Courses

Learn about foundational concepts of accessibility and disability in this free micro-learning e-course series! This course is intended for anyone in the parks, recreation, and tourism industry who wants to learn about accessible design requirements vs. equitable use of facilities and recreation environments.

Learn how to respond to an active shooter situation in your agency.

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.

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.

This previously recorded one-hour webinar will introduce participants to best practices in identifying data sources, creating data, and using data for management decision-making.

Explore the four most important principles of managing wilderness: Preserve Wilderness and Natural Conditions, Protect Wilderness Benefits, Provide and Use the Minimum Necessary, and Manage Wilderness as a Whole.

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.

Learn about foundational concepts of accessibility and disability in this free micro-learning e-course series! This course is intended for anyone in the parks, recreation, and tourism industry who wants to learn about methods of appropriate interaction with people with disabilities.

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 is designed to assist individuals charged with approving Minimum Requirements Analyses (MRAs). The stories and case studies presented in this course are based on real cases and real MRAs. Learn More

This course is the third in a series of three courses on Cultural Resources Management in Wilderness. It provides a comprehensive overview of the process used to evaluate proposals for scientific activity in wilderness.

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.

Establish a strong foundation in the physical and programmatic components of accessibility compliance. This certificate program explores disability and accessibility as a social construct and provides knowledge in disability awareness concepts, program access, universal design, and guidelines and standards for accessible design.

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.

Explore the history, philosophy, and application of wilderness law and policy in the United States. This seven-month course of study provides a comprehensive understanding of the basics of management in designated wilderness areas.
This certificate is designed for early-career, full-time, NWPS Wilderness program managers.
Interested in a similar experience for those federal agency personnel working in units with Wilderness or seasonal Wilderness rangers? See our Basics of Wilderness Stewardship Certificate.
Download the 2018 Fundamentals of Wilderness Stewardship Certificate Course Syllabus Learn More

Learn about foundational concepts of accessibility and disability in this free micro-learning e-course series! This course is intended for anyone in the parks, recreation, and tourism industry who wants to learn about disability and accessibility in historic and modern-day contexts.

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.

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.

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

This course is the second in a series of three courses on Cultural Resources Management in Wilderness. It provides an in-depth look at the special requirements of inventorying and monitoring cultural resources in wilderness.

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.

This course will provide wilderness managers a comprehensive overview of their role in managing mineral rights in wilderness.

This training course addresses the management of rights-of-way and access to inholdings in designated wilderness.

Learn the natural resource management techniques relevant to air quality in wilderness.

This course discusses the decision-making process for planning natural resource restoration in a wilderness area. It is essential that managers consider impacts to the untrammeled and natural qualities of wilderness when contemplating restoration efforts within wilderness boundaries.

Learn about the process of evaluating proposals to conduct scientific activity in wilderness and the decisions wilderness managers must make in order to preserve wilderness character while such activity occurs.

Learn the basics of fish and wildlife management in wilderness. The course covers guiding principles and includes case studies to demonstrate a variety of management options.

This course presents the legal foundation for managing natural resources in wilderness and addresses the myths and realities of wilderness management.

Learn the importance of natural resource monitoring and what resources are appropriate to monitor in wilderness.

Preserving natural lightscapes is one of many management actions that helps protect cultural traditions, visitor experiences, and the physiological and ecological processes of wildlife in wilderness. This course will discuss the fundamentals of lightscape resource management, including threats to the night sky in wilderness and relevant principles of management.

This course discusses the importance of management and monitoring soil and water resources—inside and outside wilderness; the various laws relating to management; and identifies strategies for prevention, mitigation, and restoration of impacts on soil and water resources in wilderness.

Learn to differentiate between sounds and noises in wilderness soundscapes, identify threats to wilderness soundscapes, and examine strategies for soundscape management.

Learn the guidelines managers should follow in order to satisfy the requirements of the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, and agency policies when managing threatened and endangered species in wilderness.

This training course addresses the management of rights-of-way and access to inholdings in designated wilderness.

This course is designed for facility managers and park and recreation providers who are interested in gaining a foundational knowledge of the requirements for accessible facilities within federal, state, and local agencies.

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).

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.

Learn about foundational concepts of accessibility and disability in this free micro-learning e-course series! This course is intended for anyone in the parks, recreation, and tourism industry who wants to learn more about recognizing the rights of individuals with disabilities to use service animals and assistive devices.

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.

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.

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.

Learn about the Wilderness Stewardship Planning Framework, explain how it influences wilderness stewardship, and develop a plan for your site.

This is the first in a series of three courses in the Visitor Use Management course of study and is designed to introduce you to the fundamental principles of Visitor Use Management.

This course is the third in a series of three courses on Visitor Use Management in Wilderness. In this course, you will learn about the process for monitoring visitor use in wilderness, paying particular attention to campsite and trail impacts.

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.