Glossary of CE Terminology

Accreditation

the granting of approval to provide certain types of education courses or activities.

Activity

an event planned to facilitate learning; often used synonymously with the terms course or program to indicate a planned learning experience.

Assessment

the process for determining individual achievement of learning.

ASHA CE Provider Brand Block

The ASHA Approved CE Provider Brand Block is the clearly identifiable trademark of ASHA Continuing Education's Approved Providers. Organizations approved to provide continuing education programs that are offered for ASHA Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for audiologists and speech-language pathologists are required to use the Brand Block on their primary promotional materials for all continuing education activities offered for ASHA CEUs. The Brand Block includes a Graphic Image and the Approval Statement and is customized with the Approved Provider's name. Your ASHA CE Provider Brand Block is provided to you by your ASHA CE Provider Manager. See Guidelines for Proper Usage of the Brand Block [PDF].

ASHA CE Registry

a computerized database that awards ASHA CEUs on behalf of ASHA's Continuing Education Board (CEB), and maintains a permanent, cumulative transcript of participants' ASHA CEUs.

ASHA CEU sentence

The number of CEUs offered, the instructional level, and the content area must be included in a stand-alone sentence. The Approved Provider may insert the sentence in one of two places: 1) Place the sentence above, below or next to the Brand Block, or 2) Place the sentence next to the Course Description on the Approved Provider's promotional materials. This program is offered for ____ ¹ CEUs (____ ² level; ____ ³ area).

Key
1. Maximum number of CEUs available for the course as determined by the time-ordered agenda. One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is defined as 10 contact hours of participation in an organized CE experience offered by a provider, excluding meals and breaks. The contact hour is defined as 1 clock hour (60 minutes) of interaction between a learner and instructor or between learner and materials that have been prepared to facilitate learning.
2. Course's instructional level (i.e., introductory, intermediate, advanced, or various).
3. Content area (i.e., professional, basic communication processes, or related).

Bias

a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.

Commercial influence

The attempt to sway or persuade organizations and individuals involved in planning, implementing, or evaluating the course or learners to favor, recommend, purchase, use, or promote a particular product, equipment, device, or service.

Commercial promotion

monies paid to Providers by commercial interests for commercial exhibits and advertisements associated with a CE course.

Commercial support

financial, or in-kind, contributions given by a commercial interest, which is used to pay all or part of the costs of a CE course.

Conflicts of interest

situations where personal and/or financial considerations compromise judgment or where the situation may appear to provide the potential for professional judgment to be compromised. Conflicts of interest may arise in continuing education since the potential exists for professional judgment and practice to be biased by an economic interest in, or personal benefit from, professionally related commercial enterprises.

Contact

interaction between a learner and instructor, or between a learner and materials that have been prepared to facilitate learning. Contact implies two-way communication so the learner receives feedback.

Contracted research

situations where an institution receives a grant and manages the funds and an individual is the principal or named investigator on the grant.

Continuing education

structured education and training experiences for professional development in which participants are assumed to have previously attained a basic level of education, training or experience.

Contracted research

situations where an institution receives a grant and manages the funds and an individual is the principal or named investigator on the grant.

Continuing education unit (CEU)

a unit of measure in continuing education defined as 10 contact hours of participation in an organized CE experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instructors.

Cooperative CE offering

a continuing education course offered jointly by 2 or more parties. Conducting a cooperative offering with an ASHA Approved CE Provider is the only way by which non-Providers can offer a CE course for ASHA CEUs.

Cooperative parties

entities that are not ASHA Approved CE Providers.

Course

a defined curriculum usually dealing with one issue or subject and is used interchangeably with activity.

Course objectives

the established goals of a course from the instructor or program planner's perspective. Often confused with learning outcomes, which identify for the learner what he/she can expect to achieve as a result of participating in a course. Example of a course objective: "Display the instrumentation necessary to perform a Fiberoptic Endoscopic Examination of Swallowing (FEES)." Reworded as a learning outcome: "Participants will be able to identify the instrumentation necessary to perform a FEES."

Demonstration

an activity in which participants provide evidence that they have learned what was intended in the stated learning outcomes.

Disclosure

process of informing the Provider and the course participants of conflicts of interest on the part of an instructor or course planner.

Education

a process of acquiring knowledge whereby individuals learn to think, reason, and apply judgment.

Evaluation

a process of measuring discrete elements or the overall success of activities including such elements as participant satisfaction, benefits, results of outcomes, and impact.

