The Basics

Are you:

• A p2 practitioner with recognized expertise in one or more specialized areas of public participation
• A planning professional who thrives on working with the public to develop and implement community plans
• An academic who regularly teaches in a related field
• An elected or appointed official with in-depth experience in p2 processes
• An NGO/nonprofit leader who works to strengthen civil society or citizen action
• An organization that offers in-person training but wants to broaden its audience with web-based classes

If so, PublicDecisions offers a convenient, profitable opportunity to establish or expand your online teaching practice. We offer two arrangements: Guest Instructor and Entrepreneur-Instructor.

Guest Instructors

If you'd like to teach a class just once, or a few times a year, we invite you to be a Guest Instructor. This arrangement works well for someone who has given a conference presentation or led a class in person, and would like to present the same subject matter to a wider audience online. Ideally, your presentation is fully developed, well-rehearsed, and can fit into one of our standard class durations (60, 90, or 120 minutes).

The information below and on the next few pages is mainly geared toward Entrepreneur-Instructors, but the fundamental description of how PublicDecisions operates is applicable to Guest Instructors as well. Our financial arrangement with Guest Instructors is a simple revenue sharing agreement, with no obligation on your part beyond teaching the class. More details and a sample agreement can be provided upon request.

Entrepreneur-Instructors

With PublicDecisions you have tremendous flexibility. You decide the subject, the content and who you want to participate. Offer the same classes each month or change them as often as you want. You decide how often to teach, and you set the class schedule and registration fee. Offer two classes a month or twenty; there's essentially no limit. The more training you conduct, and the more participants per class, the greater your potential revenue.

How PublicDecisions Supports You

We provide the teaching platform--the state-of-the-art technology that lets you quickly and easily reach a nationwide or worldwide audience.

We handle all the administrative and financial details of the registration process, including credit card and purchase order acceptance. You get a student list before each class starts and payment at the end of the month. And we send registered students reminders to encourage attendance.

At your request, we conduct pre-class surveys or questionnaires so you'll know in advance how experienced your students are or what they're particularly interested in. We also assist with establishing and maintaining continuing education certification for applicable courses.

Finally, we publicize your courses by posting them on the PublicDecisions website, in a quarterly e-newsletter, and through other marketing activities. We also provide a free publicity/marketing plan for your use in promoting your classes as well.

Benefits of Teaching via PublicDecisions

• Easy. The technology is simple to use, whether you're a tech guru or technophobe. Haven’t taught a class via the internet before? We'll show you how. And you don't need a lot of complicated equipment, just a webcam (which we can provide), high-speed internet, and long-distance phone service (Skype works, too). If you run into problems during your class, assistance is just a click away.
• Convenient. Teach worldwide from the comfort of your office or home.
• Efficient. Avoids costs and logistics headaches associated with hotel or offsite room and equipment rental. Allows you to spend your time teaching, not traveling or managing administrative details.
• Affordable. Our revenue-sharing arrangement makes it profitable for you to teach online. Click here for more information.
• Appealing. Attract participants who have training funds but not travel funds available.
• Market reach. You benefit from our ongoing strategic marketing efforts to brand and continually generate online traffic for PublicDecisions. Visitors coming to the site for other reasons see your class offerings as well.
• Supplements in-person training.