The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America has expanded its educational opportunities for personal trainers through its new Distance Education Center.

The DEC allows participants to study select online courses from any Internet-enabled computer and interact with AFAA's instructors and guest lecturers through forums, chat and teleconferencing capabilities.

The core mission of the AFAA DEC is to provide comprehensive cognitive and practical education for fitness professionals, grounded in research, reflecting a commitment to quality distance education that upholds safe and effective fitness practice.

The DEC currently offers two courses now available for enrollment:

1. Personal Fitness Trainer Online Preparatory Course
2. Telexercise® Resistance Training Course.

With the enrollment in either course, participants are offered a host of online study tools that can help them prepare and successfully complete the course. The educational support includes:

• Multitraining Live™ a technologically driven study group resource to assist the participant in preparing for their course(s) with full-featured, flexible web conferencing software, video chat server, and webinar training applications
• DEC Forums — a technology platform that allows comprehensive interactions between participants and AFAA instructors.
• Library — along with references within course materials, AFAA has provided additional databases and resources for full-text journal articles, online and through local libraries.

Upon successful completion, each course is worth 18 AFAA Study Units. To learn more, view AFAA's Distance Education Catalog: http://www.afaadistanceeducation.com/pdf/dec-catalog.pdf

Or visit http://www.afaadistanceeducation.com to enroll.

The National Board of Fitness Examiners (NBFE) has been working diligently on completing the PFT Part II of the National Board Examination. After several months of planning and preparation, we are ready to begin the beta testing process.

The first step in this process is to conduct a small group calibration of examiners, candidates and of the process itself. Qualified NBFE Examiners and standardized volunteer clients will participate in this calibration session overseen by the administrator.

Separate calibration and grading sessions will be conducted and inter-rater and intra-rater reliability will be calculated. Upon completion of the exam process, each Candidate will be interviewed by the administrator regarding the process.

Feedback from this calibration process will be used to make any necessary modifications prior to beginning the actual beta test.

This process will be conducted on November 2, 2008 at 24 Hour Fitness in Las Vegas, NV. We are looking for 12 eligible Candidates and 4 to 6 volunteers to participate as standardized clients for this process. We encourage your participation for this very important process and would like each affiliate organization to participate.

Travel will be at the Candidate's expense; however the cost of the test will be waived. Upon successful completion, those who successfully complete the test will be considered as "passing" Part II of the NBFE exam. If you are interested, please read further. This process is extremely important to the success of NBFE Part II and we ask that you honor your commitment to participate if accepted.

In order to continue to move the process along, we are allowing individuals who have previously sat for NBFE Part I and/or those eligible to sit for NBFE Part I but have not yet taken or passed Part I to participate in this process, with the understanding that they will not receive certification until such time as they successfully pass both Part I and Part II. In addition, we are waiving the registration fee for NBFE Part II for those who are willing to participate in this process. This will be a one-time opportunity!

Please post responses at personaltrainercertification.blogspot.com

For Further Information Contact:
Dr. Dorette Nysewander
888.873.8384
dnysewander@nbfe.org
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