Q: I am interested in finding out about how to Create a Certification Program for participants. I was just asked by another dept. on campus and I am not sure how to address this. I thought LERN would be a good resource to turn to. This would be a Non-Credit program based on the information provided.
A: A non-credit certificate program is not all that different from creating/developing courses, and I’ll explain the differences.
Certificates in general a bigger topic than for an email, so if you want more resources we can provide them. We have an institute on it next week, and a publication.
1.There’s no legal approval you need for a Certificate (unless you were getting into medical or some other topic controlled by government).
There are thousands of Certificates, like the ones LERN offers, you just set up and do.
Here’s what to focus on:
2.Audience. Is there a need, an interest, and who is the audience?
You can spend lots of time developing a certificate, but if you offer one that is already being offered successfully to your audience by the competition, then your chances of success are less.
So find a good audience, ask some existing participants in that audience if your certificate idea is a good one.
If you have even more latitude, brainstorm 5-10 topics and audiences and choose the one where the chances of success are best.
3.Most Certificates are 3-5 courses (like 3). Most take 3-6 months to complete. Shorter the better.
4.Price the courses individually. Then give a 10-20% discount (you decide) for the full Certificate (all the courses are included).
Price points important, so $495 is good, $525 not so good.
5.Work with people in the field and teachers to create the curriculum.
6.Create your 3-5 courses. We recommend a Study Guide for the final certificate exam, composed of about 200 questions, from which you choose about 50 for the exam (check out a LERN study guide to give you an idea how that works).
7. People take an exam after the 3 courses and get the Certificate.