with not having the experience of the traditional face-to-face, instructor-led training. Although navigation and instructions are simple, users are asked to respond to them without the presence and assistance of an onsite facilitator or other learners.
Organizational skills in terms of arranging the time and learning space at home are essential to reducing the amount of environmental and psychological noise that could interfere with the learner's attention.
- What are the CDs' system requirements?
The minimum computer requirements to play the CDs are:
- Windows 98 or later
- Pentium II 333 MHz processor (500 MHz or 700 MHz recommended for smoother video)
- 64 MB of RAM (128 MB recommended for better video results)
- At least an 8X CD-ROM player (Most are 16X or 32X.)
- Sound Card or other onboard sound system (Most recently manufactured systems have this built in.)
- External Speakers (It's not easy to hear the sound from the computer's little speaker.)
- 14" monitor (At least 800x600 resolution)
The training is rich in images, sounds, and interactivity in an effort to make the learning experience more exciting and engaging. At the same time, this type of vivid experience demands a good deal of computer power to fully realize the video and audio.
These are the minimum requirements. To fully enjoy this program, the learner might need to use the CDs on a more powerful system.
- What is available within the program to learners if they need help or information?
At the beginning of each CD, the user will see a HELP button and can become familiar with the information that is available by clicking on it before proceeding with the program. At any time throughout the program, the user can click this HELP button. Within this feature, the user can click on one of three options: HELP, FAQ, or GLOSSARY. HELP provides answers to a list of possible frustrations, such as "I choose all the answers in the questionnaire, but the NEXT button does not turn on."
FAQ comprises three sections. "Troubleshooting Guide & Tips" presents the basic knowledge of how to operate the computer and how to deal with any abnormal situations the user may encounter. "Navigation" explains the basic functions of the six buttons (next, back, quit, sound, home, and help). "Computer Requirements" lists the information described in the answer to the previous question of this guide.
GLOSSARY offers explanations for a multitude of child welfare terms that appear throughout the program.
Information in the built-in "HELP" component can be printed.
- Who can users contact in case they have questions about the FPDC Program?
Users are advised to contact their worker or designated agency representative about the administration or distribution of each module. Determining who in your organization should be contacted is one of the decisions that must be made. (See FAQ 14) for other decisions that need to be made regarding planning, implementing, and supporting the effective use of FPDC.)
If the user or other members of your organization have any questions or general feedback about the content of the program, contact
- Maureen Leighton
Director, PRIDE Programs
Child Welfare League of America
2 Adams Place, Suite 305
Quincy MA 02169
617/769-4006
mleighton@cwla.org
For technical questions, contact
- Gary Fisk
Coordinator of Instructional Development
Communications Services
Governors State University
University Park IL 60466
708/534-4510
g-fisk@govst.edu
- If users can proceed at their own pace, does that mean they can fast forward or skip parts of the sessions?
The NEXT button will only permit users to move forward as they complete each activity in the program. Users cannot move ahead or skip screens. Once a screen has been viewed and any relevant questions or activities are completed, the NEXT button will focus and light up, permitting the user to move forward.
- What documentation will be available for tracking the user's progress and completion of each module?
Each session has a variety of exercises in which users are asked to respond to questions or make text entries (for example, how conflict on the team makes them feel, examples of the help they received from other members of the child welfare team, or how they will apply collaboration skills to a real life situation). Users can save their text entries and print them. This information can and should be shared with the appropriate agency team members, such as the family development specialist (licensing worker) and the person who administers the agency's foster parent training initiative. This documentation should be considered when updating the Family Development Plans (See Step 11 in the PRIDE Model for Developing and Supporting Resource Families) for each foster parent.
Up to five people per computer can use the programs, so each individual's learning and professional development needs and progress can be monitored and supported. A Certificate of Accomplishment can be printed after a user finishes the entire module.
- What is available to support foster parents' use of FPDC?