Financial relationships

those relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, gift, speaking fee, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options, or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial relationships can also include "contracted research" where the institution gets the grant and manages the funds and the individual is the principal or named investigator on the grant.

Honoraria

payment in recognition of acts or professional services for which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set.

Independent study (IS)

a continuing education activity initiated and planned by the learner; then reviewed, monitored, approved by an ASHA Approved Independent Study Provider. Independent Study must be based on the same sound program principles that ASHA Approved CE Providers use to plan group learning activities. IS activities may take many forms. For example, one may learn a new diagnostic procedure by reading journal articles, observing a master clinician conduct assessments, reviewing the assessment procedures in case files, or participating in an internship to receive hands-on experience conducting the assessment. These experiences might culminate with the learner's writing a critical review of the experience. Others may elect to develop an independent study for participating in a CE course not offered for ASHA CEUs.

In-kind support

support given by a commercial interest in goods, commodities, or services instead of money.

Instructional methods

methods used by an instructor to cause learning to occur. Examples included lecture, questions, discussions, visuals, exercises, and summaries.

Instructional personnel

an individual who delivers information to others and facilitates the learning of others.The same individual might also be responsible for developing the information that is being delivered. Some terms synonymous with instructional personnel are instructor, speaker, presenter, author, developer, teacher, professor, educator, facilitator, lecturer, and so on.

Intellectual property rights

legal protections related to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Learner or participant

an individual participating in an activity that has been planned to aid the individual in acquiring knowledge, skills, or attitudes.

Learning assessment

the method by which learners, instructors, and program planners alike can gauge the extent to which course participants achieved the established learning outcomes for a course. Learning assessments may take many forms and may be conducted both formally and informally. Some examples include multiple-choice exams, self-assessments using a Likert scale for learners to identify to what degree they have achieved each learning outcome, hands-on demonstration of learned procedures, application of principles to case-study examples, question-and-answer periods, and so on. The learning outcomes should drive the type of learning assessment used. For example, if the learning outcome is to successfully interpret an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), a logical method for learner assessment is for learners to interpret actual ABR recordings.

Learning need

the gap between a learner's current level and some desired level of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or performance.

Learner outcomes

statements that identify for the learner what he/she can expect to achieve as a result of participating in a course. Well-written learning outcomes are participant-focused and worded in measurable and observable (when applicable) terms. For example, "Following this course, participants will be able to write a report that meets Medicare reimbursement criteria." Learning outcomes submitted with a course offered for ASHA CEUs must be clearly tied to the scopes of practice for speech-language pathology and/or audiology.

Mission statement

a statement that briefly outlines an organization's or group's purpose for existence.

Needs assessment

the way by which program planners determine the continuing education needs of their target audience. Needs assessments may be conducted in multiple ways concurrently. Examples include, but are not limited to, conducting a literature search, arranging a focus group of select professionals, establishing a log of employee skill sets vs. caseload needs, and/or distributing a formal survey to the target audience.

Non-financial relationships

relationships that might bias an individual including any personal, professional, political, institutional, religious or other relationship.

Program

typically refers to the structure in an organization through which continuing education activities are planned and administered.

Program evaluation

the basis for making improvements to individual courses and CE programming overall. While program evaluations are related to and affected by the outcome of learning assessments, they are not one and the same. Program evaluations focus on the mechanics of a course (the extent to which the instructor is prepared, knowledgeable, and engaging; the handouts, overheads, and environment are conducive to learning; etc.).

Provider

an organization that plans, conducts, evaluates, and continuously improves their continuing education (CE) courses using the standards and requirements established by the ASHA Continuing Education Board (CEB).

Satisfactory completion

having met the established requirements for completion of a CE course.

Self-Study

educational materials structured to allow learners or groups of learners to achieve pre-established learning outcomes in the absence of interaction with an instructor. Self-study CE activities come in many forms including journals, books, DVDs, podcasts, audiotapes, CDs, and the Internet. Such activities developed by ASHA Approved CE Providers are (a) peer reviewed by at least 2 content experts for currency, accuracy, and usability; (b) offered for a pre-set number of ASHA CEUs (i.e., based on a pilot study of a sample group of learners); and (c) have a formal learning assessment that users must pass to earn the ASHA CEUs.

Services

performance of duties or provision of space and equipment helpful to others. For example: Speech-language pathology or audiology services, testing/calibration services, consulting services, referral services.