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The current study investigated Georgia school psychologists' continuing professional development (CPD) practices and preferences for comparison to a national study of school psychology professional development by Armistead, Castillo, Curtis, Chappel, and Cunningham (2013). Utilizing the same instrument as Armistead et al., a survey was emailed to 442 members of the Georgia Association of School Psychologists (GASP). Ninety-five surveys were completed at a 21.5% response rate. Both Georgia school psychologists and national school psychologists reported receiving a median of approximately 40 hours of professional development in the previous year. Georgia school psychologists differed from the national sample with a higher percentage expressing satisfaction with the amount of professional development provided by their state professional association, with lower personal costs associated with CPD, and with greater participation in online professional development opportunities.

Continuing education (CE) units throughout the United States have successfully built University-to-Business (U2B) partnerships to provide greater value to their community partners and to increase revenue for the university. Our experience in building U2B partnerships and feedback from our partners--businesses, corporations, state agencies, and other organizations--indicates that an opportunity currently exists for CE units to leverage their university's comparative strengths in research and teaching to help businesses develop their employees to increase efficiency, meet strategic goals, and increase employee engagement. As is the case in building any CE area of practice, programmatic challenges must be overcome to launch and expand U2B programming. This article shares survey results from organizations about why they like to partner with universities, provides solutions to the typical challenges of building a U2B practice area, and offers a diagnostic tool to help CE managers get started in building

It is an exciting time for online education. Lately, there has been breathless talk of a "revolution" and massive "disruption," largely based on Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) models pioneered by universities such as MIT and Stanford, and headline-grabbing start-up companies such as Udacity and Coursera. Meanwhile, university professional and continuing education units have long been pioneers in online education and have been evolving their course, certificate, and degree offerings for more than a decade. Where the 2000s saw experimentation and continued penetration, online education today can be characterized as a mainstream and mature market. Mature markets bring new dynamics and business models, and various developments are making the online education landscape more competitive and complex, creating a need for new strategic thinking and tactics. Within the context of a maturing online market, institutions will face a new set of challenges as they identify strategy and market differentiation for their online programs. This article elucidates aspects of one institution's approach to these new market forces. Northeastern University, through the pervasive use of market and program data, is crafting strategies that drive approaches as diverse as geographically tailored marketing, new processes for online course development, and hybrid teaching and learning models that build on the strategic positioning of physical university assets in a nationwide network. This case can be informative for others thinking about their own online program strategy as it presents a unified framework that can serve as a model of strategy integration across an institution.

As other universities across the country struggle with their financial challenges, continuing education units can serve the same pioneering role in the development of new financial and budget systems. Confronted by serious financial shortfalls during the last three decades, university administrators started to focus on new budget and revenue allocation models. They have at least five budgeting models at their disposal to project future trends and assist in decision making. These models include: (1) Incremental budgeting; (2) Proxy-based budgeting; (3) Traditional budgeting; (4) Activity-based budgeting; and (5) Expanded activity-based budgeting. The activity-based models are most effective when universities meet certain conditions. They are most useful for a large university with a number of different services and variations on those services. The activity-based budget model can support a centralized management model, a decentralized one, or a combination of the two. It simply offers information about financial performance within and between academic units for the people making decisions. (Contains 2 tables and 3 endnotes.)

In an age of knowledge, the capacities of professional and continuing education to open up new networks, overcome organizational hurdles, and foster an environment for innovation have assumed great relevance. This article makes the case as to why. It discusses key forces driving change--the knowledge economy, demographics, technology, and globalization--and reviews opportunities as well as threats arising therefrom. Finally, it explores why professional and continuing education units are well positioned to be a powerful influence for innovation in higher education. (Contains 1 table and 33 endnotes.)

As universities respond to rapid changes in course delivery methods, economic shortfalls, and a re-examination of who their students are, continuing education (CE) units find themselves with an opportunity to influence significantly the direction of the response. Continuing education has long led the way in reaching out to previously unserved or underserved learners and meeting their distinct needs through innovative scheduling and formats, including distance education, as well as separate processes for registration, fee payment, advising, and other student services. In this article, the authors discuss their experiences in CE units at large public institutions where nontraditional or distance students are seen as square pegs that must fit into the round holes of campus procedures. They describe how continuing educators can provide leadership by demonstrating how the on-campus and off-campus core academic values result in a "one-size-fits-all" model for both.

