Parents licensed by CK Family Services for foster care, adoption, respite care, or as professional parents have a new method for obtaining their annual and ongoing required training. CK University is an online learning management system accessible via a variety of internet connected devices.
“We are excited to offer CK University to our families as a way to improve their access to the same high-quality training they would receive from our in-person training opportunities.” – Daniel Lund, CK COO
It was important to us that the online learning experience feel direct and personal. The first course we made available via CK University was Behavior Management (taught by Lori Fangue, LPC and Ryan North). We are blessed to support many well-seasoned foster and professional parents. Because these parents have participated in annual behavior management training multiple times in recent years, it was important that Lori and Ryan put a fresh face on the presentation. We believe that they did a great job and early reviews of our new online behavior management course are very positive.
In addition to behavior management, we have added CK Policies & Procedures for Medication Administration (taught by Gregorita Smith, RN) and also a refreshed version of CK’s Cultural Competency course (taught by Elaine Tinius, Director of Family Development). It is our plan to continue to add courses over time to provide our families with convenient access to innovative tools for success.
How to Access the Courses:
The first step is to visit www.ckuniversity.org and register your account. Please note that each person needs their own account. So, if you are a two-parent home, both mom and dad need their own unique login (this will become very important at the end of each course as certificates are automatically generated for the person the account was created for). Be sure to provide your real name and an email address you have access to. After completing this step you will still not have immediate access to the courses. Do not panic. See below.
The second step takes place behind the scenes. A CK Family Services employee logs into CK University once each business day and enrolls those who have registered, since the day before, in the courses that they are eligible to participate in. So, if you are an actively licensed foster or professional parent, they will enroll you in each of the three courses listed above. The system will generate an email, that is sent to the address you provided when you signed up, letting you know that you have been enrolled in the courses. At this point you can log back in to CK University and begin your coursework.
We decided to use this two-step registration/enrollment process so that the courses are only accessible by those parents and staff who are licensed or work for CK Family Services. Please note, this does mean that you should register immediately and not wait until the day your previous training is set to expire. We do not guarantee you will have access to these courses any quicker than 1 business day following the day you initially register your account at CK University.
However, after you have been enrolled in a course by our staff you will have unrestricted access to the courses from that point forward.
Course Completion and Certificates:
CK University has been set up to prevent the possibility that folks might fast forward through the content. We stand behind the value of the content and believe that it is important that our parents participate fully. Each course will have their own requirements, but in general, parents can expect learning content (usually video), quizzes and/or examination, and a course evaluation.
After watching the course content and passing the course quizzes/examinations at an acceptable proficiency CK University will automatically generate a certificate of completion. The certificate will use the First and Last name our parents used to create their account and it will email the certificate (or link to access the certificate) to the email address used to register the account. For these reasons, it is vitally important that parents use their real names and an email address they have access to for account creation.
One final note on certificates. The date on the certificate will be the date when the course is completed. So, if a parent begins a 3-hour course at 10:00 pm on July 27, 2019 and completes the course at 1:00 am on July 28, 2019; the date on the certificate will be July 28, 2019. Please plan accordingly to ensure you renew your previous year’s annual training timely.
“CK University is one example of our commitment to innovation and our ongoing efforts to empower our parents and staff to achieve their full potential.” – Shawn Wilson, Director of Strategy and Business Development
As with all things “new”, there will be a learning curve and we anticipate working through the growing pains quickly and cooperatively. If you have questions regarding CK University, please email communications@ckfamilyservices.org.