Certified Higher Education Professional

This course will assist new ACTE Board members in understanding the governance of ACTE and their unique role as a Board Member. The course addresses the overall structure of the organization and vital documents, an overview of the three main roles of an ACTE Board member and their related governance components, and the significant responsibility and commitment required to serve as a Board member.

Whether your admissions personnel work exclusively by telephone or use the phone for setting a face-to-face appointment, they need a tool kit of powerful telephone techniques to be successful in working with students. This course provides best practices for both inbound and outbound calls. Admissions professionals learn how to project professionalism and a positive attitude in their telephone personality and identify methods for conducting effective and appropriate calls.

Success in helping students begins with “connecting” in a meaningful way. These connections are formed through our ability to understand generational experiences and preferences in communication. Additionally, a better understanding of ourselves helps us connect with students. This course explores how to work better together by using common collaborative principles and improving teamwork.

The purpose of this course is to improve the relationship and dynamics between the admissions representative and prospective students to ensure an educational goal is soundly met. The relationship cycle, the importance of relationships, and the process of finalizing the enrollment are discussed. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, links to possible resources, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities.

This course is designed for either an institution’s full or part time staff and faculty members. The course focuses on building and sustaining a campus-wide culture of compliance as opposed to simply providing a multitude of standards and regulations. In short, CM107 hopes to provide the information staff and faculty need to say or do the right things when interacting with both prospective and enrolled students about their education - online or face-to-face - as well as the consequences of saying or doing the wrong things whether by mistake or with intent. Components on ethics, customer service and fostering a culture of compliance in the new normal of educational delivery are also included.

This course will review Title IX, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, and the Violence Against Women Act. In addition to the background of each topic, victim rights, support system implementation, and grievance policies will also be explored. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, links to resources, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that works best for you.

Students with disabilities represent a unique minority group within higher education. Despite being the largest minority group in the world, all too often their access to and inclusion in programs and services comes as an afterthought. Career services practitioners pride themselves in their ability to serve diverse populations, yet many remain untrained in working with disabled students. This course helps career services practitioners understand federal legislation basics as they relate to disabled students, the unique challenges they face, and characteristics of the population as well as practical resources and career services strategies to help overcome their unique barriers to employment.
**While the course addresses interaction considerations for those with deafness, blindness, learning disabilities, acquired brain disabilities, and physical disabilities, it shouldn't be expected that the course will cover all possible disabilities you may want to specifically learn about. It provides a broad overview.

Effectively coaching students to achieve their goals in a way that builds autonomy, confidence, and accountability is fundamental to the role of a career services professional. Despite this fact, many career professionals have never engaged in professional development to build their coaching skills. This course helps career services professionals develop fundamental coaching skills so they can act as a catalyst and facilitator in assisting students to work towards their self-identified goals, with the belief that self-identified goals lead to increased student buy-in and motivation for attainment. Learn to put practical coaching techniques into action to maximize your results with students. *This course is relevant to a variety of career support professionals regardless of titles such as career counselors, advisors, coordinators, or "case managers" serving a variety of populations which may include students, out-of-school youth, or dislocated workers (youth or adults).

School hiring events are staples for many institutions, whether ground-based or virtual. They are a large undertaking. However, when done correctly, these events should yield many positive results for students, employers, and the school. This course examines each part of the process involved in a school hiring event: from the planning and ideation phase, to budgeting, staffing, logistics, marketing, student preparation, and a complete process for post-event surveying and follow-up. Beyond practical tips, ideas, and strategies, this course will provide a resource of documents that will help support a robust and dynamic school hiring event.

This course is an introduction to the foundation of work-based learning (WBL). Quality WBL is about a continuum of opportunities for students to connect to business. As a WBL coordinator, your roles are numerous and varied, but the position is rewarding when you can help students gain awareness to their future. WBL delivery models that are designed to provide WBL experiences for students in different community settings will be shared. Strategies for model implementation will be provided to facilitate WBL opportunities to and for all students.

This course covers the components needed to establish a work-based learning program. Included is information about expected outcomes for students, employers, and the school. A section of the course focuses on liability and risk management strategies that can be used to ensure that all those involved in the WBL program are aware of how best to establish a comprehensive program with minimum risks. The role of the coordinator is identified in relation to school and community settings and how the coordinator can be a resource to both students and employers. Program improvement and evaluation methods are shared to promote ongoing program development.