Context: To maintain certification, athletic trainers (ATs) are required to obtain continuing education units (CEUs) in the area of evidence-based practice (EBP). Longitudinal analysis of outcomes after attending a Board of Certification-approved Foundations of EBP course is lacking. Objective: To evaluate ATs' knowledge retention of and confidence in EBP concepts 12 months after a Foundations of EBP course. A secondary aim was to determine ATs' perceptions regarding barriers to, use of, and resources for EBP. Design: Repeated measures within-subjects survey. Setting: Online survey. Patients or Other Participants: Twenty-seven respondents (22% response rate) from a convenience sample of 123 ATs. Intervention(s): Board of Certification-approved Foundations of EBP category workshop. Main Outcome Measure(s): The survey instrument, Evidence-Based Concepts: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Use (EBCKAU), ascertained ATs' perceived EBP knowledge over a 12-month period. Descriptive statistics and correlations were calculated; repeated measures analysis of variance determined differences between scores. Responses to openended questions were catalogued according to themes and coded. Results: For the knowledge score, a statistically significant increase in perceived knowledge (F[subscript 2.0,52.0]=18.91, P < 0.001) from preworkshop (6.40 ± 1.77) to immediately postworkshop (8.15 ± 1.51) and from before to 12 months after workshop (7.30 ± 1.64) was noted. Confidence in knowledge was statistically significantly different over time (z = -4.55, P < 0.001). Both before and since the workshop, ATs reported low levels of incorporating patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and were equally likely to use compilation research findings in their clinical practice. Barriers of time and available resources were identified, and patient care was reported as the primary area in which ATs envision future use of EBP. Conclusions: Athletic trainers improved immediate perceived knowledge and retained knowledge of EBP concepts over time; however, confidence in knowledge decreased over time. ATs did not implement the workshop concepts into their daily clinical practice.

The primary role of continuing education (CE) is to connect the university and the community. Historically, many CE units have looked to the business world for guidance. As changes in society increase the range and diversity of links between the university and the community, CE leaders are working increasingly within the mainstream of their institutions. While most CE units operate as cost centers and are expected to generate new revenue, business thinking is necessary--but not sufficient--to guide leadership in a more mainstreamed environment. The challenge of leading CE within the mainstream requires a new way of thinking about leadership. This paper will explore how one approach to leadership--the "realism" philosophy that guided US international relations for more than a generation--provides a set of principles that reflect core CE values and that should underlie CE leadership in the changing environment. The principles cited are prudence, humility, study, responsibility, loyalty, and respect for others.

The University of Florida offers continuing education units (CEUs) via distance technology using Polycom[R] to meet requirements for applicators of pesticides to renew their licenses. A large statewide event conducted in 2010 also included a needs assessment of this group concerning CEUs. Results indicate that these applicators strongly prefer earning CEUs rather than retesting for renewal and that they don't mind short travel distances and paying nominal fees to attend programs. Distance delivery was a first-time experience for most in obtaining CEUs, and they were overwhelmingly positive about attending such an event in the future. (Contains 1 table.)

The Research to Practice (RTP) column in "The Journal of Continuing Higher Education" has recently focused on evaluation methods that continuing education (CE) units can utilize, reports on surveys of CE practitioners, and recommendations for research on dynamics that impact CE programs and the students enrolling in them. In this article, the author focuses on the issue of credit transfer for adult learners as a national phenomenon. For the purposes of RTP, he is primarily concerned with providing researchers and practitioners in CE a framework for understanding a handful of methodological concerns that seemingly impact most researchers who study student transfer. After considering the role of community colleges and articulation in advancing access and attainment for adult learners, he also introduces indicators of success and best practices for college transfer for adult learners. He provides recommendations for researchers and practitioners interested in further inquiry regarding the college transfer process, then finally addresses the various issues associated with measuring the effectiveness of college transfer for adult learners. Throughout, he highlights the datasets that are most widely used in studying the phenomenon of college transfer for non-traditional students.

The purpose of this article is to provide continuing higher education leaders with a comprehensive overview of the major considerations for doing business in the global market. Included is an analysis of the driving forces in global higher education and current trends in cross-border programs and a brief review of activities that may be part of a universitySSRqs internationalism strategy. This is followed by a discussion of selected challenges for universities exploring global opportunities. The article concludes with perspectives on the role of continuing education units in supporting a universitySSRqs internationalism strategy and offers a summary of effective strategies for managing global partnerships. The author argues that continuing education leaders must position their units strategically at the internationalism table and conduct an inventory of the unitSSRqs proven attributes that align with global program delivery. Most important, they must recognize that the SSLqrules of the gameSSRq for doing business globally require openness to different language, cultural, social, legal, and educational norms.

