First, let's differentiate between the two pertinent terms: course and program.
What is a certified course?
Certified courses are often short in duration - they can be as short as a few hours or last several days. A certified training course usually leads to an examination through which learners certify their knowledge and understanding. Successful students typically receive a certificate or digital badge as proof they have an understanding of the topic covered. APMG’s Foundation level courses are commonly taught by training providers in three days, whereas our practitioner level courses are often taught over two days following the successful completion of the foundation course.
Courses are created by subject matter experts and can cover a wide variety of subjects.
What is a certified program?
While a certified course is an individual module or session, a training program is a number of related training courses, designed to achieve a broader educational or developmental objective. Programs are often longer in duration, and can take weeks, months or even years to complete.
Certified courses can be part of a certified program. APMG have worked with the Agile Business Consortium to develop a certified program of courses covering several aspects of business agility. In this case an individual is unlikely to take every course:
- Agile Project Management
- Agile Programme Management
- Agile Business Analyst
- Agile Digital Services
- AgilePM for Scrum
Another style of certified program is demonstrated by the Praxis Framework which brings together guidance from various professional bodies, making its courses relevant to project, program and portfolio management disciplines. The Praxis Pathway has four levels - initially Foundation, Practitioner and Professional. Once you earn your Professional Praxis certification, it provides a route to the fourth level, Chartered Status, which is awarded by the UK’s Association for Project Management. An individual is likely to take each course over a period of years.
Crucially, certification programs benefit both the end user and the organization creating them. The end user can choose the course most appropriate to the current or next stage of their career. By following a certified program of study, terminology is used consistently across the courses enhancing understanding and user adoption. The organization developing the program can reach a wider market with their best practice concepts.
To discover more benefits of creating a certification program, take a look at our blog: Benefits of Creating a Certification Program.
Steps to Develop a Certified Course or Program
1. Identifying the Need for a Certification Course or Program
Start with the end in mind. Before developing your certified course or program, you need to decide exactly what you are trying to achieve and who your target audience is. This seems obvious but is often overlooked.
You will need to decide how you will convince people that your Course or Program is credible. Will you link it to a book you publish or a collection of works by others? Or will you align it with accepted best practice e.g ISO standards. Using existing guidance can work very well, not everything has to be new, but your message should be unique.
To clearly define your target audience, you should consider factors such as industry, job roles, and specific skills or knowledge your certified course or program will cover. This needs to be clearly aligned with the expectations of your target group you seek to engage with through the certification. Tailoring your certification according to these factors will enhance your chances of success.
By conducting thorough market research, you can gain valuable insights to help design a successful and in-demand professional certification course or program that meets the needs of both candidates and industry. Conducting market research should involve competitor analysis by identifying good examples of certified courses created by other organizations and analyzing industry trends to ensure your certification focuses on content that will provide original advice that is likely to attract candidates.
This research will also help determine if the demand is for a one-off training course or lengthier certification program – which could include several courses. Or if there is already a crowded market and you need to consider another approach.
Once you know your market, defining the course or program objectives will involve outlining the desired learning outcomes for candidates, aligning them with industry standards and agreeing on the scope of the certification. This can often be challenging because if it is too narrow, the course or program becomes very niche and therefore not many people are interested. If it is too high level, aimed at experienced people, they may question why they need it. If it is too broad and takes too long to learn, very few people will commit the time and effort. As with many projects and programmes, scoping is critical. Get it right and it can lead to success.
2. Developing the Certified Course or Program
Once the objectives are set, you need to decide what you'll teach and how you'll teach it. Organize the topics you will address in a logical order, ensuring foundational concepts are introduced before more advanced ones. Constructing a syllabus—akin to a roadmap for your certified course or program —is an essential step. A syllabus provides a structured snapshot of the course or program’s content, typically including:
- An overview of the course or program's objective
- The goal of the course or program
- The intended audience for each course
- What a successful participant should either know or be able to do by the end of each course
- The methods that will be used to evaluate a participants' understanding
As you flesh out your course or certification program and define its structure. You need to decide on the following:
- Will be a singular course or an extended program.
- Will it span several days, or is it designed for self-paced learning?
- The delivery method: in-person, online, or a hybrid of both.
These days most courses or programs incorporate a mix of teaching methods to cater for different learning styles. This can range from lectures and videos to interactive role-playing. Appropriate materials and resources, like textbook and videos, may need to be created. Once this structure is established, it is time to consider how you will measure participants' understanding.
