BY ROBERT A. NEALE
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) National Fire Academy (NFA) has a 33-year history of delivering executive leadership and advanced technical training to representatives of America's fire and emergency services. Now, as it plans for the future, NFA faces new challenges as the demographic makeup of its student population changes.
The NFA's congressional mandate is "to advance the professional development of fire service personnel and of other persons engaged in fire prevention and control activities."1 Over its history, the NFA has observed a demographic and technological evolution in how students absorb course content: Today's adult learners are using a combination of face-to-face instruction, paper-based and electronic self-study, blended learning2, asynchronous and synchronous mediated learning, social media (Web 2.0), and mobile learning to achieve their learning objectives. The NFA is responding to the changes in an incremental fashion.
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