The CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program launched around 18 months ago with the goal of being THE in-depth, professional development program for STEM community managers.
Since launch, we’ve welcomed almost 30 STEM community managers into the program, delivered 2 go-arounds of our CODE and PBK courses, 15 Mini-workshops, and 4 Quarterly Skills Share sessions. In that time, we’ve also sought regular feedback to understand any modifications we might make to best support our learners. Today we’re sharing some of the updates we’ve made which together provide a more flexible way to enroll, onboard, and pay for the program!
If you have any questions about anything in this post, please reach out to training@cscce.org, or join us on Wednesday, 26 March at 12pm EDT / 4pm UTC for our monthly community call. We’ll be sharing a brief overview the program, demo-ing CSCCE’s trainings in Canvas, and holding space for questions about the program.
Rolling enrollment – start the program with any program component!
CSCCE’s multi-week training courses are cohort based, and enrolment is capped at 25 to ensure learners have the opportunity to get to know each other and learn from each other’s professional experiences. We took a similar approach to establishing the certification program, and enrolled our current learners as two cohorts (one in the fall of 2023, and the second in the summer of 2024).
Over the course of these two cohorts, we noticed that scheduling conflicts meant that not all members of a cohort took required courses and Mini-workshops together, making the course cohort more important than the overall certification cohort. Simultaneously, we started to hear from individuals who wanted to join the program at various times of the year, but not in large enough numbers to create a cohort.
So, we have adapted our approach to be able to welcome learners into the program at any time of the year! You can now choose to start the program with any course or Mini-workshop and progress from there. Mini-workshops have now been announced for the rest of 2025, and we’re starting to schedule courses too – check out Nurturing Online Communities, coming up this Fall!
We’ll continue to support the cohort-based learning experience outside of specific trainings via our private, shared Slack channel for certification program participants and the Quarterly skills share sessions.
Orientation now coordinated via our learning management system
To support rolling enrollment, we’ve re-vamped our orientation process, which previously involved a live welcome session followed by two required Mini-workshops. While the Mini-workshop requirement remains, we’ve leaned into our learning management system, Canvas, to coordinate the remaining orientation tasks asynchronously – reducing the scheduling burden AND making it easier to find all the program scaffolding (including welcome slides, logistics sheet, and various quick start guides) in one place.
New learners will then complete their required Mini-workshops at any time they are offered during the program, adding additional scheduling flexibility. This shift also makes it easier for us to open up participation in the required workshops (Core values and Giving and receiving feedback – both coming up soon!) to general registrants.
“Pay-as-you-go” payment option added
We know that the one-time fee for the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program can be a barrier to participation, and we’ve talked to a number of community managers in a range of contexts to understand how to better accommodate their budgetary constraints. While we’ve always tried to accommodate learner needs (e.g., through paying in installments), until now we did not have a formal way of administering “pay-as-you-go” participation.
In this new payment option, learners will register to join the program and pay an initial registration fee, which covers access to the Program Hub in Canvas, as well as staff time devoted to onboarding, orientation, and ongoing learner support (learn more about how we use Canvas in this accompanying post). Then, they will be able to sign up and pay for each component of the program via Eventbrite as and when they choose to take them.
We’ve compiled more information about all pricing options for the program on a new page of the CSCCE website – which includes some minor adjustments to MW pricing for 2025, while keeping course pricing the same. We’ve also updated our FAQs, but if they don’t address the questions you have, please let us know (training@cscce.org).
New Mini-workshops and an elective course added
When we launched the program in 2023, we were still developing our full menu of Mini-workshops, and we knew there would be more elective options added as the program progressed. Sure enough, we now have 11 Mini-workshops for learners to choose from, representing a broad range of ways they can tailor their learning experience.
Last year, we also developed a new course (offered in its pilot form as a two-day bootcamp) that trains community managers, program managers, and other research professionals on the core aspects of project management. Project Management for Scientists is now available to participants in the certification program as an additional elective course (and is also open for general registration). And, after some re-development, Nurturing Online Communities (NOC) will be back for a second cohort this fall.
This image highlights the key facets of the program, and the order in which participants will complete various components. After orientation, learners complete their required courses, CODE and PBK, and one elective, NOC , CoP, or PMB. While taking these courses, participants will also complete additional certification requirements: six Mini-workshops (two required, four elective), each of which is offered at least once per calendar year) and three Quarterly Skills Share sessions (offered every three months). Participants will present at one Quarterly Skills Share session.
Image credit: CSCCE
We are always working behind the scenes to develop new trainings, based on what we already know about the skillsets of effective community managers as well as responding to emerging needs. The courses and Mini-workshops available to program participants will continue to evolve.
What our learners are saying
You can find out more about the certification program as a whole on this page of the CSCCE website. And while we outline many reasons there as to why this program makes sense for anyone looking to upskill or demonstrate their expertise via certification, we think our learners say it best:
“…the facilitation was incredible, everyone was so engaged with discussion and responding to written docs and comments in a way that is very rare in bootcamps or trainings. Really appreciate how personalized the feedback was!” – PMB24CZI
“I was really impressed with how the course material was applicable to a huge range of projects at any stage of development.” – PBK24S participant
“I really appreciated how you packaged all this relevant information together so that I didn’t have to go out and find it myself, which will enable me to use it in my work.” – CODE23F participant
Next steps
We’d love to hear from you if you are interested in the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program! At this week’s CSCCE community call, we’ll be holding space for general Q&A about the program, as well as offering a walk through of the program in Canvas. More details are here. Or, you can send us an email: training@cscce.org.
You can also use that email address to reach out to us about developing private trainings for your team or community, ask a question about upcoming training offerings, or even to schedule a meeting about how we can work together to support your community.
You can find all upcoming trainings on the CSCCE Events Calendar.