A virtual command center used by West Texas A&M University is training future teachers and administrators to handle major crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Crisis Management Classroom went online in 2018, the result of a joint effort between Dr. Harry Hueston, a WT criminal justice professor, and Chip Orton, director of the Amarillo Area Office of Emergency Management. It includes a Virtual Emergency Operations Center on the Internet (dubbed VEOCI), which facilitates communication between any number of agencies during a crisis.
Orton said VEOCI has four major components: A timeline, similar to Facebook, where all connected responders can share information, photographs and more; a mapping function like Google maps that can help track, for example, the progress of a wildfire or tornado; workflows and forms that can collate information between entities; and a communications element that can connect individuals or groups using the system in an efficient manner. The maps and forms functions can also be used to share information with the public.
“Once you plug in, you really get a feel for what everyone is dealing with,” Hueston said. “It’s a huge information and data source. From there, key personnel can sit down and make plans even as the environment changes.”
For example, users can upload photos or even drone footage of ongoing natural disasters, showing everyone using VEOCI exactly what the situation on the ground is, Hueston said.
VEOCI is the system Orton is using to run Amarillo’s own response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, coordinating responses between city and county officials in Amarillo, Canyon and Potter and Randall counties. The system is in the curriculums of at least five other universities around the country, and it’s being used widely across the nation by emergency response departments. For example, the City of Madison, Wisc., has begun using VEOCI to deal with the pandemic and reduce face-to-face interactions.
WT students, including education and criminal justice majors from undergraduate to doctoral level, can learn to use VEOCI to manage such crises as terrorist attacks, school shootings and natural disasters — and, soon, pandemics.
“There have already been a lot of lessons learned (during the COVID-19 response),” Orton said. “Every time you use it, you learn. Working with Dr. Hueston, I can take a lot of lessons from this and make the educational program that much better.”
“It’s all evolving as we speak,” Hueston said. “The Crisis Management Classroom is designed to handle any type of man-made or natural disaster. The principles all apply to whatever you’re going through.”
-West Texas A&M University