Instructor Qualifications: Creating Your Process

As an ASHA CE Provider, you need to ensure that your courses are planned and taught by qualified personnel who have identified and disclosed any relevant relationships to the course content. There are various ways to review course planners and instructors. This page includes questions and resources that you may want to consider as part of your instructor selection process. You could pose these as reflection questions for course planners and instructors or create a checklist for those involved in instructor selection. Feel free to incorporate this information into your learning management system or into other forms or programs that you use.

Course Planner and Instructor Information

You may choose to collect the following information from potential planners and instructors:

Proposed course title
Course description
Learning outcomes
Curriculum vitae, resume, and/or biography
List of related licensures and certifications
Record of recent and relevant professional development

The following questions will help you assess the planner’s and instructor’s qualifications:

What clinical or professional experiences do you have that are related to this course content?
What teaching or research experience do you have that is related to this course content?
What experience do you have with creating engaging continuing education courses?
What professional development have you engaged in over the past few years related to this course content (e.g., courses, article reviews, mentoring, on-the-job training, etc.)? (NOTE: You may also choose to present this as a statement attesting that the instructor has engaged in relevant professional development to remain current in this content area.)

Course Planner and Instructor Disclosures

Learners expect to receive course content that is free from real or perceived bias. As part of your instructor selection process, you will need to determine if any conflicts of interest exist and, if so, how to mitigate them.

The following questions will help you determine the next steps you need to take:

Is this course going to focus on a specific product or service, with limited to no information about similar products?
If yes, which product or service?
What is the instructor’s relationship to this product or service?
Please see the course content disclosure page for information about how to format content disclosures.
If not, no further action is needed.
Do you have any personal, professional, or financial relationships that are related to this course content?
If yes, see the course planner and instructor disclosure page for information about what you must disclose and how to disclose it.
If not, see the sample disclosure statements for information on how to format this statement. Every instructor must have a disclosure statement, even if they have nothing to disclose.