Lou's Police Command School; Part 2: Learning Mangement Systems & Software

 

Learning Management Systems (LMS) can’t be too complicated. Canvas is decent. It’s what a lot of colleges are using. LMS is best for due dates, submitting assignments, and grades. Most of their messaging bulletin boards leave much to be desired. It’s also not great for document storage. Let’s minimally rely on LMS; relegated to the transactional assignment stuff. 

So where do we “do our work” in my command school? Collaborative places, like: 

  • Google suite, MS Office suite, others; 
  • Slack, Teams, other bulletin board apps.

LMS is never used outside the learning environment. So let’s make sure our students are becoming proficient with what they will be or are using on the outside. It’s been my experience that today’s current supervisor / command staff is not comfortable with collaborative doc tech; they’re still emailing drafts as attachments. Maybe this will change with upcoming generations. 

Why collaborative suites? Because there needs to be a stress on:

  • team / peer / teacher review of doc drafts, where commentary & suggestions can be shared directly in a doc;
  • team projects, that require sync & async access into a singular, shared doc.
  • suites blend: calendars, docs, spreadsheets, forms, presentation decks, cloud file storage, etc 

Another significant application / software: 

  • a GIS program, like an Esri product or similar. 

Because policing is spatial & tomorrow’s command staff needs a better appreciation for maps.

What won’t be necessary? Any connection to AI. My school will be an AI-restricted space. Do your own work. By hand. The long way. More on this in a followup post(s) on integrity & “desirable difficulties.”

What will also not be used? Email. Mostly because it’s simply a horrible comms medium for any sort of teamwork! 

This rather simple list of systems & tools is not exhaustive. But it serves as a hint of the atmospherics of the class: collaboration + continual peer critique & engagement.

***

This is part of an on-going series on how Lou would design his own training course for police supervisors and command staff. What qualifies him to take on such a position? Not much more than a website and a keyboard. Yes, he's aware that several programs already exist in this space. No, he's not actually going to offer his course. But if you'd like to see all the posts in this series anyways, click here. 

***

Lou Hayes, Jr. is a detective supervisor in a suburban Chicago police department, collaterally detailed to a regional major crimes (homicide) task force.  He has a passion for multi-jurisdictional crime patterns, criminal networks, & regional intelligence. With a background in training, he studies human performance, decision-making, creativity, emotional intelligence, & adaptability. Lou is a volunteer within the National Real-Time Crime Center Association (NRTCCA), serving as Director of Joint Operations.

Follow Lou on LinkedIn, & also the LinkedIn page for The Illinois Model. ***


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