Happy New Year! Did you set any goals for the year? One of mine is getting back to posting regularly to this blog! Much of the latter part of 2008 was consumed by work on getting the ASTM International Standard Practice for Certificate Programs adopted as an American National Standard (ANS)…and we're not…
January 6th, 2009 | Mickie Rops | Comments | ContinuedArchive for Mickie Rops
Mickie Rops, CAE is an advisor to associations on knowledge and credentialing strategy. She’s the author of several publications, including The Certification Toolkit and the much-talked-about book, We Have Always Done It That Way: 101 Things About Associations We Must Change.
Designations for Certificate Programs
If you are a NOCA member you just received an e-mail asking you to comment on the ASTM draft standard for certificate programs. I believe there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the issue raised so I'd like to provide some background here that will hopefully bring some clarity…
December 12th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Resource for Rapid Learning Developers
If you develop elearning courses through a rapid development tool (Articulate Presenter, Adobe Presenter, etc.), consider subscribing to Articulate's blog "The Rapid eLearning Blog." It's a fabulous resource for developing better courses using these tools. Actually, its content often applies to developing any type of learning program. Today's post is on…
December 4th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Follow-up from Webinar Post
I must apologize to any of you who registered for the webinar today based on my post. It was horrible, from a technology and content perspective. Perhaps look at it as a lesson in what NOT to do, how NOT to gain new members through free events. ;-}
December 2nd, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Webinar of Interest
LERN is offering a free webinar tomorrow, Tuesday on:
State of Lifelong Learning
Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2 pm ET
Click HERE to register
You'll find out:
- What kinds of classes and programs are weathering the recession the best
- Why you should be reaching out to Gen Y
- How the environmental movement is impacting the way programs…
Intro to Computerized Adaptive Testing
If your certifying agency is considering computer adaptive testing, you might want to look into Assessment Systems Corporation's workshop on June 1 in Minneapolis. The following topics will be covered:
- Rationale and basic assumptions of IRT
- Major IRT models and their parameters
- Estimating the latent trait, Θ, and its standard error…
Two Standards?
This Wednesday, representatives from ASTM International and NOCA and stakeholders of a standard for certificate programs (government, associations, colleges, corporate training) will convene to discuss the impact of having two standards in the marketplace. I’ll be participating in the discussion, and would love to hear from you on this. What do you think…
October 13th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Update on ASTM Standard for Certificate Programs
Just a few updates on the standard for certificate programs.
The first ballot by ASTM International on the standard for certificate programs passed! That doesn’t mean it was finalized; it means that the standard draft proceeds in development. After the ballot closed, we worked on incorporating the feedback provided into…
October 7th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Forum Outcomes
The outcomes of the NOCA Credentialing Leadership Forum can be downloaded below. I’m getting ready to dash out of town now, but I’ll try to comment on the outcomes soon. In the meantime, what are your thoughts?
September 24th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Why before How
I got a disturbing, but unfortunately not unusual, call last week. An association president who read Considering Certification? Your Guide to Making the Decision called expressing the realization and concern that his organization has been focusing all their efforts on HOW to develop a certification but hadn’t really thoroughly considered WHY!!!
This…
September 23rd, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Feedback on Certificate Standard
For those of you who are members of ASTM International’s subcommittee drafting the standard for certificate programs, remember that your ballot is DUE TODAY, Sept 13, 2008!!!
If you are not a member yet, read on… If your organization plans to or currently offers certificate programs, or if you in…
September 15th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Appeals vs Complaints
Twice this week I’ve been in discussions about what is the difference between an appeal and complaint.
An appeal is a written request for reconsideration of a determination made by a credentialing body. For example, an applicant may appeal the denying of his eligibility status or a certificant may appeal the…
September 12th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
New to Certification?
ASAE & The Center are hosting a virtual Credentialing Symposium October 27-30th. The program is targeted to those considering developing a certification program or have a new or immature program.
It will be held online over four days via webinars, pre-recorded content and online chats, and you will have the…
September 12th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Forum Thoughts
As is often the case, I found the participant discussion idea sharing at the end of the conference to be very interesting and informative. Here are just a few thoughts that provide the basis for future discussion and certification innovation. Thank you to NOCA for providing this opportunity!
- Conference participant…
NOCA Credentialing Leadership Forum Round-Up!
The NOCA Credentialing Leadership Forum brought together a great mix of leaders from the credentialing community: board administrators, vendor partners, and credentialing consultants.
Dr. Les Wallace delivered a wonderful keynote address which focused on leadership in the 21st century. Citing Charles Handy, Dr. Wallace emphasized that the model for leadership…
September 11th, 2008 | Mickie Rops | Comments | Continued
Done (just love having a to-do checked off so quickly). Thanks. Now to practice writing that on checks ;) 
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