Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Fire Fighting Principles: a delivery by the ES Military Fire Department to Society

Abstract

In fire occurrences attended by the Fire Departments, it is observed that in several cases the accidents could have been avoided, or at least minimized, if citizens involved in the scenario had basic knowledge of how a fire originates, of extinguishing methods and the use of fire extinguishers. The services provided by firefighters demand high development in academic and technical qualification of these professionals, therefore, the training is always directed to the internal public. The challenge in this context is to think about a training that is made available by the Fire Departments, institutions that have the practical knowledge, and also that reach the population. Tools such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) present themselves as viable alternatives for the dissemination of knowledge. The objective of this research was to evaluate the results of making content available to the general population, through a MOOC in a free virtual learning environment, aiming to guide interested people to understand the basic concepts of fire fighting principles. For that, the Moodle platform was used in this process, being the environment that concentrated the digital resources produced. After the closing of the class and in possession of the answers to the students' questionnaires, a statistical analysis was carried out, noting that the course contributed positively to the teaching of people and, more than that, it showed that the Fire Departments, in addition to training their own servers, may be responsible for making more educational content available to the general population, helping to protect and prevent society.

Keywords: Distance education. MOOC. Firefighters. Fire.