This course will assist new CTE teachers in getting started as learning leaders and role models for their students. The course will help new teachers who are transitioning from their career fields into teaching gain a better understanding of CTE and their roles as educators. The course addresses various aspects of CTE, what it means to become a CTE teacher and where to find support in the first year, the importance of developing relationships with students, and keeping everyone safe! In addition, the course covers the terminology used in career and technology education and how those terms are applied in the field.

This course is based on ACTE Best Seller

Your First Year: 10 Things to Know | Published by NOCTI

This course is designed to familiarize instructors with their roles and responsibilities in supporting students suffering from PTSD. The course provides an overview of how to recognize trauma, along with causes, types, and symptoms of students with either diagnosed or undiagnosed PTSD. The impact of physical and psychological trauma on learning is also explained. The course concludes with suggestions and strategies to guide instructors on how to create a trauma-sensitive classroom environment and provide supportive instructional opportunities.

All teachers should aim for maximum student engagement. To facilitate this happening requires an understanding and application of fundamental principles of effective instruction, especially in our new world of virtual learning. This engagement course is the first in a series designed to empower teachers to reach their highest levels of performance, digitally and in person. This course provides content and emphasizes the pedagogy, psychology, and neuroscience involved with engagement. The outcome for this course is to equip teachers to engage in deeper conversations about student learning, cognitive growth, and performance. This course provides engagement strategies to use in CTE courses immediately.

This course will provide an overview of career readiness including information and activities that may be incorporated into your courses. This course, which forms Part I of a two-part series, provides details about four specific career readiness skills: critical thinking/problem solving, verbal/written communications, teamwork/collaboration, and information technology applications. Additional thoughts and resources will also be provided to allow you to consider multiple ways to assist students in developing these skills in your courses.

This course will provide a brief review of career readiness and provide additional skills to incorporate into your courses. This course is Part II of a two (2) part series of courses. Therefore, this course will provide details about four (4) additional specific career readiness skills. These skills include leadership, professionalism/work ethic, career management, and global/multicultural fluency. Further thoughts and resources will also be provided to allow instructors to consider additional ways to incorporate these skills into their courses.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) provide systems of growth that can advance your teams and students to the next level. Typical CTE collaboration often revolves around content, limiting CTE teacher dialogue to specific career field discussions. With highly developed PLCs, teachers connect across program areas and the discussions shift to focus on instruction—not just content. PLCs provide a framework to make significant improvements in the quality of instruction. Teachers begin to speak a common language on strategies and lessons and engage in authentic field-testing and feedback. This course will discuss the organization of PLCs and strategies for participating in and benefiting from being a part of them.

This course is designed to provide Career and Technical instructors with an overview of how to support students at risk of suicide or who are influenced by suicide. Topics are designed to enhance awareness of risk factors and warning signs, increase sensitivity to stigma surrounding mental health emergencies and suicidality, and facilitate prevention through referral resources. Instructors will learn to identify signs and symptoms of at-risk students, while developing a deeper understanding of adolescent suicidal behaviors, especially those experienced by vulnerable populations. The course concludes with strategies to guide instructors on how and when to obtain appropriate assistance for students in crisis.

CTE teaching and learning have experienced considerable transformation since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. This course highlights lessons learned since CTE teaching transitioned to remote and hybrid models. We discuss the initial disruption phase, the challenges faced, and how CTE teachers have experienced success in developing their own remote lessons and learning experiences. The course examines five modes of delivery that have been successful and student supports needed to make this happen. Finally, the course looks to a future beyond 2020 to identify ways in which our practice will continue to transform during the 21st century Knowledge Age.

Virtual reality (VR) lessons can be implemented in all subject areas, and this course is designed to get teachers thinking about how it can be used in their classrooms. VR can be a nice addition to the teaching toolkit, but some resources, including hardware, will be needed. In this course we use the Meta Quest 2 headset by Oculus, but the results will be similar if different headsets are used. Various software applications will be shared that teachers can acquire for little or no cost.

During this course, participants will learn strategies for planning and implementing assessments in hands-on classes and career and technical education (CTE) learning environments. Effective design and implementation of assessments helps ensure that all students can grow and develop as learners—empowering them to build on their strengths. Perhaps even more important, good assessments help educators design their courses. In this course, educators will learn how to view assessments as formative representations of what students know at that moment, tools to help students understand how they learn and become expert learners, and essential instruments educators can use to actively assess their own approaches and instructional practices.

