Within a few weeks, LSRPA courses will be online.
On April 6 and May 4, the New Jersey Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board approved eighteen courses for teaching through Alternative Verifiable Learning Format, meaning online. The first course, a Regulatory Roundtable event on Receptor Evaluations, will be offered on May 19th.
Michael Poland, the chair of the Continuing Education Committee, said the format for the sessions will be offered via the GoToMeeting application. "We have our first online learning event scheduled for May 19th, which will be a Regulatory Roundtable event on Receptor Evaluations."
“We’ve been working diligently to get up to speed to offer virtual learning,” Poland said. “The concentration has been on the one to two hour courses,” he said, but full-day courses may be offered in the future.
The virtual platform will allow the LSRPA to offer one of its core functions for as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Like most organizations, LSRPA has been forced to adapt to the needs of its members while balancing the safety precautions put in place to maintain public health.
Through the Continuing Education Committee, LSRPA develops and administers a comprehensive program for professional development and provides continuing education credits for license renewals.
About 30 to 40 continuing education courses are offered each year on an assortment of relevant and current environmental topics. All presentations meet statutory requirements for continuing education, and training is directed towards enhancing professional knowledge and performance for the protection of human health and the environment.
Member breakfasts are offered, typically once a month, providing attendees an opportunity for continuing education credits and an opportunity to identify a critical issue or problem they feel directly impacts the work of site remediation practitioners. Attendees are encouraged to provide input, share lessons learned, and seek potential solutions.
But the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak led to the postponement of March and April LSRPA breakfasts until the summer.
A course on due diligence, originally scheduled for April, also was postponed. Tina Layre, the LSRPA Continuing Education Coordinator, said this six-hour course usually attracts 50 to 70 attendees. It now will be rescheduled for the late summer or early fall.
The new online courses will be as interactive and responsive as the in-person courses. The May 19 Regulatory Roundtable event will be conducted in the same fashion as member breakfasts but will be online.
“I think it will be pretty seamless. You will have the same presenters that you would have if you were there face-to-face,” Poland said. LSRPs will be posed questions during the online course to qualify for credits and each course will be evaluated afterwards to make sure it meets the needs of the LSRPs.
“We put a lot of weight in participant feedback. Say we do the first few of these, we will get feedback from the participants - what went well and what went poorly. We will adapt as we go,” Poland said.
Approved Courses
At their April and May meetings, the SRPL Board approved these courses to be offered in Alternative Verifiable Learning format.
- 2020-011 Perimeter Air Monitoring for Sites Undergoing Remedial Action
- 2020-001 NJSRPLB Rules: What an LSRP Needs To Know
- 2019-097 Remediation Funding Source and Financial Assurance Training (NJDEP and LSRPA)
- 2019-107 LSRP Training for Child Care Centers and Educational Facilities
- 2019-101 PFAS 101
- 2019-105 Brownfields and Community Collaborative Initiatives - Refresh and Updates
- 2019-085 Conceptual Site Models
- 2019-094 What SRRA 2.0 Means to LSRPs
- 2019-093 Remediating Sites: LSRPs Understanding Risks and Liabilities
- 2019-084 Navigating Land Use Laws and Regulations during Site Remediation
- 2018-029 In Situ Thermal Remediation Technologies
- 2018-078 PCB Remediation: What Every LSRP Should Know
- 2018-018 ISCO/ISCR Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRBs) to Prevent Migration of Contaminated Plumes
- 2019-069 Emerging Contaminants – 1,4 Dioxane and PFAs
- 2020-012 LSRPA Regulatory Roundtable – Receptor Evaluations
- 2019-032 LSRPA Regulatory Roundtable – Alternative Fill Update
- 2020-017 LSRPA Regulatory Roundtable – Child Care Facilities
- 2018-082 LSRP Ethics (for a period of time in consideration of COVID 19 requirements)
The SRPL Board also approved these new courses to be offered in person or through Alternative Verifiable Learning.
- 2020-027 Potential Harms from Common Technologies During Remedial Action
- 2020-028 Green and Sustainable Remediation: Quantification and Tools
- 2020-030 ISRA: Applicability to Response Action Outcome
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