Innovation Description and Benefit:

Due to COVID-19, TMC New Hires could not complete their New Hire training as they had in the past and their training program had to be reformatted to a digital platform immediately. At that time, the training program was heavily centered on step by step instruction from a trainer. The trainer and trainee had to be in very close quarters for an entire shift at the TMC. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Training Program was moved to Google Classroom in approximately six weeks. This new platform enables new hires to work remotely which also allowed for new learning methods. The TMC Training Program consists of four classrooms on the Google interface. By using this format, the new hire is not required to actually be onsite for the first few weeks of their training and gives the new hire the opportunity to learn via private study or virtual lecture with the Trainer and it protects current TMC staff from exposure of new personnel during the pandemic. A huge benefit to this innovation is the fact that it doesn’t cost MoDOT anything to maintain it.