Leaders of university continuing education units frequently dedicate significant energy to managing relationships between their units and senior university administrators. Many CJUCE readers know of cases where a particularly sympathetic (or unsympathetic) university president or provost has substantially changed the trajectory of a continuing education unit. Using historical documents from the University of British Columbia, the author of this article constructs a case study of the influence of presidential support on the philosophy and practice of university extension and continuing education. In short, UBC's Extension department emerged and flourished under the leadership of two long-serving presidents who expressed significant support for its function as a primary role of the university. In the 1960s, following the appointment of a president who considered research and degree credit teaching to be the university's distinctive mission, the department experienced a crisis. However, the period following 1975 brought renewed executive support when a new president with an expansive vision of the contribution that the university should make to society was appointed. This article not only presents an interesting historical case study but also provokes reflection on how contemporary leaders in continuing education can nurture support from senior administrators.

This article presents a concise, historical overview of university extension and continuing education in western Canada. It argues that, over the course of the twentieth century, the major universities in western Canada made three basic claims regarding the purposes of their extension and continuing education units. Prior to 1940, universities claimed that such units extended the resources of the university for the benefit of citizens not enrolled as full-time students. In the 1940s and 1950s, universities claimed that such units fostered social and economic progress. Since the 1960s, universities have claimed that such units existed to meet the lifelong learning needs of individuals. This article argues that the evolution of such claims reflected ideological and political-economic developments, such as the rise of wage labour as the primary means of making a living in the region. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

This article is a response to Scott McLean's (2007) CJUCE Forum article "About Us," which set out the claims that university continuing education (UCE) units make about themselves on their websites. Using the activities of the Legal Studies Program of the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta as a reference point, this article suggests that the activities of UCE units may not be as bland as their purpose statements suggest. The ability of those statements to represent the visions of UCE units is questioned, as is the adequacy of the processes by which such statements are generated. In doing so, the author exposes the need to catalogue what UCE units are actually doing and reflect on why we seem to need to downplay some of those activities. The article concludes with the suggestion that in presenting a synthesis of the units' purpose statements, McLean takes UCE units full circle to the debate he set to the side: What should UCE units do? (Contains 1 endnote.)

In 2006, a study involving institutional members of the Canadian Association of University Continuing Education (CAUCE) was conducted by the CAUCE Information and Research Committee working in collaboration with the Research Committee of the Association of Continuing Higher Education (ACHE). The survey had been previously completed by institutional members belonging to ACHE in the United States. This paper describes the survey findings and offers possible explanations of important differences related to respondent profile, type of institution by funding, and the extent of credit programming offered by the responding institutions. Differences related to learning modalities are also discussed. Further joint surveys involving CAUCE and ACHE members as well as international research initiatives sponsored by the two organizations are recommended. (Contains 17 tables.)

This article presents the findings of a study that explored the role and impact of continuing education on rural revitalization. A community development approach, academic expertise, and a university's resources were used to assist the citizens of Montmartre, Saskatchewan, to establish Centre 48, an arts and continuing education centre. Courses provided by Centre 48 gave townspeople and people from the surrounding area opportunities to explore new interests and to develop new social networks; in turn, the social capital gained by establishing and operating Centre 48 gave rise to new economic ventures. The results of this study illustrate how university continuing education units can contribute to capacity building in rural communities and how such social capital-building projects can serve as a catalyst for economic development.

This article describes a study on the module-based online professional development project. The professional development model providing a basis for the Reading CEU (continuing education unit) Module Project involved four groups of stakeholders: master teacher instructors, module participants, module developers, and the university support team. Master teacher instructors, chosen based on existing collegial relationships with professors or module developers, co-developed and facilitated individual reading modules. Master teacher instructors interacted with participants by providing them with ongoing guidance and feedback about reading methodology implementation. Multiple data sources were analyzed in an effort to triangulate study data. Feedback from module participants was collected at the end of each month with an evaluation survey completed on a voluntary basis. Numerous themes emerged as data sources were analyzed, resulting in subsequent study findings. Benefits of the Reading CEU Module Project most frequently noted focused on the importance of practical implementation with students, student academic gains, participant growth and reflection, teachers' assumption of leadership roles, multiple resource availability, online accessibility and design, and consideration of "out of workforce" teachers. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