Two printed resources are in development to support foster parents' successful use of FPDC. CWLA will make these complimentary resources available to agencies that implement the program:
A Quick Guide to Using the FPDC provides
- a brief description of the FPDC Program and its relationship to the PRIDE model's process to develop and support resource families;
- information regarding the minimum computer requirements to play the CD;
- instructions for launching the program;
- references to the HELP, FAQ, and GLOSSARY, and the Troubleshooting Guide & Tips and Navigation sections;
- contact information;
- suggestions for creating an enriched at-home learning environment;
- a description of each module, including the competencies and learning objectives the module has been designed to accomplish and promote;
- a brief description of the type of learning activities each module offers;
- a description of the roles and responsibilities of other agency members in supporting the user's learning;
- pertinent information for each session that has been extracted from the PRIDEbooks (the classroom/group participant resource); and
- an appendix that provides information on the PRIDE model.
The Family Development Specialist's Guide to Supporting Foster Parent Learning Anytime, Anywhere includes:
- a brief description of the FPDC Program and its relationship to the PRIDE model's process to develop and support resource families;
- a description of the types of HELP available to FPDC users;
- a description of each module, including the competencies and learning objectives the module has been designed to accomplish and promote;
- a brief description of the type of learning activities each module offers, the ways the users will be engaged, and the text entries users will be expected to make and share with family development specialists;
- suggestions for preparing to conduct a transfer of learning consultation with FPDC users;
- guidelines for conducting the transfer of learning consultation sessions; and
- tips on how to integrate this learning format with the Family Development Plan (FDP) process and ongoing support.
- In addition to foster parents, can anyone else benefit from using FPDC?
Although the content, examples, and vignettes used to promote learning are family foster care focused, adoptive parents, kinship caregivers, foster care staff, and child and youth care workers can benefit from using the CDs for Modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7.
- What does my organization need to do to ensure a maximum return on investment by using FPDC?
The PRIDE model represents a systemic approach to developing and supporting resource families. Thus, your organization needs to apply this approach to the planning, implementation, and ongoing support phases regarding the use of the FPDC Program. You can begin this process by addressing the following issues:
- Incorporate this approach with existing foster parent professional development initiatives.
- Determine the criteria used to offer this format for professional development to foster parents. Which foster parents are more likely to benefit from this approach, and for what reasons? Who makes this decision?
- Decide how this approach will meet the training requirements for licensing.
- Develop a budget that reflects the costs associated with using this format as part of an overall professional development initiative.
- Build awareness of this approach.
- Add a brief description of this learning format to relevant sections of the information packet used to recruit resource families.
- Issue an agencywide announcement to all staff and licensed foster parents that describes the program and offers information on how to access FPDC.
- Include a description of this program in all documents that describe ongoing professional development activities for foster parents.
- Determine which modules are appropriate for other users (adoptive parents, kinship care providers, and staff), and determine how they will become familiar with this program.
- Make the CDs available to the targeted users.
- Decide how all potential users will obtain the CDs.
- Consider establishing a blended learning approach (See FAQ 3). Introduce the FPDC Program by convening an agencywide overview session. Users should be carefully instructed in how this method works before they begin to use it. Perhaps, arrange for a face-to-face setting at the beginning so users will have an opportunity to interact with this medium and with other colleagues who intend to use it.
- Prepare family development specialists for their roles and responsibilities related to supporting the successful use of this program.
- Determine how they will develop the competencies needed to fulfill their supportive roles in this process. Will they receive a copy of The Family Development Specialist's Guide to Supporting Foster Parent Learning Anytime, Anywhere only, or will they participate in a brief training program designed to develop their abilities to use this guide?
- Establish a tracking system to monitor and support the use of FPDC.
- Establish a system for monitoring each learner's progress and completion of each module.
- Determine if users should send their text entries to someone (training component or family development specialist/licensing worker) in your agency, or if they should just save, print, and share it with designated staff in person upon request.
- Determine who will be the contact persons (See FAQ 9) regarding questions or concerns about the use of FPDC.
- Decide whom in your agency users should contact. Ensure easy accessibility either by telephone or e-mail, and prompt responses.
- Determine who will contact the personnel listed for CWLA (content) and Governors State University (technology) regarding related questions and concerns.
Consultation, training, and technical assistance to implement the FPDC are available from Governors State University and CWLA.
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