FYI, the Institute on Community Integration Staff Newsletter

December 2011

RTC’s College of Direct Support Anchors New Nationwide Online Curriculum Series

After more than a decade of success with its College of Direct Support, an innovative online curriculum for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), the Institute’s Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC) is partnering with Elsevier/MC Strategies to further expand online training for professionals who support people who have intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities; those with psychiatric disabilities; as well as those who are aging. In November, they launched DirectCourse, an expanded suite of online curricula that will not only include the College of Direct Support, but also three additional curriculum series developed by new partners from other universities.

The College of Direct Support (CDS) was developed at the RTC and is managed in partnership with Elsevier/MC Strategies, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information. Currently used in over 32 states by more than 250,000 learners, CDS is a comprehensive set of Web-based courses for DSPs based on proven competencies needed to provide high quality support to individuals with disabilities. And it is the model that DirectCourse emulates in the new online offerings.

DirectCourse is initially offering two different curriculum series:

  • The CDS curriculum for DSPs and their supervisors, designed to equip DSPs to empower and support people with disabilities in community living.

  • The just-launched College of Employment Services curriculum, developed by the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and designed to equip employment professionals to excel in guiding people with disabilities and other challenges toward rewarding jobs.

Two additional curriculum series will be joining DirectCourse in the near future: (1) The College of Personal Assistance and Caregiving, developed by the Research and Training Center for Personal Assistance Services at the University of California, San Francisco, which is scheduled for release in 2012 and will offer a curriculum for home care providers delivering personal care services to individuals with physical disabilities and older adults; and (2) a curriculum focusing on services for people with psychiatric disabilities, which is being developed by the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities and is anticipated to be ready for release in early 2013.

“This is an important expansion of our work on CDS over the past 10 years,” says Amy Hewitt, RTC Director. “The DirectCourse collaboration opens a new set of opportunities for increasing the scope and quality of services being delivered to people with disabilities and those who are aging across this country. We’re using the proven approach of online, on-demand, competency-based training that responds to the way adults in these fields actually learn best. And through this coursework, we’re setting clear national standards for the industry, which increases the professional status, job performance, and job satisfaction of these important segments of our workforce, and the quality of services and care they deliver.”

FFI, visit www.directcourseonline.com or contact Amy at hewit005@umn.edu or 612-625-1098.