A couple of years ago I was having coffee with my friend and colleague Hope Kentnor, and we talked about the recent demise of the Michigan State University court administration program. We lamented how the program’s closure had created a big void in educational opportunities in the field. Hope has a PhD in online curriculum and instruction and had recently started a company, eDevLearn, to create online “micro-courses.”[1] We quickly came up with the idea of creating such courses for court administrators to help fill that void. The next step was to form a development team, and a partnership between eDevLearn and CourtLeader was formed. After many months of effort, we are excited to share that our coffee talk idea has become reality. Here is the formal announcement:
The eDevLearn and CourtLeader team[2] are happy to announce the availability of our first set of online, self-paced professional development micro-courses on court administration. Through our commitment and passion for the field of court administration, coupled with the belief that lifelong learning enhances individual and team performance, we are creating affordable and accessible high-quality online learning for courts worldwide. Our first group of 13 micro-courses are in the Workforce Management (HR) area and all are available now at Course Catalog | eDevLearn.
Court administration, with its unique challenges, evolves daily, making lifelong learning and continuous development critically important for everyone working in the courts. While court professionals require a knowledge of the purposes and responsibilities of courts, they also require a specialized and unique set of skills that range from general management to specific areas like caseflow and workforce management. eDevLearn and CourtLeader are now providing a new opportunity to meet this need.
The micro-courses are based on the National Association for Court Management’s (NACM) CORE competencies and curricula, which are the worldwide standard in defining the learning needs of a court leader across the entire set of needed skills.[3]
The next phase of our micro-course development project is already underway in the area of Caseflow and Workflow Management, with Leadership to follow soon.
We invite anyone to preview our micro-courses with a free introductory course, “Welcome and Introduction to the Purposes of Courts,” available here: Pre Course – Welcome and Introduction to the Purposes of Courts | eDevLearn.
It may be helpful to further explain what exactly is a “micro-course.” These courses are a small block of content designed to teach one, focused skill at a time. If a book were an entire curriculum area, a micro-course would be one chapter. The online micro-courses are designed to be easily accessible and provide professional, quality learning anywhere, any time at an affordable cost.
I encourage everyone to take a closer look at the new Workforce Management micro-courses to see if they may be right for you or your organization. And don’t forget that over time the complete set of CORE competency areas will have micro-courses to provide a comprehensive set of educational opportunities to improve court administration.
Questions? Contact Hope Kentnor at hope@edevlearn.com or any of the CourtLeader group: Janet Cornell, Peter Kiefer, Phil Knox, or me. Any of us will be glad to help. And, as always, comments are welcome!
[2] Lifelong Learning | eDevLearn, Court Leader – A place for court leaders, by court leaders
[3] Core, What Court Professionals Need to Know (nacmcore.org)
Court Leader 
Great news
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