NRPA CEU Policy

One hour of learning = 0.1 NRPA CEU.* 

NRPA accepts a variety of learning opportunities for CEUs. Additionally, learning events that meet your professional development needs but are not awarded CEUs or credit, or that award CEHs or learning hours, are eligible to be petitioned for CEU equivalency. Fill out an NRPA CEU Equivalency Petition and submit it to certification@nrpa.org.

Certain forms of professional service can be awarded CEU equivalency; for more information, please review the Professional Service Experience (PSE form).

All CEUs awarded from National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) programs, including our Annual Conference, Schools, Online Learning Events, and Grant Programs, are automatically uploaded to participants’ transcripts. Not all NRPA events award CEU; please contact the event manager with questions. 

CEU Standards

Learning events must meet the following standards to qualify for NRPA CEU: 

  • Taught by a subject matter expert.
  • Three learning objectives
  • Event description supported by learning objectives.
  • Record of attendance and duration of event. 

For CEU Providers

If you would like to host an educational opportunity and offer NRPA CEU, your event must meet the CEU standards listed below. You must also provide documentation of those standards to all those learners, as well as providing evidence of attendance.

Learning events must meet the following standards to qualify for NRPA CEU: 

  • Taught by a subject matter expert.
  • Three learning objectives
  • Event description supported by learning objectives.
  • Record of attendance and duration of event. 

Each learning objective should be 1-2 sentences in length and should include an action/skill and a content takeaway. 

To support objective development, do an online search for “learning objective action verbs” or “Blooms Taxonomy,” which will provide examples of action/skill verbiage. Please avoid using acronyms in your objectives to avoid participant confusion. 

Examples of appropriate learning objectives include:

  • Attendees will be able to list (action/skill) event accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (content).
  • Attendees will collect (action/skill) program ideas for accessible activities (content) to bring back to their staff. 

Please email education@nrpa.org with any questions.

For Learners

For any non-NRPA events you must be able to provide documentation of these CEU standards. Contact the event manager for documentation if it is not provided. CEUs achieved outside of NRPA will need to be manually entered into your transcript or manually entered on the renewal application.

Learning events must meet the following standards to qualify for NRPA CEU: 

  • Taught by a subject matter expert.
  • Three learning objectives
  • Event description supported by learning objectives.
  • Record of attendance and duration of event. 

Each learning objective should be 1-2 sentences in length and should include an action/skill and a content takeaway. 

To support objective development, do an online search for “learning objective action verbs” or “Blooms Taxonomy,” which will provide examples of action/skill verbiage. Please avoid using acronyms in your objectives to avoid participant confusion. 

Examples of appropriate learning objectives include:

  • Attendees will be able to list (action/skill) event accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (content).
  • Attendees will collect (action/skill) program ideas for accessible activities (content) to bring back to their staff. 

Please email education@nrpa.org with any questions.

Policy Administration

NRPA manages this policy and can update fees, adjust requirements, and make final decisions about CEUs.