CEA Tutorial Section 4: Course Development Stages & Infusing the Transparency Requirement

This section provides guidelines that you should follow to plan, promote, and conduct a course for ASHA CEUs.

Course Development

The ASHA CE Administrator must:

1. Analyze: Identify learners and their needs, and establish clear learning outcomes.
2. Design: Determine the methods, activities, and strategies that support the learning outcomes.
3. Develop: Create content.
4. Implement: Deliver content.
5. Evaluate: Measure success through feedback from stakeholders—including course planners, instructors, and learners.

Transparency Tasks Prior to Course Delivery

• Determine whether the content will discuss product(s) or service(s). If there is to be discussion of products or services, the CE Administrator must:
  1. ensure that the course does not promote or encourage the sale of the product(s) or service(s),
  2. disclose prior to learner enrollment in the course that there will be limited or no information about other products or services if only one product or service is to be discussed.
• Identify qualified individuals who will be involved in planning and conducting the course.
• Provide to instructors and planners together with resources explaining what needs to be disclosed.
• Document that each person planning and delivering the course has returned a completed disclosure form concerning relevant relationships. Disqualify those individuals who refuse to disclose.
• Review the disclosure information received from program planners and instructors together with the course content and speaker bio.
  1. Engage with the planners and instructors to understand the information submitted and determine if any relationships are relevant to the course content or design.
  2. Determine how any relevant relationships should be managed. This may include disclosure to learners, altering the content, or disqualifying a planner or instructor.
• If you conduct an evaluation of each continuing education course, you may want to add a question to your evaluation form concerning whether disclosures were made by the instructor(s).
• When other organizations provide financial and in-kind support that is used to fund the costs of the CE course and/or expenses for learners, the Provider must:
  1. make all decisions regarding allocations and disbursement of funds or in-kind support,
  2. keep written documentation,
  3. disclose the names of other organizations contributing financial or in-kind support before the course begins.
• When the event includes advertisements or exhibits, the Provider must:
  1. make all decision regarding the placement of any ads or exhibits,
  2. prohibit ads or exhibits in the instructional portion of the course.
• Develop a marketing plan for your course. If you intend to purchase a mailing list from ASHA, note that a final draft of the promotional piece is required for review.
• Develop instructional personnel disclosure statements for promotional material. These statements will also be used at the start of the course unless they need to be modified to reflect changes in relevant relationships.
• Produce promotional materials, according to ASHA CE Standards and Policies, to advertise the continuing education course. Items of information that must be included in promotional materials are instructor disclosure, Provider’s Brand Block, and course information (instructional level and ASHA CEU amount). If applicable, the following may also be included: financial and in-kind support disclosure, and that the course is focused on a specific product or service.

• Complete and submit the Course and Offering Registration Form and accompanying required materials so that the information is received by the ASHA CE Registry no fewer than 15 days before the start date of the course or 30 days for cooperative offerings.

Transparency During the Course

The ASHA CE Administrator should:

1. Ensure instructors are providing the following information at the beginning of their presentations:
• instructor name
• relevant relationship(s)-list the name of the organization and the type of relationship (if applicable),
• a statement that no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationship(s) exists (if applicable).
2. Ensure that exhibits, product sales, and book signings are conducted in an area separate from course content presentations.

Transparency After the Course

Retain a copy of the Course and Offering Registration Confirmation Letter and accompanying required materials including: speaker and planner disclosure forms, in-kind contributions, and funding in for your files for 4 years from the date of the last course offering.

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