Courses

Explore the history, philosophy, and application of wilderness law and policy in the United States.This sixteen-week course of study provides a comprehensive understanding of the basics of management in designated wilderness areas.This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers, federal personnel working near or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.

This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers and federal personnel working near Wilderness or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.

Already a full-time Wilderness program manager? See our Fundamentals of Wilderness Stewardship Certificate.

This course provides best practices for interpreters charged with developing programs where Civil War and Civil Rights stories intersect.

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Explore the skills needed to be an effective interpretive coach. Coaching others to develop and deliver meaningful interpretation is rewarding because you multiply the opportunities for visitors to understand the relevance and significance of our resources. It gives you the chance to share your passion.

This course details how an agency should determine its needs and priorities in the development of a capital improvement program.

A medida que usted avance en este curso, aprenderá a apreciar este ambiente especial y las reglas que tenemos para protegerlo. También se enterará de las muchas maneras en las que usted genera un impacto en los Cayos y en sus recursos naturales. El tomar este curso y utilizar los recursos que aquí se proveen lo convertirá en un navegante más responsable y seguro.

Not a designer, but need to develop an interpretive media product? This course will teach you basic design principles that will help you put together a product that is both interpretive and eye-catching.

This previously recorded one-hour webcast is designed for park and public agency employees who are interested in obtaining the Certified Park Professional (CPP) or Certified International Park Professional (CIPP) credential.

Why do you write? Is it to inform, instruct, or persuade your audience? Or do you write to help your audience think or feel something new? Effective interpretive writers have basic skills in writing and understand the art and practice of interpretation. This course explores the reasons we write and teaches the essential elements of effective interpretive writing.

This course highlights revenue sources and finance mechanisms for capital improvements.

Gain an appreciation of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary’s special resources and the important rules that protect both the resources and boaters in the Keys.

Para ver este curso en español, haga clic aquí.

This course is designed for students and professionals who are interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the requirements for providing accessible programs, services, and activities within federal, state, and local recreation agencies.

Establish a strong foundation in the basics of interpretation. This certificate program explores the history of interpretation as a profession and provides knowledge in roving, informal interpretation, audience identification and engagement, and interpretive talks.

This course provides a brief introduction to the benefits of facilitation in group settings.

This recorded webcast is designed for park and public agency employees who are interested in the history of parks. The session will include historical details, drawings and photographs of the people and places who make up the story, their objectives, successes and failures.

In this three-part series of micro-learning, you will explore strategies park and recreation agencies can use to demonstrate impact on community health.

Do you have a strong background and understanding of interpretation (perhaps in programming) but want to dig deeper? Do you struggle with interpretive media or writing? Are you curious about what exactly ‘dialogic’ interpretation means? If so, this certificate program is for you!

The Intermediate Methods in Interpretation Certificate is entirely web-based and consists of five interpretive courses each culminating with an applied assignment that relates to your organization or site. This course of study provides you with the opportunity to receive feedback from your instructor(s) who review the elements of your portfolio. Additionally, if you apply for and are accepted into the cohort-based program, you will work with a mentor who has considerable experience in the interpretive field who will guide you as you develop your intermediate skills.

Stop! Before you register for this certificate program, are you an NAI member interested in completing it as part of a cohort and working with a mentor? The Eppley Institute and the National Association for Interpretation are recruiting students to participate in a cohort program that will begin in January 2020. Applications are now available. If you are interested in learning more and applying, please click here. If you would like to join NAI, please visit their website.

The purpose of this course is to help ABMC managers further appreciate their role as supervisors, coaches, auditors, and appraisers of interpretive programs and projects. Interpretive coaching and supervision are important responsibilities of ABMC supervisors.

New to interpretation? Want to refresh your understanding of the basics of interpretation? This course is for you!

Explore guided interpretive programs, which can take many forms: walks, hikes, house tours, canoe trips, bus tours, cave tours, just to name a few.

This course provides an introduction to capital improvement. Capital improvement is defined and its connections to an agency’s mission are discussed.

Explore a new approach to interpretation – dialogic interpretation. This course discusses three methods interpreters are using to present dialogic programs to visitors and guests.

The visitor is sovereign. Interpreters may hear this very basic but very important concept many times during the course of their career. What does it mean? It means that each visitor or guest brings a unique level of knowledge, interest, and care each time they visit a site.

In this certificate you will learn the basic steps for decision making and management that are applied to federal wilderness areas, and how they can be interpreted and implemented on other, non-federal protected areas. These wildlands can benefit from the same systems and strategies the US government uses to identify the wilderness characteristics, develop plans for stewardship, manage visitor usage, and protect the natural resources.

Build a foundational understanding of facility management practices, particularly as they apply to parks and public lands agencies. The certificate program follows the Asset Management Process, an approach used by the National Park Service.

The purpose of this certificate program is to prepare park and recreation agencies to conduct a system master plan. The components can be used in several types of planning and will ultimately prepare agencies to either 1) conduct the planning process on their own, or 2) be prepared to collaborate with a contractor to facilitate the master planning process. This certificate covers the fundamentals of a system master plan according to the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA).

In this webcast participants will learn to think about green space as a canvas; a piece of art where people can interact with everyday landscape in a new and temporary way. Ralf Witthaus, International Land-Artist based in Germany, will provide examples from the Federal Lawn Show in Cologne and other lawnmower drawings to teach a creative and alternative approach to incorporate art in public parks.

This previously recorded one-hour webcast is designed for park and public agency employees who are interested in obtaining the Certified Park Professional (CPP) or Certified International Park Professional (CIPP) credential.

Gain the skills and confidence needed to interact with visitors informally and learn how to provide them with interpretive opportunities. This course explores three types of contacts: orientation, information, and interpretation.

This course will introduce you to the site planning process and how the steps of site planning contribute to a site master plan.

Explore how social media can be used interpretively to expand your reach.

Trees are as important as ever in our growing cities – the need to provide large canopied shade trees to cool cities is important. Providing adequate root volumes to allow large healthy trees to grow without infrastructure conflicts is also important.

Gain valuable skills that will help you train impactful interpreters. Interpretive trainers support interpreters in connecting people to parks, museums, zoos, and other places.

Survey Basics and Best Practices for Park and Recreation Agencies will provide a brief overview on how to develop and distribute a survey. It reviews the reasons for surveying and how to construct, conduct, and use the survey data.

The causes of World War One are complex. This course explores the social and political factors that contributed to and shaped the conflict in Europe. The initial reluctance and ultimate participation of the United States is described and placed in a cultural and political context as well.

Explore the history, philosophy, and application of wilderness law and policy in the United States.This twelve-week course of study provides a comprehensive understanding of the basics of management in designated wilderness areas.This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers, federal personnel working near or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.

Originating in England in 1996, the Green Flag Award program now recognizes and rewards over 2,000 well-managed parks and green spaces in 15 countries around the world. In this webinar we will explore what makes the program such a success - Is it the unique combination of peer-to-peer judging with political influence? The flexible approach to the 8 key criteria? Or its growing stance as a management ‘mantra’ amongst park professionals. In addition to this you will learn how you can apply the methodology to improve your day to day management of parks. Join us as we navigate these questions and more in this friendly and informative presentation. Learn More

This course is designed for park and public agency employees who are responsible for public health and safety in parks. A smoke-free playground issue will be covered.