DirectCourse MN Crosswalks

These documents help connect training requirements mandated by the state of Minnesota to training modules on DirectCourse. If you need to meet a certain rule or regulation, the crosswalk will help you identify which training courses will help you meet the requirement. This page supports employers to understand which crosswalks and modules are relevant to their license.

The crosswalk is Minnesota-specific and designed by the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota in partnership with Minnesota DHS. For specific licensing questions, please contact your licensor.

What is DirectCourse?

DirectCourse is a competency-based online training program that provides online courses to help support people with disabilities, their families and professionals who work with them. DirectCourse is made up of five curricula to train employees. Minnesota provides free or reduced access to four of the curricula, including:

• College of Direct Support (CDS): For employees who support people with disabilities as they live the lives they choose, fully and actively in their communities.
• College of Employment Services (CES): For employees who support people with disabilities as they search for, find, and maintain competitive, integrative employment.
• College of Personal Assistance and Caregiving (CPAC): For employees supporting older adults and adults with physical disabilities live inclusively in the community.
• Person-Centered Counseling Program (PCC): To train employees to recognize, organize, and include people’s priorities and strengths into a person-centered support plan.
• College of Frontline Supervision, Management, and Leadership (CFSM): For supervisors, managers, and leaders. Lessons are focused on developing supervision and management skills; finding, selecting, training, and retaining frontline workers and other employees; and using data-informed decision-making to enhance workforce stability and effectiveness.

DirectCourse can be used for more than just meeting your training requirements. It can be used to train staff at all levels to competence and develop a training model for your staff.

Training and Accreditation

DirectCourse lessons can be used to meet licensing requirements, such as 245D license training requirements and Positive Support Rule training. They can also be used to train employees to competence. Competency-based training is a retention tool: employees trained to competence result in employees who understand their role and who are more likely to stay.

DirectCourse is a national curriculum accredited by the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) for direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLS). Learners who take DirectCourse can be eligible for certifications, such as the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals , Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators (ACRE) , and Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE)’s Credentialed Employment Support Professional (CESP) certifications. For more information about how you can use DirectCourse content to meet credential or certification requirements, email directcoursemn@umn.edu.

Note: CDS was approved for the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) Continuing Education Units, and all lessons were time studied and awarded contact hours. To receive CEUs, learners must complete all lessons in a course. Contact hours are awarded for individual lessons in learning modules. CEUs are different than contact hours: 1 CEU equals 10 contact hours.

DirectCourse Administrator: Overview

For a detailed guide on how to assign training, as well as many other DirectCourse tips, visit the MN Toolkit .

When building a training plan for employees, it’s important to consider the following:

• What is the mandated training that employees who work at my organization need? – This set of crosswalks can help you understand the mandated training.
• What organization-specific training do employees need to understand what work looks like at this organization (mission, vision, values, policies and expectations)?
• What person-specific training do employees need?
• What other competencies do employees across positions need in order to be effective in their specific roles? (consider a national set of competencies like the CMS Direct Service Worker Competencies)
• Using results of skills assessments and performance reviews, are there trends across the organization of additional employee training needs to improve supports?

DirectCourse has modules built to help you meet required training, but you still need to select modules and lessons that meet individual training needs. For more information about training best practices, there are several DirectCourse College of Frontline Supervision, Management, and Leadership (CFSM) lessons available to you.

Below are the steps to take to ensure the people you employ are trained to meet Minnesota-mandated requirements.

Step 1: Understand your licensing requirements and which crosswalks your organization needs to pay attention to.

There are three crosswalks in this document. They compare:

1. Minnesota 245D Training Requirements to applicable DirectCourse College of Direct Support (CDS) lessons
2. Minnesota Positive Support Rule (PSR) Training Requirements to applicable DirectCourse College of Direct Support (CDS) and College of Frontline Supervision, Management, and Leadership (CFSM) lessons
3. For employment professionals: The national competencies developed by the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE) and the Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators (ACRE) competencies to applicable College of Employment Services (CES) lessons

As an employer, you must understand what your license requires. If you are not sure, speak with your licensor.

Step 2: Review the crosswalks that you learned in step 1 are required by licensing. Gain an understanding of which lessons align with each training requirement & additional training needed.