This course provides an introduction to the concept and philosophy of active learning, and describes a variety of methods to help instructors "activ-ate" their class. The course includes active learning examples that utilize both critical and analytical thinking skills. We also identify the risks that may discourage instructors from using active learning strategies and offer suggestions for managing them. A three-step method is suggested for developing an active lesson, and a comprehensive model is offered as a guide for creative active learning strategies.

This course is an overview of a variety of ways in which educators can integrate technology and web resources into instructional courses, in order to engage learners and promote collaborative learning. A variety of strategies are included in this course to enhance the use of technology so it becomes an integral part of ongoing instructional practice. In addition, numerous links are provided to enable participants to gain more insight into how technology can be explored, secured and utilized in their courses.

The term “Competency-Based Instruction” (CBI) is emerging as a new and preferred approach to education and the management of education. CBI is currently being evaluated at all levels of education, from K-12 to higher education and beyond. In traditional higher education it is referred to as CBE (Competency-Based Education) as it relates to specific competency-based programs. This course explores the topic in terms of the various characteristics of competency-based teaching and learning and highlights the most commonly agreed-upon benefits for students. The course also addresses the teaching approaches required to support a competency-based learning environment most effectively.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is an increasingly important field of study. The purpose of this course is to explore the relevancy of emotional intelligence in learning; and how understanding the importance of emotional intelligence supports student success. While instructors are more aware now of the various forms of intelligence, emotional intelligence has been undervalued in the past as a vital form of intelligence. Indeed, emotionally intelligent students may provide insight and application of knowledge in new and informative ways which can have positive impact on their learning progression and success.

This course examines the various challenges veterans face when attempting to pursue courses of study following military engagements and service. While no instructor can possibly identify with every aspect of a veteran’s experience, it is possible to become more aware of some of the challenges facing veterans as they reintegrate into civilian life. This course also examines effective instructional strategies in design and delivery to facilitate the success of veterans in a post-secondary environment.

The most effective instructors are scholars, but they are also facilitators. Good scholars have a command of knowledge in their field of expertise that is both broad and deep. For a scholar to become an instructor, he or she also needs to be a facilitator. Facilitators help others to learn, which is as important as scholarship. In this course we will define "the scholar" and "the facilitator" as individuals (although they are two aspects of one person), as well as compare and contrast their nature and their roles. You will examine issues and challenges faced by instructors, both on-ground and online, and look at developing and improving your facilitation skills.

This course explores the different components of student empowerment and the value that it has in learning success. Student empowerment is a necessary component for students as they transition to and through postsecondary training. Content will be presented that will raise awareness of what student empowerment is and how it can enhance the learning process for students. Strategies are given for enhancing the development of student empowerment that can be implemented both online and onsite.

This course will provide an overview of a few stress reduction/management techniques for educators. Stress plays a significant role in educators’ lives and careers; therefore, ideas for self-help are essential. Details will be provided about ways to reduce stress-related physical/mental issues, build emotional resilience, and practice mindfulness, along with other methods for stress reduction/management. The course provides not only information for educators, but activities for students that can be incorporated to help them reduce/manage their stress as well. With this information, educators may find more work-life balance, health benefits, and other opportunities for stress reduction and management. Application of these techniques can be helpful in enabling educators to better cope with the stress in their lives and careers.

Many consider storytelling to be in the realm of fairytales and small children, but when storytelling is used well and with purpose, it can strengthen students’ understanding no matter their age; it can also link contexts to aid in understanding, suggest applications to real life, and humanize the learning process. This course will identify the characteristics of storytelling that are useful in teaching and learning and will provide examples and contexts within which storytelling increases students’ interest and connection. Characteristics of useful storytelling will be identified, as well as supportive resources. Examples will be given to help educators focus on the aspects of storytelling that will enhance their content and how these strategies will fit within various instructional settings.

This course highlights the various ways in which learning can be more applied and integrated through the use of online instructional tools and environments. This is the case for all programs, including “hands-on” programs. The process of learning integration necessarily includes other steps in the process and these are explored in this course. These include expanding content, encouraging applied questioning, and analyzing implications. Throughout, the importance of online tools and environments are explored in relation to supporting more integrative and applied learning.

This course focuses on one of the most important parts of a course: the performance objectives.  It will discuss the proper procedures for writing performance objectives, while exploring the various types of learning objectives that may be appropriate for your courses. The goal is to help develop a better understanding of the topic, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links and assessments, you will be able to utilize Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.

This course emphasizes providing meaningful accommodations to students with disabilities in an education setting including: legal mandates and regulations, characteristics and educational needs of students with disabilities, and instructional techniques that can be used with these students. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, possible resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that best works for you.

