Welcome!
You've landed on the College of Continuing and Professional Studies professional development course portal.
The details provided here will give you the logistical information you need for your classroom or online course. If you have any additional questions, please contact [email protected].
Classroom Courses
Location
Professional development courses are held either online or at Magrath Library on the St. Paul U of M campus.
Parking
Parking lot S104 is located east of the conference center at 1854 Buford Ave.
Press the help/call button on the paybox when you arrive. Someone from Parking and Transportation Services will respond. Let them know that you're attending a CCAPS professional development course and they will remotely lift the arm to allow entrance.
Public Transportation
If you prefer not to drive, the St. Paul campus is served by several bus routes, which also connect to the light rail Green Line. Go to the Metro Transit website to plan your route.
Checking In and Getting Course Materials
Inside the doors of the Continuing Education and Conference Center, you'll find several monitors that list courses and room numbers. Room numbers preceded by a "1" are on the upper level; all other rooms are on the lower level.
Sign in at the registration desk on the level your course is being held, where CCAPS staff will record your attendance and provide you with the course materials for the day.
A note about classroom temperature: We recommend you dress in layers as classroom temperatures can vary.
Meals & Snacks
The conference center offers a variety of tasty snacks to satisfy your appetite.
Continental breakfast of coffee, juice, yogurt, bagels, muffins, and fruit is served from 8:30–9:30 a.m.
Lunch offers delicious choices to satisfy both meat-and-potato lovers and health-conscious attendees alike.
Savory and sweet snacks are also provided during class breaks, along with water, pop, and coffee.
Online Courses
Many of our professional development courses are available in an online format. Online options for courses that were previously held on campus are synchronous, instructor-led sessions.
Course Format
Classes will be taught using the University of Minnesota virtual conferencing tool, Zoom. Just like our classroom-based courses, you will have the ability to learn from your fellow classmates and share your experience. Sessions will be highly interactive with a mixture of lecture, small and large group activities, polls, and discussion.
Course Communications
One week before your course, a welcome email with basic information will be sent out to you. One day before your course, a reminder email containing your course materials and Zoom link will be sent to you.
Course Materials
Materials are class dependent, but are usually PDFs, because PDFs are able to be accessed by nearly everyone regardless of their operating system or software!
The course materials may be "read only" or may give you the ability to interact with them using your PDF viewer.
Technology Recommendations
To ensure you have the best experience possible, we strongly recommend using a desktop or laptop computer. Mobile devices and tablets have limitations that impede your ability to fully participate.
Internet Speed Requirements
Your internet bandwidth can have an impact on your class experience. Slow connections result in major video delays, sound cutting in and out, a lost connection that results in being disconnected from your meeting, and so on.
Zoom recommends a minimum bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps/1.5 Mbps (up or down). Go here to see if your internet connection makes the cut, or read more about Zoom’s system requirements.
Course Feedback and Records
Feedback
We'd love to hear about your experience!
After the course completes, we'll email you a with a five-minute evaluation to fill out. We are continually reviewing course content to remain current, and your feedback is invaluable to help improve our programs.
Records
Access your course records, request a schedule change, and see announcements.
Accommodations
Accommodations in professional development courses are available, including ASL interpreting services.
Please contact us at [email protected] to let us know what accommodations you need. If you are a U of M employee or student and already have an access consultant please contact them directly.
We will provide reasonable accommodations or connect you with the University of Minnesota Disability Resource Center if your request requires a consultation with an access consultant and additional support.
It is helpful to let us know of any accommodations needed at least two weeks before the start date, but no matter when you reach out, we will do our best to provide you with support.
Please note: the only professional development courses that have timed tests are: Certified ScrumMaster®, and CertifiedScrum Product Owner®. Please contact [email protected] if you have specific testing needs for these courses.