Work Product Submission Tips - June 2007

Greetings from ASTD ICE in Atlanta, GA!

If you're here in Atlanta and want to meet -- drop me an email and just let me know!

I plan on attending tonight's (Sunday) Welcome Reception, as well as Tuesday's ASTD Celebration at the Georgia Aquarium!

Congratulations to those who have recently sat & passed the CPLP Knowledge-based Exam!

Now it's time to start thinking about your work product submission. :-)

One thing is for sure - start early.

Those of us who have completed the Work Product submission phase of the CPLP aren't kidding -- the work product submission is most definitely the more difficult of the two phases.

30-40 hours prep time - minimum - just to answer the questions, complete the forms, and compile your submission. That's in addition to whatever work you did to produce your evidence in the first place.

Here's what you need to do:

All CPLP candidates regardless of AOE - start working with the work product submission forms found in the Candidate Bulletin on the ASTD Certification Institute Web site.

Tip! Check again for new forms as we get farther along into summer. You want to make sure you use the latest & greatest forms for submitting on August 30th!

Tips for Delivering Training:

• You must have at least 6 participants in your classroom or online event.


• The participants must be shown - at least once - on your recording. If you're holding an online learning event via Webinar, make sure the participants are shown 'on screen' (not their physical images, but their sign-on IDs).


• You will need the signatures of all participants.


• 20 minutes is 20 minutes -- that's the max your recording can be. Don't sweat slightly over or slightly under -- but keep in mind that a 30 minute recording will not be watched to the end. The evaluators will stop just after the 20 minute mark.


• You cannot edit the recording. You can, however, turn the camera on & off during the learning event. You want those 20 minutes to capture ALL of the criteria listed in the work product submission forms for Delivering Training.


• You can host a learning event with the intent of recording it. The rules are -- it must be an actual learning event and the participants must be real learners. Many CPLP candidates have held learning events for their community, church, etc. with the intent of recording it for submission.

Measuring & Evaluating Tips:

• The submission MUST be an evaluation of a learning event. It cannot be a submission of an evaluation on whether or not training is the appropriate intervention.

Designing Learning Tips:

• Evidence must be from a 90 minute (or slightly less) learning event. You can extract 90 minutes from a longer learning event (e.g. a 3 day course).


• Submissions must be in hardcopy only. If you use a tool to design learning (e.g. Designer's Edge) you must printout the material. Hardcopy only -- for ALL of your evidence.


• The learning event can be ILT or technology-based. Keep this in mind -- the evaluators will not see your entire course. This is about how you designed it - less so about what the finished course was.

For all candidates:

• Follow the ASTD Certification Institute instructions to a 'T.' Regardless of how good your work is, you must meet the criteria in order to pass this phase.


• Make sure you follow the ASTD CI packaging requirements. There's a specific way you need to organize your submission into manilla envelopes for submission.


• Work product map (especially!) - make it as easy as possible for the raters to find what they're looking for (e.g. Design Document, pg 10). That doesn't mean get silly with page tags and highlighters -- the rule is, what they're looking for should be easily found on the page / area you direct them to.

How work product is evaluated:

• Think about how your submission will be evaluated. It will be rated by 6 different individuals.


• They will not discuss your work product with each other -- they'll submit their scores independently.


• Each rater only see pieces of your submission. The ONE thing all raters see is what you answered for your Project Description and Project Context. Everything else in your submission gets separated out. Your evidence goes with specific forms to 2 raters. Follow-on Question # 1 goes with the Project Description and Project Context to another pair of raters. Follow-on Question # 2 goes with the Project Description and Project Context to yet another pair of raters.

Need more?

You can spend hours of your time (or just a few minutes!) watching me blather on about the work product in this online video - thanks to the Twin Cities Chapter, ASTD -- http://www.astd-tcc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=76

You can also check out the CPLP Yahoo! Group and interact with your peers -- ask questions, share information, etc. The group was started by CPLP candidates back in 2005 and many of them still monitor the group to lend a helping hand:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaCPLP/

Contact your local ASTD chapter! Lots of chapters are providing resources to area CPLP candidates to help them along: http://www.astd.org/astd/membership/local_chapters

A shout out to the Metro Washington D.C. chapter - who's hosting a conference based on the ASTD Competency Model this September: http://www.dcastdconference.org/

I will be presenting back-to-back sessions on the CPLP the morning of September 7th in McLean, VA.

And a shout out to my own chapter - the Chicagoland Chapter, ASTD (CCASTD) - where I'm facilitiating a half day CPLP workshop on September 29th in Schaumburg, IL.

Congratulations again to those who have passed the exam! You're well on your way!

This is a challenging process -- as it should be -- I hope you take some time out to enjoy the ride!

~ Trish Uhl, PMP, CPLP
Owl's Ledge LLC - The CPLP Experts!
www.cplpstudyprep.com
http://www.cplpcourses.com/