This course will explore the field of gamification and the way that gaming and gaming elements have come to impact our everyday lives, and can improve our courses. Focusing on easy-to-implement concepts, this course will help you to begin utilizing gamification elements to increase learner engagement and motivation, and increase overall student success. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, possible resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities.

The Flipped Classroom model has become one of the most commonly implemented educational models seen in classrooms today. Through this course, we will explore the basics of the flipped classroom, how and why it works to increase student retention, and go over steps to start incorporating flipped classroom elements in your courses. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, possible resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities.

This introductory course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create successful online courses, whether for faculty-supported distance education delivery or as a supplement to classroom instruction. You will learn to design and develop online courses that have structural integrity and navigational simplicity with a focus on student-centered learning and intellectual interaction. The course covers various learning activities that are supported in an e-learning environment and describes the typical components of an online course. We will provide you with the media strategies and course design methodologies that will allow you to develop online courses in an effective and efficient manner.

This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to successfully author, teach, assess, and revise online courses. You will learn to develop a course framework with consistent modules. Building an online community and constructing a dynamic syllabus are important in helping you communicate with students. You will also learn how to develop an assessment plan that includes peer and self-assessment. No online course is complete without a comprehensive revision cycle. This course will walk you through the process of “closing the loop” to create a complete revision and improvement plan for your online course. We will provide you with ideas for student-centered learning that includes activities and intellectual interactions using a variety of technological tools.

Active and passive learning are critical concepts to ponder for online learning. Each one has positive benefits when explored and applied in the context of learning and the designing of instruction. There is, however, a difference between passive and inactive. One is an intentional part of learning while the other is the absence of something. We will explore these and other concepts in this course. In addition, strategies will be shared that will enable educators to make their online instruction more engaging and beneficial for learners.

Although online learning is becoming more normalized in our educational institutions, there are still many questions about its effectiveness for certain areas of study and training. There remains an idea that online learning is mostly passive and therefore unsuitable for anything active and specifically the development of skills and trades. This course will explore the changing realities of online learning and how effective it can be in the training of skills and trades. Strategies will be shared to facilitate the online teaching of applied skills in simulated and real-world settings.

This course will assist in improving the richness of online learning opportunities by incorporating strategies to avoid the rote memorization and repeating of facts for assessment purposes. Instructors will be able to construct an overarching philosophy to coincide with templated materials. A foundation for success can begin with analyzing the principles of Malcolm Knowles' Theory of Adult Learning and applying those principles to the online classroom. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.

This course will explore the online learning landscape and how to ensure learner engagement remains high, even when working virtually. The course discusses various aspects of online education, as well as discussing techniques for both social and motivational forms of engagement and how to apply them appropriately in courses. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, links to possible resources, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that best works for you.

Standards-based, collaboratively developed curriculum is the backbone of high-quality CTE programs of study. For this reason, Standards-aligned and Integrated Curriculum is one of ACTE’s 12 elements of high-quality CTE within the Quality CTE Program of Study Framework. The Standards-aligned and Integrated Curriculum element of ACTE’s quality framework includes seven criteria that address the development, implementation, and revision of program of study curriculum, including the relevant knowledge and skills taught in the program and the standards on which they are based. This course discusses the seven criteria as well as practical strategies in applying the criteria to develop standards-aligned and integrated curriculum. The course also includes success stories and curated resources to help CTE practitioners develop and implement high-quality curriculum.

This course addresses strategies that help CTE and career development professionals better understand how to design and implement a comprehensive career development model. Educators will learn how learners gain career knowledge and engage in education and career planning and decision-making, including career counseling, career assessments, and curricula that help them learn about careers, educational opportunities, workforce trends, postsecondary planning and job search information, and placement services. In addition, educators will learn how to engage in professional development to further develop their own knowledge and skills around career development.

Career and technical student organizations (CTSOs) are an integral part of a student’s instructional program and CTE experience. They provide opportunities for skill and leadership development and career exploration. For this reason, CTSOs are one of the 12 elements in the ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework™. This element includes eight criteria addressing how CTSOs fit within CTE programs, their alignment to relevant standards, opportunities offered by CTSOs, and the CTSO advisor role. This course will describe successes to emulate, failures to avoid, and resources to help practitioners implement and support CTSOs.