This article explores claims made on websites of CAUCE members about the purpose of university continuing education. CAUCE members often claim a role in addressing the needs or goals of learners seeking professional development, personal enrichment, or the furthering of knowledge and skills. They claim to deliver programs and services that promote lifelong learning for adults, whether as individuals or as members of communities and organizations. These programs and services are characterized as enabling access to quality education in flexible and innovative ways. The work of continuing education is often presented as a means to link universities with communities and with external agencies. This article describes these public claims made by Canadian university continuing education units and endeavours to promote informed reflection and dialogue about the purpose of those units. (Contains 5 tables.)

In this paper, we describe the outreach and engagement movement in the United States and explore the implications of this movement for university continuing education units in Canada. Across the United States, major universities have adopted the vocabulary of "outreach and engagement" to foster a shift in the relationships of those universities with communities and organizations beyond the traditional boundaries of the institution. This vocabulary has its roots in the work of Ernest Boyer (1990, 1996) and the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities (1999, 2000). In the past decade, many American universities have adopted new leadership and organizational structures to make an operational commitment to outreach and engagement. In Canada, university continuing education units have traditionally been involved in activities that fit within the concept of outreach and engagement, and leaders of such units should consider the implications of the outreach and engagement movement. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Many commentators have argued that Canadian university continuing education has gradually abandoned its historical commitment to social justice in educational programming in favour of a market-oriented approach. Although such literature clearly expresses a deeply-felt sentiment among continuing educators, it has tended to have two problems. First, many proponents of this view have not explained what they mean by social justice, which makes informed discussion of this issue difficult. Second, in praising historical adult education as a social justice movement, many commentators have neglected to provide coherent and pragmatic alternatives for the present. This article addresses these two problems by providing a dialogic theory of social justice, derived from political philosophy, as a conceptual framework to examine ways in which a new understanding of social justice could be practically applied in both strategic and program planning for university continuing education. This conceptual framework is then used to guide and inform a discussion of how information and communications technologies (ICT) can be used by university-based continuing education units to develop and implement learning opportunities designed to empower persons and organizations working for social justice. (Contains 1 endnote.)

This article measures the effectiveness of Kentucky Teacher Academy (KTA). Twenty-one teachers attended the week-long seminar. While attending KTA, they received a stipend and also earned continuing education credit. Teachers of the visually impaired and science teachers received priority, on the basis of the generally accepted practice of "full inclusion," whereby science teachers and special education teachers work cooperatively in the classroom to teach difficult subject matter to students with special needs. The results from the Content Knowledge Test and the Questionnaire indicate that attendance at the KTA had a positive impact on the teachers' level of knowledge about science and nature studies, perception of using an outdoor setting as a classroom, and degree of comfort when teaching science and nature studies to children who are visually impaired. This article recommends the KTA and encourages the use of outdoor classrooms as a teaching medium for students who are visually impaired. The authors view the KTA as a potential model for developing similar programs through which more teachers can become comfortable with teaching science and environmental concepts to students who are visually impaired. (Contains 1 table.)

Discusses a 50-state survey by the National Council for Continuing Education regarding the issue of funding for noncredit courses in community colleges. Reports that 17 states include noncredit courses for funding on an FTE basis, and that no states fund hobby, avocational, or recreation non-credit classes. Argues that lifelong learning is a crucial factor in American economics. Contains four tables. (NB)

In 1968, a task force was appointed, by the National Planning Conference on the Feasibility of a Uniform Crediting and Certification System for Continuing Education, to study the feasibility of a uniform unit of measurement of noncredit continuing education programs which could be used by noncollegiate and collegiate institutions and continuing education activities to meet current needs. The Continuing Education Unit (CEU) was defined by the task force: ten contact hours of participation in an organized continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction. The Southern Association of Schools and Colleges officially adopted the CEU in its revised Standard Nine for continuing education activities. The adoption of the CEU is becoming increasingly widespread. The National University Extension Association, in addition to being one of the sponsors of the conference cited, is concerned with the issues concerning the CEU: the quality control of noncredit activities and the need for an accrediting association, the institutional arrangement for accrediting, and the financing of CEU-related activities. (AG)