Online Training Professional Certification

This session is taught in a live, online format by multiple online instructors. Not only will you learn the best practices for live, online training, but you will also learn by example from some of the leading professionals in online course delivery.

Computers, headsets, connections, and more—the setup for hosting an online class can be quite elaborate. In this course, you will get an introduction to the basics, so you can get up and running as soon as you complete your certification program.

Making the conversion from teaching in a live, face-to-face classroom to teaching online is not a seamless operation. Many aspects of the class need to change, including course handouts, PowerPoint slides, learning activities, and even your own communication style. In this section, you’ll learn how to make the conversion. You’ll evaluate course handouts, slides, and classroom learning activities to discover what needs to change. Everything you might do in the classroom has its parallel in the online classroom. Here you will discover what those parallels are and how to make them effective.

Empathy, personality, confidence, informality. These are just some of the personal characteristics you want to project to your online audience, all while delivering content and creating a learning experience. In this section we will address questions such as when does a class become an audience? How do I handle disruptive students? Is it ok to use humor—and how do I know how it is coming across? Giving an online class is part teaching, part public speaking, part classroom management—and by the end of this section, you will have techniques for online presentation that will give you confidence and your audience a positive online experience.

Quizzes and polls can be delivered informally as part of the minute by minute interactivity of your online class. But more formal quizzes and polls can also be set up in your online classroom platform. What should the various quizzes and polls cover? That is what this section is about.

You know that people complain about death by PowerPoint when in-person presenters deliver bullet point after bullet point, reading each slide to the audience. Think how much more deadly boring this type of presentation would be online! Nevertheless, PowerPoint may play a major part in your online training. If you are teaching soft skills or conceptual skills, it may be your main visual communication tool. If you are teaching software, PowerPoint will still play a role in framing your lessons with agendas and supplemental information.

In this section, a professional graphic designer will coach you through the fundamentals of designing effective PowerPoint slides for online training. You’ll learn some basic design concepts and specific techniques for designing slides that will effectively illustrate and support your online training.

During the afternoon of Day 2 of the certification program, you will prepare and deliver a segment of online training on a topic of your choice. One or more of our certified trainers will evaluate your presentation. If all goes as planned, you will leave this two-day training with the live proficiency exam passed.

The ICCOTP Certification Program is not just a “certificate” stating that you attended a class. Instead, it is a certification: a credential certifying that you have mastered the content and achieved proficiency in delivering high-quality online course material. As part of that certification, you must pass a written exam covering the content you learn during the certification class. You have 60 days after the two-day online program to complete and pass the certification exam. We recommend that you attempt the exam as soon as you possibly can after the two-day session. That way, the material is fresh in your mind, and you very likely will pass the exam on your first try. However, if at first you don’t succeed, you have a free retake.

Once you have taken the two-day training, successfully completed the live proficiency exam, and passed the written exam, you will be officially listed in the ICCOTP online registry of certified online training professionals. You will receive a certification document suitable for printing, and you are authorized to use the phrase Certified Online Training Professional, or COTP, on resumes and other documents. The certification is good for two years, and then requires renewal.