| Initiatives Certification
with Honors Program Based on feedback from course participants and after research, analysis and discussion, the Certification Board of Governors (CBG) and Ethics & Professional Standards Committee (EPSC) unanimously recommended that situations and lessons learned from them be given more emphasis in Certification Programs. The CBG approved the initiative in December 2004 which includes adding case studies and related short-answer questions to individual course final and certification exams. The CBG and EPSC were convinced multiple-choice questions alone did not adequately measure the full range of knowledge a student takes away or should take away from courses and certification exams. These situations will provide an opportunity to practically consider and apply material learned to further assess individual ability to find information in the regulations and relate responses to specific circumstances. Course participants will review a scenario and then respond to specific short-answer questions that apply directly to the case study to include identifying violations, issues, courses of action and making recommendations. Exam case studies will include at least five related short-answer questions. On final and certification exams, case studies will represent no more than 20% of the total exam grade. Situations and related questions can be submitted by students to individual course instructors or developed by Content Area Specialists. All case studies must be reviewed by Content Area Specialists and validated by an independent Subject Matter Expert before inclusion in any course’s curriculum. Case studies for course exams will not be the same as those used in the related certification exam. A phased implementation of this initiative began January 1st, 2005, with the goal of all certification programs including case study based situations with related short-answer questions on final and certification exams by the end of 2005. Emphasis on Case Studies and Situation-Based Questions, along with implementation and results of this initiative and the above criteria are monitored and reevaluated by the CBG and EPSC to insure goals are met.
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