EducationFor Providers

July 31, 2012 –

IN THIS ISSUE

1. What’s New in AIA CES?

2. What Makes a Great Provider?

3. Provider Training Resources

4. Course Reviewer's Corner - Future Course Content Webinars: What Are Your Thoughts?

5. Monthly Provider Tips and Reminders

6. CES Calendar of Events

7. Component Call for Speakers

8. Media Scan

What’s New in AIA CES?

Provider Best Practices - Reporting Course Attendance Using QR Code Technology

By Jean Feroldi, Assoc. AIA

The AIA CES team strives to support our Providers in delivering the best education courses for AIA members while improving the process of submitting courses and posting credits to member transcripts. We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and ideas to help Providers present valuable content and materials, engage adult learners, and navigate the CES Discovery software with efficiency. Whether we are refining our education and presentation resources or troubleshooting software technical difficulties, the AIA CES team is committed to enhancing the CES experience for both members and Providers.

Recently, in an effort to improve the course attendance reporting process for Providers, our team has been exploring alternative options for expediting this necessary responsibility. While our software provides a basic way to report attendance by individual member, it is sometimes not the most ideal way to record attendance when dealing with a large number of same-day courses or hundreds of attendees. While we investigate new technologies with potential to improve Provider operations, we are intrigued and inspired when unexpected ideas are presented to us by Providers themselves.

Earlier in the summer, the Society for College and University Planning’s Associate Director for Education and Product Development, Kathy Benton, approached AIA CES about using Quick Response (QR) codes to report attendance for their annual conference, SCUP- 47 Make No Isolated Plans—Integration For Educational Quality. As an organization that reports continuing education credits to many associations, SCUP was interested in an innovative way to ease the process and post credits to various transcripts in a timely manner. It was a bonus that QR code technology came with very little cost.

Learn More

What Makes a Great Provider? We Want to Know.

By Ramiro Solórzano, Assoc. AIA

I would like to start with a brief TED Talk about teaching. In the Fall of 2011, Peter Norvig taught a class with Sebastian Thrun on artificial intelligence at Stanford attended by 175 students on site and over 100,000 via an interactive webcast. He shares what he learned about teaching to a global classroom.

After seeing this, my perspective on great education is not the size of a classroom or the location, but on how you engage your audience. This is the kind of quality instruction that we appreciate not just at the AIA CES, but throughout our whole lives as professionals. We have great Providers out there and I want to know who you are.

As the new AIA CES auditor, I want to recognize those instructors who are actively engaged with their audience. I want to acknowledge you for the excellent work that you do. So, I am asking everyone to show your Best Practices on our Facebook page on what makes a great Provider and how can we embody those efforts with the whole AIA CES program. I am also asking you to distribute CES Feedback page to your course attendees along with your Course Evaluations.

Part of my job that I really enjoy is getting kudos from our attendees about a Provider that really stands out, and yes I do follow up on our great Providers as well.

Facebook: Photos from 2012 Kansas City Provider Training Workshop

Having just returned from our midsummer Provider workshop in Kansas City, we would like to share a glimpse of the event and give Providers the opportunity to offer feedback and ideas for future workshops. Our July workshop, hosted by AIA Kansas City, was a success and we would like to thank those Providers who attended! As we begin planning for our Fall workshops and webinars, we would like your input on which topics you would like to see included in our future training events. We have updated our AIA CES Facebook page with future workshop dates and photos from the Kansas City workshop. Check it out!

Share with Us Your Continuing Education Story!

By Kristen Albertsen, Consultant, CES Provider Training

It’s important to remember that collaboration among fellow providers can yield new insights and ideas on course development and the provider experience. To that end, I’d like to invite you all to communicate to me some provider best practices or simply things you’ve learned in being a CES provider, so that I may share it with our community at large. Feel free to email comments to me at kristenalbertsen@aia.org, or to share your stories directly with others via our Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/AIAContinuingEd) or Twitter feed (@AIAContinuingEd). We look very forward to hearing from you and sharing with you!

Component Call for Speakers

AIA Chapters interested in finding speakers or sponsors for upcoming conferences or events can use this space to post conference information.

Please email aiamembercareces@aia.org to add your 2011 events to this list and include AIA Chapter Speakers and Sponsors in the Subject line. 

Media Scan

Architect
Wasteland Revival

AIArchitect
London Power Play

TED Talks
Peter Norvig: The 100,000-student classroom

AIArchitect
Repositioning Update

Course Reviewer’s Corner

By Michael F. Tamara, Assoc. AIA

Future Course Content Webinars: What Are Your Thoughts?

As the summer rolls on, I hope you are all enjoying some vacation and quality time with family and friends. Weather-wise, it certainly has been a hot and lively one here in Washington, DC so far!

As I mentioned in my June Provider Connection article, the May 31st offering of the webinar “In the Mind of the Reviewer: What CES Looks for in a Course Submission” had a great turnout, and we received quality feedback from the attendees. Again, for those of you who may have missed the opportunity but would still like to watch it, you can visit this link.

We received many constructive comments in the evaluations, and there’s one in particular that I feel would be worth sharing with all Providers: the question of whether AIA CES will offer more advanced training in course content for Providers at some point. This is a good question. I get the sense that some of you may want to hone in even more closely on a single topic that is already among the many covered in the current one-hour webinar.

Learn More

Monthly Provider Tips and Reminders

• PLEASE NOTE: We are updating the SOPs and tutorials available on the Discovery Resources page. Over the next few weeks you will notice a new look to the tutorials – each with clear, accurate and up-to-date content. We hope these changes will improve your Discovery experience – and as always, your suggestions and feedback are very welcome!

• AIA members who are on audit review of their continuing education requirements for 2011 have been notified. Members on audit must meet the AIA's continuing education requirement (18 LU/8 HSW/4 SD) by September 30, 2012.

• You can use keywords to search for past Provider Connection articles on aia.org to help you navigate through continuing education content.

• Providers, do you want timely updates from AIA Continuing Education? Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

CES Calendar of Events

Upcoming Workshops and Webinars

As a Provider, we welcome you to join us for one of our upcoming face-to-face trainings or online webinars. The workshops are an excellent one-stop shop for provider related information. These workshops will cover an overview of CES policies and procedures, CES Discovery Training, tips for developing learning objectives and effective PowerPoints. The webinars will also review resources to continue to educate yourself and your presenters on using the CES Discovery system.

Workshops:

September 5 – Boston Society of Architects
October 23 – AIA Arizona November 29 – AIA Columbus

Webinars:

September 11, 2 p.m. Eastern – How to Submit Attendance in CES Discovery

October 18, 2 p.m. Eastern – How to Pull Reports in CES Discovery