Overview
The Professional Development Manager (PDM) works with the SIG Perspectives editor plan out continuing education (CE) activities. The PDM also has a unique role as both editor and reviewer, reviewing all articles eligible for continuing education and editing the learning outcomes. Finally, they are responsible for
compiling and submitting the Final Issue Files form online.
Note
Some SIGs choose to delegate the role of the Professional Development Manager (PDM) in Perspectives to another position, known as the Continuing Education (CE) Manager. For our purposes, we will refer to all tasks as belonging to the PDM, whether completed by the PDM or CE Manager
Planning CE Activities
Exercises can be planned ahead of time, created around already published content, or some combination of the two, as long as an article doesn’t appear in two different CE activities (no “double-dipping”). You can flag articles for a future CE activity next year if you are planning a topic or themed collection. Letting ASHA staff know about planned CE activities is helpful to ensure they’re registered on time.
CE Minimums and Maximums
- Minimum 1 CE activity per year
- Minimum 0.05 CEUs (roughly one 10-page article [not including title page, references, or figures])
- Maximum 4 CE activities per year
- Maximum of 0.3 CEUs per exam (No more than 5 articles, or 4 longer articles)
If you have any questions about the length of a planned activity, ASHA staff can help you estimate the CEUs. Remember, more CEUs are a better value for your affiliates!
Reviewing
All manuscripts should be reviewed via Editorial Manager. Upon submission, you’ll receive a notification when there’s a manuscript for you to review in the system.
Reviewing Manuscripts
As a PDM, you will be asked to answer these two questions for manuscripts submitted in Editorial Manager.
- Has the author provided learning outcomes that can be achieved by reading the paper?
- Is this paper written at a graduate level?
If you would like to provide additional comments about the manuscript more generally in your review, there is an additional comments box available, but it is not required.
Reviewing Learning Outcomes
The author will provide 1–3 learning outcomes. Typically, you’ll just have to choose one when compiling the CE materials. A good learning outcome:
- provides a foundation for developing the course’s format, content, and assessment tool,
- informs the participant what they are expected to do as a result of the learning event, and
- assists potential participants in determining if the course is appropriate for their level of knowledge and skills.
The author provided learning outcomes should:
- Focus on the performance of the learner.
- Be stated in clear, concise, measurable, and observable terms.
- Avoid vague words—such as understand, know, become aware of, or becrome familiar with—that are difficult to measure. Instead, choose action verbs, such as perform, identify, describe, explain, demonstrate (for suggested verbs and activities, see Bloom’s Taxonomy).
- Relate the content of the course directly to the sciences as they pertain to speech-language pathology; audiology; speech, language, and hearing science; and/or the contemporary practice of speech-language pathology or audiology.
Compiling Final Issue Files
For each CE activity, CE Managers are asked to submit the final issue files document. The Final Issue Files document contains a number of fields to be filled out. You can download a blank version of the Final Issue Files from the ASHA Journals Academy.
Title
The title of the exam should be unique and to the point. It should also help readers determine if this is an exam they want to take.
Short Description for CE Transcript
A brief paragraph—under 400 characters and written in past tense—that describes all of the articles in the exam.
Regular Description
Like the short description, but written in the present tense with no character limit.
Learning Outcomes
Typically, one learning outcome from each article. They should be written in the format attached.
CE Subject Code
One CE Subject Code for all articles in the exam, selected from ASHA’s Subject Code page.
For step-by-step instructions on submitting your CE files, visit the Editorial Manager Instructions for PDMs page.
