NASSCO rebuilt its pipeline, lateral and manhole recertification as a 13-module self-paced eLearning series

NASSCO's certified camera operators, inspectors, engineers and system owners must recertify every three years. The instructor-led program delivered outstanding results, but each class was capped at 15 students, and the 230+ sessions needed each year far exceeded NASSCO's trainer capacity.

Many professionals could not find a session in time and had to retake the full three-day initial certification at $1,240. A classroom recertification could cost up to $3,000 once travel, lodging and lost productivity were counted. On top of that, 25 to 30% of NASSCO's certified trainer network is expected to retire in the next decade.

Then the Version 8 Manual introduced hundreds of granular coding changes across all three certification tracks. The existing eLearning course had module-breaking errors and paths that let learners skip content, so the whole course had to be rebuilt from the ground up, and it had to work from the moment it launched to win back stakeholders' trust.

The 13-module series has a 98% exam pass rate, against 92% in the instructor-led program, and 85% of learners recommend it. More than 1,200 learners completed it in its first year, and NASSCO's recertification capacity doubled.

The investment was recovered within seven months of launch. There have been no module-breaking errors since launch, and the program's quality led NASSCO's board and leadership to approve a self-paced initial certification course. It will be the first time initial PACP, LACP and MACP certification is available outside a live classroom since the program launched in 2002.

Instructor-led training remains part of NASSCO's program, and its enrollment stayed strong after the eLearning series launched.

• Self-paced enrollment costs $775, with no travel and no days away from the field
• About 24 hours of course time, typically completed within three weeks of enrollment
• Mobile delivery through the Go.Learn app