National certification and licensing examinations are sometimes a requirement to practice or work in a career field. Those taking these exams are either recent graduates or working professionals wanting to level up their skills or add credentials. Discover how a blended learning model is effective in an exam preparatory course.

Many professions require national certification or licensing examinations to be able to either enter the career field or earn higher levels of credentialing that are nationally recognized as professional competencies or skills expertise. Many of these examinations are developed so that they can be administered nationwide in computerized proctored testing centers. The formatting of these exam types are created to establish a benchmark for required professional standards. They are designed for form equating in difficulty and content coverage in addition to validity, reliability, and ensuring fairness in the administration of the exam. They are meant to challenge the test takers within comprehensible limits. But taking these types of exams creates an overall challenge for those preparing for them. This is where a blended learning model can help. In today’s educational marketplace, whether offered by an independent company, non-profit organization, or higher education institution, exam prep courses can create a sizable revenue potential, especially if offered with online and virtual components, and can generate reliable outcomes. But which ones are created with true instructional design in mind? In this discovery session, we explore an applied deployment of a blended learning model using a combination of independent online asynchronous pre-work completion, attendance of live webinars, and the formation of smaller peer groups with a study coach leader, to demonstrate its effectiveness on desired outcomes. Discussion topics and activities related to this presentation include understanding the value of time in real time space, empowering adult learners who may have been out of practice in “studying” and how to help them engage without fear, equipping test takers with strategy and knowledge combined, the importance of quality instructor recruitment to keep the pace and focus for the duration of the course, and utilizing instructional design tools and techniques to create a formidable learning experience for course registrants that gets results in comparison to other competitors’ educational offerings. Level of Participation: This session is structured as a live discussion group along with some table games to identify Challenges, Course Tools, and Content Components needed for the instructional design of a results oriented standardized exam preparatory course. Session Goals: Individuals attending this discovery session will be able to apply concepts of a blended learning model to the development of a professional exam preparatory course. They will be able to identify tools and resources that can be used for curriculum development in a blended learning format. And finally, they will be able to leverage interactivity for adult learners in the course to foster positive outcomes.