Continuing Education

Certification Overview

Using the Certifications Module within GrowthZone allows associations to administer, track, and report on the professional certifications of their members. With the proper setup, associations can save themselves and their members time in managing the courses, exams, and other tasks necessary to gain or maintain a certification. The module is built so that both simple and complex scenarios can be accommodated. It is important to note that the Certification Module does not deliver instruction or coursework, rather, it keeps track of necessary elements and the completion date of each.

Definitions

• Certification a collection of components that, when completed, attest to a person’s knowledge, skill, or level of achievement in a particular area.

• Component an element that when completed counts towards a certification. In GZ, components are courses, exams, or tasks. Components may have objectives assigned to them and there may be pre-requisites.

• Course a class or group of tasks, the completion of which earns a person hours or credits towards a certification. GZ does not house or deliver courses, it simply allows associations to track their completion.
• Exam a test, the passing of which earns a person hours or credits towards a certification. GZ does not house or deliver courses, it simply allows associations to track their completion.
• Task something other than a Course or Exam that needs to be accomplished in order to earn a certification. Tasks may include attendance at an event, uploading a document, or other actions.

• Objective what it is you want a person to know, understand, or be able to do; a specific result that a person aims to achieve. In GZ, objectives are assigned to components, following the logic that if you complete the component you will likely meet the objective.

A Certification is made up a X number of Components. It can be as simple as taking a single Exam, or as complex as a series of courses, exams, and tasks which must be taken in a specific order with minimum scores achieved.

Setting up a Certification

While you technically do not need to create the parts of a certification in a specific order, it does make some sense to do some things first so you don’t have to go back after the fact and add them.

• Certification Category Creating Certification Categories allows for better organization and more granular reporting. This can created on the fly, but it’s nice to have them ready to go
• Fee Items If you will be charging for the Certification through GrowthZone you will need a fee item. If you do not have permissions to the Finance area you will need to work with someone who does to have this created ahead of time
• Terms & Conditions You can have multiple Terms & Conditions and display the appropriate/relevant one on each Certification. Depending on your permissions you may need someone else to create these for you ahead of time.

(NOTE: There is no built-in checkbox an end user must check to verify they have read and understand the Terms & Conditions before they can move on. The Terms & Conditions are simply displayed for the user.):

 

Adding a Certification