In 2018, ACTE took on the challenge of defining the national catchphrase “high-quality CTE.” The result of this extensive research is the ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework™, a tool to evaluate programs, make program improvements and encourage postsecondary-secondary collaboration. One of the 12 elements of the framework is work-based learning. The work-based learning element addresses the delivery of a continuum of sustained, meaningful interactions with industry or community professionals that foster in-depth, firsthand engagement with the tasks required in a given career field. Experiences may be delivered in workplaces, in the community, at educational institutions and/or virtually, as appropriate, and include a range of activities such as workplace tours, job shadowing, school-based enterprises, internships and apprenticeships.

High-quality CTE programs of study strategically use a variety of data to support program improvement. This course addresses the Data and Program Improvement element of the ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework™. Topics include data processes and supports, data sharing, privacy and security protections, types of data, aggregate and disaggregated data, equity gap, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement.

High quality high schools in America are creating blueprints for success through the use of career and technical education (CTE) programs in their curricular offerings. Successful CTE programs are keenly aware of their role in delivering academic skills and knowledge; likewise, successful academic high schools have embraced CTE programs to improve student achievement. This course defines school improvement, examines the defining characteristics of successful CTE programs, and reflects on the role of leadership, curriculum, and instruction in high school improvement.

Educators often express concern about accountability, limited resources, and overwhelming expectations. Leadership practices that energize staff and access community partners may not make the work less challenging, but these practices do encourage broader commitment to student success. This course provides authentic strategies for expanding community engagement as an effective way to add human resources and energy to school CTE programs. Learn how to create an organization that fosters these partnerships and provides more authentic and meaningful experiences for students and faculty.

A career readiness school culture adds relevancy to learning, increases student engagement, and gives staff a meaningful shared purpose. Creating a culture of career readiness within the school is essential to ensuring ongoing dedication and commitment to effective CTE programs. This course helps participants recognize the impact of existing school culture on developing student career readiness and student success. In addition, participants will explore the leadership skills needed for creating a supportive culture and will examine tools available for assessing and implementing a culture of career readiness.

Safety in CTE programs needs to be a top priority for educators who work in, supervise, and instruct students in laboratories, greenhouses, shops, and related facilities. It is essential that these teaching/learning environments are safely operated and maintained to assure that students are provided with supportive learning opportunities. This course introduces CTE administrators and instructors to proper safety procedures, maintenance, and emergency protocols. Strategies for the development and application of safety practices by students will be shared.

Soft skills are essential to career readiness. CTE students need to develop and utilize soft skills during their career preparation. This course defines soft skills and offers strategies that instructors can use to help their students integrate soft skills into their career skill sets. Reflection on current practices will assist participants in defining, measuring, and nurturing soft skills and work behaviors for their students. Strategies will show instructors how to measure soft skill development and growth.

In the quest to make teacher evaluations more meaningful, leaders need to flip the mindset concerning their role in teacher evaluations. Leaders need to look at the evaluation process and start to understand that their role should move from being an evaluator to being a coach. This course will discuss the best practices in both supervision (formal evaluation and management) of career and technical education (CTE) teachers and the purpose and use of instructional coaching in developing the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of CTE teachers. The focus of the course will be on exploring how school leaders can help teachers realize where they are and where they can go if they continue to grow in their abilities as a teacher, colleague, and leader.

Teachers are no longer passive participants in their evaluation processes but are rather active participants/observers. Teachers, in fact, should have a major leadership role in their own ongoing professional development. This process can be enhanced by moving from a general “one-size-fits-all” teacher evaluation system, meant for academia, to a career and technical education (CTE) and school-specific assessment process. Secondary education has gotten to the point where the content being taught is very specific and the teaching approaches are differentiated and therefore, so must be the educator evaluation process. This course will investigate the definition and purpose of instructional frameworks, how instructional frameworks originated, the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC), a review of the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching (FFT), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and a newly developed CTE-specific teacher assessment framework.

This course introduces participants to the federal rules that govern the spending and management of Perkins funds. It explains the key factors that determine what Perkins funds can be spent on, including special considerations for salaries and equipment, and it also explains the systems needed to manage Perkins funds. This information will help participants to optimize Perkins spending, design effective career and technical education programs, and support compliance with federal requirements. This course is appropriate for anyone who interacts with the Perkins program in some way including state and local administrators, program and fiscal staff, school leaders, and other stakeholders.

Tandis Moghadam

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

CHEP in Teaching

CHEP in Online Teaching

CHEP in Admissions

CHEP in Career Services

CHEP in Campus Operations

CHEP in Leadership