Each crosswalk lists many DirectCourse lessons that can be used to meet each individual training requirement as written in the statute. Each section shows how to use DirectCourse content to help meet required, elective, and person specific training requirements for license holders.

To search throughout the crosswalk, click: Ctrl + F or Command+F (⌘F) and type in the search term.

At the bottom of each crosswalk are several recommended modules that can be assigned to learners to meet your organization's requirements. These suggested training plans have been reviewed by MN DHS licensing staff, who have agreed that they will meet some of the mandated training requirements. As the representative at your organization, it is important that you understand these crosswalks. If you need help understanding them, please contact us at directcoursemn@umn.edu

Important: not all the training required is covered by DirectCourse content. Review what is not covered by DirectCourse content in the crosswalk and develop a plan to meet those requirements. Assigning the MN-specific modules help meet your licensing requirements, but the license holder still needs to provide the person-specific and organization-specific training content that the crosswalks require. To track and maintain license holder policy, procedures, practices, forms, and person-specific training, consider the following features:

1. Upload content through Content Linking and/or through the Annotation features in the College of Direct Support’s (CDS) learning management system (LMS).
2. Provide this training in a classroom setting or one-on-one with a supervisor. Either method can be tracked in the CDS LMS using Ontrack or Classroom & Events features. The license holder is responsible for setting this training item up and adding it to the modules to fulfill the hours of training needed for this module.

This way, all your training is in one place and is easier to review by you and licensors.

Step 3: Assign modules to yourself and staff

Before assigning and using DirectCourse lessons, we recommend viewing the lesson listing in each crosswalk, then assigning them to yourself and supervisors to help you understand what staff are learning. Once you have taken the lessons for yourself, assign them to your staff on an annual basis to be aligned with MN 245d and Positive Support Rule statutes.

While you are assigning modules, note that there are orientation modules for new employees, and modules for more experienced employees. Assign those modules accordingly in line with licensing requirements and your organization's policies and practices.

For new employees, there are benefits to assigning both the DHS - MN 245D Intensive Services Orientation Module and the MN Positive Support Rule (PSR) Core 8 hours Training Module. Three lessons are in both modules. Learners will only be assigned the overlapping content once and will not have to take lessons twice.

Step 4: Monitor Staff Progress Using Transcripts and Reports and Provide Additional Training as Needed

Your organization is responsible for ensuring staff complete the required lessons. It is important to regularly run reports and view staff transcripts to monitor employee progress. Learning administrators and supervisors should follow up with staff to ensure they are completing lessons. Your organization is also responsible for staff competency. This means that your staff understand and can follow the training provided and are meeting the outcomes expected of the staff.

We recommend providing on the job training and feedback and coaching in addition to online training. It is essential to building staff competence while on the job. Organizations with robust, competency-based training programs often find that their staff retention and quality of services are improved. For questions about how to build a competency-based training program using DirectCourse, email directcoursemn@umn.edu.

Step 5: Archive and Reassign for Next Year!

At the end of the fiscal year, it is important to archive and reassign the modules for the following year.

Best practice is to build modules that meet your employee’s knowledge, skills, and ability levels while also meeting requirements. You can create modules for your organization using content from the crosswalks that still align with requirements but are more advanced for more tenured and skilled staff.

Training not Covered in DirectCourse Content

You can track additional training and your procedures and policies by using linked content or acknowledgement features in DirectCourse. This way, all your training is in one place and is easier to review by you and licensors.

• How to add linked content (adding your own slides, PDFS, or links to other websites)
• How to use acknowledgements/announcements (learner agrees they have read/reviewed material)

How to get help

Start with the MN DirectCourse Administrator Toolkit!

If you are a provider that serves 10 or fewer people with disabilities contact The University of Minnesota at DirectCourseMN@umn.edu.

If you are a provider that serves 10 or more people with disabilities start with Elsevier Customer Support.

For all other learners, contact the DirectCourse State Learning Administrator at dhs.dsd_cds@state.mn.us.

If you have further questions regarding the licensing standards of 245D services, call the Department of Human Services licensing help desk at 651-431-6624.