Senior LERN Leader William T. O’Brien, Vice President for Continuing Education/Off-Campus Sites, Butler County Community College, Butler, PA.
The Task Force is headed by Senior LERN Leader William T. O’Brien, Vice President for Continuing Education/Off-Campus Sites, Butler County Community College, Butler, PA.
Other LERN leaders who are members of the Task Force include:
-Wendy Evers, California State University-San Marcos
-Sherry Kuehn, University of West Virginia
-Eric Johnson, Northeast Community College, Nebraska
-Sara Sexton Johnson, Community Colleges of Spokane
-Jodi Rasmussen, Missoula County Public Schools
-Holly Klotz, Schoolcraft College
-Joe Miera, University of New Mexico
Anyone attending the big annual LERN Conference in New Orleans, Dec. 2-5 is welcome to participate and provide input.
Certificates continue to be a huge growth market for continuing education in higher education. Other organizations are interested in imposing standards on LERN member programs.
Meetings
There will be three meetings of the Certificate Standards Task Force:
- Before the conference, anyone attending the conference can participate online and contribute ideas, suggestions and feedback.
- The Task Force only will meet just before the conference in New Orleans to structure the process and plan for creating the standards.
- Anyone attending the conference can attend a Roundtable discussion Thursday, Dec. 3, from 3 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. to help form the standards.
The Task Force is anticipating it will meet after the conference to finalize the proposed Certificate Standards for all LERN members to discuss.
Current Situation
The two realities facing continuing educators today are:
- There is no consensus on standards, and there is a danger the Certificate could dissolve into disregard, just like the CEU.
- Other top-down organizations are interested in imposing standards on the field, with a likely agenda for generating income from LERN member programs for meeting those standards.