College of Direct Support

21^st Century Learning for 21^st Century Careers

Thank you for your interest in the College of Direct Support (CDS). This information is meant to provide you with an overview of the design and purpose of the CDS, and will answer some of your questions. If you have questions that are not answered here, please call or e-mail us.

As you know, the need for high quality, thorough, on-demand training for people in direct support roles is crucial to the well being of the people they support. Many direct support professionals (DSPs) work odd hours. They also juggle daily lives that may include multiple jobs, raising children, going to school, and keeping up with other interests. With high turnover rates and a growing demand for services, new DSPs need to be trained everyday. The CDS was designed with these needs in mind.

The CDS provides carefully designed training in the areas that have been identified as most important in the work of DSPs. All the training is available over the Internet. This means it is accessible anytime and anywhere that multimedia and Internet-ready computers are available. Learners participate in training at the times and places that are best for them. Whenever and wherever they participate, learners receive the same consistent, high quality training that has undergone rigorous review by nationally recognized content and training experts.

To meet the needs of adult learners in a distance education setting, the CDS content -

Is learner-paced.
Uses highly effective instructional methods such as multimedia, learner reflection, and interactions to present concepts.
Includes related on-the-job skill assessments.
Provides learner support such as a learner tutorial, an online glossary, and links to additional resources.
Can be tailored by system administrators to meet individual training plan needs.
Can be annotated by the administrator to include content that reflects the employer's or state's perspectives on the material.
Is flexible in responding to the specific needs, amount of time, available hours in the day, and location of each learner.

As a high quality instructional program, the CDS is based on a careful analysis of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of DSPs in their daily work. The CDS helps users understand and apply these important competencies and ethical practices through timely, innovative, engaging, and interesting training. In addition to being a training and information resource that is filled with rich, interactive, and important content, the CDS offers -

A learner management system. This system lets administrators customize and assign content. It also allows administrators, supervisors, and learners to track completion of assigned content, tests, and skill demonstrations, and provide a placement record of all training completed.
A set of recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction tools. These tools are helpful in tracking important information that can be used to improve the recruitment, retention and training of DSPs and identify and address human resources problems within the organization.

The next few pages in this booklet provide you with an overview of the current CDS courses and upcoming improvements and events related to the CDS. You can read about how courses are developed. You can find out which courses are in the planning and development phases. Information regarding the project staff and editorial and national advisory board members is included. In addition, there are answers to some of the most common questions that people have regarding the CDS.

We appreciate your interest in the CDS and we hope you find this information helpful!

For more information, please click on the buttons below.

For questions or comments please write us at:
College of Direct Support
Sertoma Center, Inc., 1400 East Fifth Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917
cds-info@webinservice.com
(865) 934-0221

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21st Century Learning for 21st Century Careers

21^st Century Learning for 21^st Century Careers