The CMALT Zumba class

“Zumba at People's Park Davao City” by Jeff Pioquinto cc-by-2.0

Next week, the BLE kicks-off its third CMALT cohort - with a whopping 22 candidates. CMALT is the Association for Learning Technology's Certified Membership scheme providing professional accreditation for anyone whose work involves using technology. Accreditation is achieved by successful submission of an online portfolio, which details examples of practice in the use of technology. Over the past two years, 30 staff members from across the BLE partners have set off on their CMALT voyage - and so far we have had nine colleagues successfully accredited. Colleagues work across all areas of the institution including TEL/e-learning, library, teaching and support, careers, administration and IT services.

Although anyone can register for CMALT and work independently, being part of a cohort offers scaffolded support to get candidates through completion of the portfolio. In this way, it's like joining a gym or a Zumba class, where peer support and a little peer pressure can make a big difference to a successful outcome.

This week, I'm heading to ALT-C - the Association's annual conference to present a paper about the BLE Cohort scheme - you can see the slides below. The paper will be jointly presented with Susan Greig from the University of Edinburgh, who also runs a cohort scheme in her neck of the woods. You can see out slides below.

Later in the year, we will be running a webinar to expand on our paper and offer further insights into managing cohorts, which will be particularly useful for other institutions thinking about doing the same thing.