The NSW Police Force radically modernises their digital training environments

The NSW Police Force is one of the largest police organisations in the English-speaking world. It began as the first civilian police force in Australia, known as the Night Watch, and was formed by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1789 to guard Sydney Town. In 1862, all Watch Teams were combined under the Police Regulation Act 1862 to form the NSW Police Force. That Act was later replaced by the Police Regulation Act 1899.

In June 1987, the NSW Police Force (which had carriage of operations) and the NSW Police Department (which had carriage of policy and administration) were amalgamated. We operate under the Police Act 1990 and the Police Regulations 2008.

Today, the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) is a large dynamic complex organisation comprising 22, 288 (police and civilian officers) located across NSW.

The Challenge

Our Focus, Our Future outlines our vision, purpose, key result areas and approach to achieve a safer NSW. The vision of the NSWPF is for “A Safer New South Wales”.  Our purpose is working with the community to reduce violence, crime and fear.

NSWPF was using an enterprise LMS – branded as “iLEARN”, as the corporate tool to manage all Training, Education & Development activities. However, with the changing needs and environment of the organisation, it was no longer fit for purpose, especially the requirement of learning at anytime, anywhere and on any device.

The business case established that the existing LMS solution was not fit for purpose and could not enable NSWPF to meet strategic goals and the LMS architecture had design constraints that prevent the functionality required to fulfil People & Capability Command (PCC) strategy of making training available anywhere, anytime and on any device.

A modern LMS would enable People & Capability Command (PCC) to deliver flexible and engaging training with interactive education and development initiatives available anywhere at any time. These objectives ultimately support the NSWPF corporate strategy to develop capability and resilience through:

• Enhancing staff knowledge, skills and expertise in the use of new policing methodologies
• Encouraging personal development through multiple education and training opportunities (e.g. modular courses, micro learn, distance education, etc.)
• Maximising performance by increasing individual capacity to respond to complex and evolving policing issues

NSWPF sought a software and services solution encompassing:

• Learning Management System (LMS)
• Learning Content Management System (LCMS)
• Social platform
• Mobile learning application
• Instructional design or re-design of courses / training modules

The Solution

NSWPF partnered with Androgogic to fulfil the strategic objectives:

• Deliver meaningful education across greater areas of the NSWPF including regional areas with on-line, virtual classrooms and virtual reality initiatives
• Take training to learners, minimise absences from local areas and streets by streamlining delivery strategies
• Support an organisational uptake of blended learning
• Create virtual learning spaces to engage learners using a personalised approach
• Use immersive learning including virtual reality and gamification to enhance learning

The scale of organisational change was combined with the need for continuous and uninterrupted training programs. As a result of this requirement the implementation strategy included an iterative release cycle to support transitioning from the old systems and processes to the new solution.

A key component of the solution enables the secure, robust and easy-to-use learning and the online testing component of the new NSWPF LMS Promotions system. Key objectives included the business-critical need of supporting the commencement of a new Promotions system for NSWPF that would enable learners to engage in the system on a more regular frequency, to sit examinations locally to enable equity and to have a broader range of question styles to evidence capability and lastly, for the results to be quickly available to learners entering the promotions process. The solution also:

• Allows the bulk loading of test candidates prior to the tests
• Automates the enrolment into the relevant tests
• Allows learners to access practice tests
• Allows multiple test centres to be set up across NSW reducing travel and time off shift for officers
• Restricts access to the test instruments until the scheduled time and to only the relevant, enrolled test candidates on the times scheduled
• Enables the test question types and scoring logics required
• Provides feedback to candidates
• Enables rapid automated online marking reducing the wait for results to within 10 days
• Logs all interactions in an immutable audit log

Results

The core objectives of the project spanning the planned release iterations have been met:

• Meet emerging learning technologies and advanced functionality to enhance and simplify end user experience supporting the provision of flexible, blended, relevant and engaging education and training
• Provide learners a solution with accessible and intuitive processes for visible learning pathways and plans, self-management, collaborative learning spaces, peer-to-peer communication, guided workflows and manager oversight
• Reduce manual tasks and workload required by administrative users when managing training and education so that they may better focus their efforts on performing higher value activities
• Two-way system integration to dynamically reference critical employee data in real-time and to facilitate business rules associated with daily processes and activities
• Efficiently manages annual mandatory compliance training for sworn officers and unsworn personnel across the NSWPF
• Efficiently manages ad-hoc training modules targeted at both sworn and unsworn officers throughout the year
• Manages the end-to-end process for increment progression and promotion according to set Police Award rules including reminders, re-accreditations and automated incremental progression
• Enables NSWPF learners to access a solution with accessible and intuitive processes for visible learning pathways and plans, self-management, collaborative learning spaces, peer-to-peer communication, guided workflows and manager oversight
• Facilitates automated learning plan input and course enrolment based on HR Master Data
• Is supported by a sophisticated and agile reporting capability that enables role-based definition of custom reports
• Delivers all courses via the Internet to NSWPF devices in a highly secured environment that requires user authentication based on the NSWPF Identity Management System and takes into consideration highly restricted courses that ensure integrity of access to data

The project has resulted in substantial and measurable improvements including:

• Just in time delivery of critical training updates
• Real world augmented reality courseware
• Delivering eLearning to mobile devices, resulting in learning anytime, anywhere
• Learners schedule learning at their convenience
• Supporting the development of a progressive learning culture, to enable shared learning and knowledge generation, fostering continuous development, boosting employee performance with the provision of training on demand.
• The learning analytics stored in the metadata on the LMS enables return on investment to be calculated through multiple evaluation methodologies. The system enables increased accountability for completion of learning and flexible assessment options through augmented and virtual reality ensuring translation of knowledge into practice with immediate effect
• The LMS flexibly provides access to training material 24/7, so staff learn when they want to and revisit the courses if they feel the need to reinforce learning
• Using the LMS to deliver segmented learning which is convenient for the learner to schedule their training related to workflow results in value for the NSWPF with less time away from the workplace.

“Sydney World Pride 2023, which coincides with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras    Parade, was a 17- day LGBTIQ+ festival which saw local, national and international visitors coming  to New South Wales.

From Friday 17 February to Sunday 5 March 2023, the festival held 13 key signature events.  In addition, over 1700 community-based events were scattered across the state.  The high visibility police response – Operation WORLDPRIDE 2023 was conducted throughout the duration of the festival in Sydney and in Regional NSW.

This festival was an exciting time for the LGBTIQ+ community with police ensuring a safe environment for everyone attending the many World Pride events hosted across NSW during the Festival.    The festival provided a great opportunity for officers to engage and build relationships with the community and police the events with pride and support.

The NSWPF LMS (Police Education Training Environment) was critical in supporting NSWPF Operation WORLDPRIDE 2023 by providing all 22,288 NSWPF employees including those 2500 plus officers directly deployed at events with access to learning and support resources at any time and any place that was required to ensure officers were ready to provide the most professional, effective policing response for the duration of the festival and beyond”

– Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke APM, Commander, Central Metropolitan Region and Commander Operation World Pride 2023.