Overview
The Professional Development Manager (PDM) serves as the lead for all matters related to a SIG’s continuing education and professional development activities.
One of the main benefits available to SIG affiliates is the opportunity to earn ASHA continuing education units (CEUs) by studying their SIGs’ Perspectives articles. PDMs play a key role in planning and registering Perspectives Continuing Education (CE) activities so that they are available to SIG affiliates.
This page contains information about the PDM’s responsibilities related to planning out Perspectives CE activities. The PDM has a unique role as both reviewer and editor, as their key tasks in this area involve
- reviewing all articles eligible for continuing education and
- editing the learning outcomes.
Finally, the PDM is responsible for compiling and submitting the Final Issue File form, which we use to register the CE activity with ASHA.
For more information about the PDM’s other responsibilities, see the SIG Volunteer Leadership Handbook.
Note
Some SIGs choose to use a CE Content Manager to support the PDM’s work. On this page, we will refer to all tasks as belonging to the PDM, regardless of whether they are completed by the PDM or by the CE Content Manager. See the SIG Volunteer Leadership Handbook for more information about the CE Content Manager role.
Planning Perspectives CE Activities
The PDM is responsible for planning CE activities. A good CE activity has an engaging title that
- connects with users,
- is themed around a unique topic, and
- contains two to four articles.
Telling ASHA staff about planned CE activities is helpful. Doing so ensures that they’re registered on time.
You can plan activities ahead of time, create activities around already published content, or use some combination of the two—as long as an article doesn’t appear in two different CE activities. You can flag articles for a future CE activity, including those in a different year than the article is published, if you’re planning a topic or a themed collection.
CE Activity Timeline
There are two key annual deadlines of note:
|
Date |
Description |
|
July 1 |
It is strongly recommended that SIGs submit their first CE activity of the year by this date. |
|
September 1 |
This is the last date on which you can submit a CE activity to be published in the same calendar year. |
The table below outlines the general timeframe for the activities associated with publishing a CE activity.
|
Timeframe |
Activity |
|
3 months before CE activity publish date |
Editor informs PDM that all articles for planned self-study are accepted. |
|
2 months before CE activity publish date (beginning) |
PDM submits completed CE Final Issue File via Editorial Manager. |
|
2 months before CE activity publish date (middle) |
ASHA staff submits CE forms to APD. |
|
1.5 months before CE activity publish date |
ASHA staff submits CE activity and articles to ASHA CE. |
|
↓ |
|
|
CE self-study becomes available on the ASHA Store. |
|
CE Minimums and Maximums
To maintain parity across the SIGs and the benefits that they offer to affiliates, ASHA has set minimums and maximums for the number of CE activities that a SIG can produce each year.
|
Minimum |
Maximum |
|
1 CE activity per year |
4 CE activities per year |
|
1 articlea |
4 articlesb |
|
aMust be more than 3,000 words, not including title page, references, or figures. bMust be no more than 18,000 words, not including title page, references, or figures. |
|
After the PDM submits the activity, ASHA’s Professional Development team will calculate the ASHA CEUs for each CE activity. Remember, more CEUs are a better value for your affiliates!
Reviewing
PDMs are responsible for reviewing all manuscripts submitted for their SIG. PDMs use a website called Editorial Manager® to review all manuscripts and learning outcomes. When a new manuscript is submitted, you (as the PDM) will receive a notification.
Reviewing Manuscripts
The Editorial Manager application will ask you to answer two questions for each submitted manuscript.
- Has the author provided learning outcomes that can be achieved by reading the paper?
- Is this paper written at a graduate level?
If desired, you can use the additional comments box to provide general feedback about the manuscript.
Reviewing Learning Outcomes
Authors are required to provide one to three learning outcomes with their submission. The author-provided learning outcomes should meet all of the following requirements:
- Focus on the learner’s
- State the outcome in clear, concise, measurable, and observable
- Avoid vague words—such as understand, know, become aware of, or become familiar with—that are difficult to measure. Instead, choose action verbs—such as perform, identify, describe, explain, demonstrate (for suggested verbs and activities, see ASHA’s summary of Bloom’s Taxonomy).
- Relate course content directly to the sciences as they pertain to audiology; speech-language pathology; speech, language, and hearing science; and/or the contemporary practice of audiology or speech-language pathology.
You should review the learning outcomes provided and choose at least one to include when compiling the CE materials.
A good learning outcome
- provides a foundation for developing the course’s format, content, and assessment tool;
- tells the participant what they are expected to do as a result of the learning event; and
- assists potential participants in determining whether the course is appropriate for their level of knowledge and skills.
If you determine that the author-provided learning outcomes do not meet the criteria above, you can (1) suggest minor edits to improve the learning outcomes or (2) suggest that the author completely replace or substantively edit a learning outcome.
Compiling Final Issue Files
For each CE activity, PDMs submit the Final Issue File document. ASHA Professional Development uses the information provided in the Final Issue File to register the CE activity for ASHA CEUs.
The Final Issue File document asks for the information listed below. A template of the Final Issue File (.docx) is available to download.
Title
Assign the activity a formal title. The title of the activity should be unique and to the point (under 50 characters). It should also help readers determine if this is an activity that they want to complete. If the title is longer than 50 characters, please ensure that the most important info is at the front.
Short Description for CE Transcript
Write a brief paragraph that describes all the articles in the activity. The paragraph should be under 400 characters and written in past tense.
Regular Description
Describe all the articles in the activity using present tense. There is no character limit for this description.
Learning Outcomes
Assign at least one learning outcome to each article. They should be written in the format on the sample Final Issue File.
CE Subject Code
Select one CE Subject Code from ASHA’s Subject Code page for all articles in the activity.
List of Articles in this CE Activity
List the article titles and authors contained in the CE activity.
Submitting CE Files to Editorial Manager
For step-by-step instructions on submitting your CE files, visit Editorial Manager’s Instructions for PDMs page.
