Death Investigation Online course – a success story

The new online Death Investigation course launched by Public Safety & Security on March 1 has enrolled over 2,000 students in just six weeks.

Kristin Anthony, an Instructional Design Specialist at TEEX, designed the course. “It’s all about context and relevance,” said Anthony. “That’s how we engage adult learners.”

The decision to convert the course to an online format was largely due an effort to reduce the cost to law enforcement officers and crime scene investigators across the state. The course conversion was funded by a grant received from the Office of the Governor, Texas Criminal Justice Division, and is being offered tuition-free through September 2014.

As part of the development for this course, Anthony focused on providing realistic and engaging content to intrinsically motivate the learner. She worked with subject matter expert Christine Ramirez to create a realistic death investigation scenario where the participant must process information and make decisions while acting as the primary investigator. By employing scenario-based learning and organizing content based on investigative phases and job tasks, she enabled learners to apply their new knowledge and skills.

“Kristin realizes the impact training will have and isn’t afraid to ask the difficult questions to make the content as interactive and engaging as possible,” Curriculum Coordinator Rebecca Donnelly said.

And student comments show her efforts are paying off:

“This was the most comprehensive class I have ever taken online. I learned a great deal from this course and loved the video and photos.”

“Very well done … I was impressed with the information and interactive sections.”

“The exercises were very good and are what helped me to really grasp the knowledge.”