Department of State Pilot Online Training

From AFSWiki

Please be advised that AFS-USA was chosen to participate in the pilot of the DoS Online training module. Late Feb 1, volunteer and staff members of the Hosting, Support, Compliance, Sponsored Programs and Volunteer Development were sent the below email inviting them to participate. Stay tuned to the wiki for further updates.

Dear Members of the Support, Hosting, Compliance, Sponsored Programs and Volunteer Development Advisory Groups, This afternoon we learned that AFS-USA has been identified as one of the seven sponsors to test the new Department of State Local Coordinator online training module. For more information about this new requirement, please see this link: Private:New State Department Regulations Published

The Department of State has requested our feedback on the module by this Friday, February 4th. We recognize that this is an extremely tight deadline and therefore we are “throwing a wide net” and asking for more users than we need to ensure that we reach the 50 users that the Department of State has requested. That having been said, we need to ask as many of you as possible to complete the module by this Thursday evening.

How it works:

• You’ll receive a separate email with instructions on how to access the training. Please do not forward the user information you will be provided to others, as it is unique to you and your email address.
• The module contains 30 questions and is intended to take roughly 20-30 minutes to complete.
• Once you have successfully completed the training, you will receive a second email notifying you of this and you will have the option to print out a certificate of completion.
• You may take the exam an unlimited number of times.
• In order to past the exam a score of 90% or better is needed.

At this time the Department of State is seeking recommendations and questions from sponsors around the implementation and use of the training within each organization, more so than feedback on the content of the module, an earlier version of which has been vetted by several sponsors, including AFS-USA. This feedback will be used by the Department of State to inform the creation of a Guidance Directive for J-1 exchange organizations, in essence a set of best practices around the use of the training. To this end, when completing the module, we ask that you please consider the following and categorize your feedback accordingly:

• Did you have any technical issues, either when logging in to the site or while you were going through the module / quiz?
• What factors need to be taken into consideration initially and on an on-going basis regarding the implementation of the training within AFS-USA?
• What questions/recommendations do you have about the certification process itself?

Please email your feedback to DoSTraining@afs.org by 8:00 am Eastern Standard Time this Friday, February 4.

Thank you, in advance, for your help in completing this important task for us on such short notice. We really appreciate it.

Sincerely, Scott Hume, Director of Volunteer Development
Robin Weber, Director of Risk Management and Quality Assurance