3. Establishing the assessement method
The assessment method must relate to what successful students are expected to be able to do. This could involve creating quizzes or exams, practical assignments, or peer reviews; essentially, it boils down to the method you feel will accurately test understanding of the contents of the certified course or program.
The most common approach, especially for basic courses is a multiple-choice exam. They are widely accepted, easy to administer and can be delivered and proctored online.
For a multiple-choice exam, there is no definitive answer for the optimum length of an examination paper, though ideally 80% of the syllabus should be tested. APMG believe most topics can be fairly assessed within an hour with between 40 and 75 questions. Our experience over the last 30 years shows that this is appropriate to a wide range of subjects testing at Blooms levels 1 and 2. Blooms is a widely used classification system in the education sector, used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition. Levels 1 and 2 referred to above comprise of remembering and understanding. APMG also have extensive experience in designing assessments above Blooms level 2.
Multiple choice exam questions may look simple but over the years we have collected information, commissioned research and from our own experiences, learned how to do it properly.
Setting the pass mark is always difficult. A lot of organisations opt for a 50% pass mark which may or may not be appropriate and depends on many factors, for example the degree of subject difficulty and/or the discriminatory power of particular questions. This needs careful thought and possibly experimentation as we have found that once you set the pass mark, it is very difficult to change it so it’s worth testing before going live.
4. Ensuring Accessibility and Inclusivity
It is important to ensure you are creating an experience that is accessible to everyone, supporting diverse learners by adhering to accessibility guidelines. For example, this could mean having the option available to allow different exam access arrangements for those who might require it, i.e., granting a candidate extra time to complete the exam, the use of assistive technology (AT) or comfort breaks during an exam.
5. Partnering with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
If you are developing a certified course or program from your Intellectual Property, you will be a Subject matter expert (SME). If your course or program is an original idea based on existing material, partnering with SMEs will help ensure the course or program you create includes accurate, relevant information and is of a high standard and quality. Collaborating with them on content development, will ensure the course content is up to date and remains relevant and in line with any expected industry standards.
This expert may not have the skills to develop an Assessment, which is one of the areas APMG can help with, as we have a long track record of working with SMEs to create and deliver assessments.
6. Implementing Quality Assurance Methods
To ensure your certification is of the highest quality, you will need to implement a Quality Assurance System.
You might want to begin by establishing a review process. For example, you could have both internal and external feedback which after consideration can be used to update the course or program accordingly.
We also recommend the use of pilot exam papers, where volunteers complete both a training course and the exam before its official launch. This enables you to ensure the paper is at the right level for its target market and to confirm an appropriate pass mark.
Quality assurance is also essential for maintaining assessment method standards. That's why, when APMG creates an exam to evaluate understanding, we thoroughly test and regularly review the exam questions. Contrary to the common practice of having experts review exam questions, we believe it's more effective to have the target audience trial them. Experts are likely to know the answers already, which doesn't provide an accurate gauge of a question's difficulty or relevance.
7. Marketing the Certification
Before marketing your course or program, prioritize building a strong brand identity. This includes crafting a memorable name, logo, and a compelling Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A professional, user-friendly website showcasing your brand, optimized with relevant keywords and quality content, can improve how you rank in search engine rankings.
Leverage online marketing through social media and content, sharing insightful content like articles and infographics related to your certification. Customer testimonials and reviews serve as genuine endorsements, enhancing trust and credibility.
Strategic partnerships, such as collaborations with industry associations or educational institutions, can expand your reach and presence. Co-marketing with complementary businesses, for example, can amplify your efforts.
8. Maintaining the Certified course or program
Monitoring and updating your professional certification is essential for staying relevant, maintaining credibility, and keeping up with industry advancements. Monitoring the course or program may entail tracking course enrolment data to gauge the reach of your certification. You should certainly seek learner feedback to use to improve your course or program and ensure the experience is meeting customer’s expectations.
To ensuring continuous improvement and remain relevant you will need to regularly update the course(s) content in line with current industry trends and this user feedback. Continuous tracking and improvement demonstrates your commitment to ongoing learning, adaptability and dedication to professional growth.
To recap, the eight steps to creating a certified course or program are:
- Indentifying the need for a certified course or program
- Developing the certified course or program
- Establishing the assessment method
- Ensuring Accessibility and inclusivity
- Partnering with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- Implementing Quality Assurance Methods
- Marketing the Certified Course or Program
- Maintaining the Certified course or program
These steps are not set in stone but are things we have found work for us in over 30 years of experience in the certification industry. If you want to create a certified course or program and need help, fill out the contact form below, and we'll explain how we can assist you.