The following is the first in a series of DSA Committee Perspectives that the Association hopes will provide insight into the role of the DSA’s various committees in the advancement of the Association and the industry as a whole.
According to Digital Screenmedia Association executive director David Drain, the goal of the organization’s Education Committee has been pretty straightforward since the time it was formed.
“It was set up to identify the educational needs of the membership and to develop the best ways to deliver them,” Drain said.
Jeff Porter, executive vice president of Scala and co-chair of DSA’s Education Committee, says the group has made one crucial step toward accomplishing that delivery: It’s come up with a plan.
“We’re trying to put in place some infrastructure to certify courses, develop a credit system for courses, allow course authors to submit their courses for credits, allow course instructors to indicate which students have passed and allow students to track their credits and apply for courses,” Porter said.
“We want to allow the DSA to administer all of the above,” Porter said. But as one might imagine, “There’s a significant amount of Web infrastructure needed, and we don’t have the funding to do that today,” he said.
According to Drain, that’s where one of the Association’s larger goals comes into play. In February, the organization announced plans to secure proposals from professional tradeshow-management companies to help establish a conference and tradeshow under the direction of or in partnership with the DSA. In a press release issued at the time, the Association noted that its members wanted to “establish a conference and tradeshow for the industry, by the industry, with proceeds substantially staying in the industry.”
And Drain hopes some portion of those proceeds will provide the funding necessary to implement the Education Committee’s certification program.
“We’re still in the formative stages of all this,” he said. “We’re gathering all the educational opportunities available and want to use the DSA Web site as a jumping-off point for members to see what’s available to them.”
Scala’s Jeff Porter is co-chair of the DSA Education Committee, along with Platt Retail Institute’s Margot Myers. More information on the Education Committee can be found here.
