Distance Education Evaluation Service
An ABC Member Benefit in the Making
There is no doubt that distance education in operator certification is a rapidly grow¬ing industry with training being developed in various formats, some traditional and others incorporating cutting edge technology. In a climate of budget restrictions and limited al¬lowance of time away from the job, an obvi-ous answer to training is a distance educa¬tion course.
Because of new certification requirements such as those for very small water systems and a drive for greater convenience and sub¬ject specific training, an increased demand for relevant distance education courses can be expected.
Most state and provincial certification pro¬grams are being called upon to evaluate an ever increasing amount of these types of training programs. Unfortunately, the tra¬ditional questions, tools and methods used to evaluate instructor-led classroom training curriculums do not provide the information needed to effectively evaluate training pro¬vided through distance education curricu¬lums.
Chris Wisniewski, Distance Education Com¬mittee Chair, says ABC has recognized the need of operator certification program mem¬bers for a service to evaluate distance edu¬cation courses and is poised to respond with the production of its newest member benefit.
“We know some of the biggest challenges facing distance education course review by ABC program members are the vast number of courses seeking approval, time needed to review courses combined with the individual program’s already stretched resources,” said Wisniewski. “This usually doesn’t add up to successful course approval.”
Wisniewski says that with this new resource, distance education providers could submit their course only to ABC for approval rather than to each individual ABC member. The committee plans to invite ABC members to review the new service in 2010, and once launched in spring 2011, it will be a valued resource to members at no additional cost.
“Course providers would pay a nominal fee to have courses reviewed by subject mat¬ter experts, who would compare the courses against a 25 point review criteria developed by ABC,” he said. “The final review document would be posted in a database found on ABC’s member website.”
Members would access the in-depth course review online and determine how many credits (CEUs or hours) their individual programs would al¬low. “ABC will do the work, and in the end, members would make their own final analysis and decisions.”
Subject matter experts would review courses against the guidance crite¬ria developed by ABC and review results would be sent to the course provider. Wisniewski stresses that the service, funded by the review fees, will utilize the ABC/AWWA/ WEF Distance Education Evalua¬tion Criteria thus promoting continu¬ity during the review phase.
“The review criteria were developed in collaboration of ABC members, distance education developers and training evaluators. This was an ex¬tensive two-year project that took into consideration the needs and perspectives of all involved,” he said.
Members can expect the service to be available in 2010. “In the spring the Distance Education Committee will convene and determine data¬base criteria and establish fees. A website beta test will be conducted this year,” Wisniewski said. “We’re committed to making this service a reality for our member programs.”
Reprinted from The Certifier, spring 2010, by permission of the Association of Boards of Certification.