Transitioning from Ed Portal to Certification Portal

Whereas Education Portal has allowed affiliates and state organizations to recommend folks for program leader and HelpLine training, Certification Portal does so in a way that is more user friendly and offers many more features.  Read below to learn about the differences. 

What's staying the same 

Both systems are built around the same job: someone at an organization recommends a person for certification training. Both gives you the same two core screens: 

• A recommendations list showing every recommendation registered in the system—searchable with a date, the training, the people involved and a status. 
• A page for each recommendation. Open it to check progress and act on it. In both systems, you can cancel the recommendation from this page at any time. 

What's being retired or replaced in Ed Portal 

Ed Portal's header promises six features. Only two of them still work, and both will also be retired. Currently, field users can click the links, but Ed Portal always returns the user to the Program Leaders recommendation list. 

Where did the features go?

What's changed and improved 

While the recommendation workflow still exists in the Certification Portal, there are substantial differences, which are explained below.  

New Terminology

The recommendations list 

Three columns have changed: 

• One sponsor column instead of two. Ed Portal showed both the State Chapter and the Affiliate on every row. Certification Portal shows only the direct sponsor organization — which may be a local affiliate or a state organization (marked by yellow box in screenshot below). 
• Statuses stopped tracking training steps. Ed Portal only had one three-step track: sign the fidelity agreement, do the online training, and do the live training, which displayed as Agreement Signed, Online Enrolled, In-Person Pending and so on in Ed Portal. Certification portal certifications can have any mix of requirements, so the previous system did not make sense. A recommendation that goes smoothly simply moves through Invited → Active → Complete. 
• A Progress column tracks when requirements have been completed (marked by orange box in screenshots below) 

The recommendation page — who can see it 

Both systems let you open a recommendation from the list. Ed Portal splits the work across two separate screens. The details page and a separate edit screen. Certification Portal merges both screens into one recommendation dashboard. Details, live progress, cancelling, each requirement's actions, and the national-staff Force Completion button are all live on that one page. 

The important difference is who gets to see it. In Ed Portal, the candidate could never log in and see this page. They never knew what the next steps were or how far along they were. Ed Portal sent each requirement to them one at a time, by email. In Certification Portal, the candidate, the referrer and the staff of the sponsoring organization can always see the recommendation dashboard.  

Fixing a stuck recommendation 

Ed Portal also has an Edit screen. When someone got stuck, staff could complete each requirement by hand so that the recommendation could continue.  Certification Portal's answer to "someone is stuck, push it through" is the Force Completion button. National staff see it on every unfinished requirement of an active recommendation. It completes the step and records who did it.  

Creating a recommendation 

This is the workflow the field does most, so it is where the differences matter most. Here is what changed compared with Ed Portal. 

Picking the organization

Ed Portal makes you select the state organization first, then the affiliate under it — two dropdowns, every time. In Certification Portal, you select just one sponsor with a search box. 

Picking the training

Ed Portal's program dropdown lists every program that was ever in the system, nothing stopping you from choosing a program your organization is not approved to lead. 

Certification Portal does the opposite. On the certification step, anything your sponsor is not authorized for is grayed out from the start. Click one, and the system tells you exactly why: 

Checking the candidate

Ed Portal does not check the email address you type and does not check whether the person already has a Salesforce record.  

Certification Portal checks the candidate against Salesforce during the recommendation creation process. It can show the sponsor's known contacts to pick from. And if something does not match at submit time, it gives a specific message instead of silently creating a duplicate. When a candidate is truly new to the system, Certification Portal also creates their new Salesforce account automatically. 

Who can get in — a recurring lockout, fixed 

One improvement is invisible on screen but worth knowing about because it hurt multiple field users over the years. To decide whether someone could use the Program Leaders tab at all, Ed Portal reads the person's organization records in Salesforce but could not process multiple organization records, which has been fixed in Certification Portal.  A role at one organization can never hide the access another organization gave you.  

What's completely new 

My Certifications 

My Certifications shows every user their own certifications in one place, plus links to the physical materials in the NAMI Store and the digital materials on NAMInet. 

Relevant Guides: Navigating My Certifications 

Invites

Invite someone to be linked to your organization by email before any recommendation exists.  

Relevant Guides: Inviting new people to your organization and adding affiliation records

Reports

Counts of recommendations created and completed by organization. 

Relevant Guides: Recommendation Reporting 

Manage Certifications 

Field organizations turn their own program leader records on and off. This controls who appears as available to lead events in NAMI 720 Event Management. 

Relevant Guides: Managing certifications (formerly credentialing)