CMALT/SCMALT

CMALT is the shortened, catchier way of talking about Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology. SCMALT is the Senior Certified Member status, recognising advanced professional practice, leadership, influence and strategic impact across the field.

Both CMALT and SCMALT are peer-reviewed professional accreditations developed by ALT, providing an opportunity to demonstrate your experience and capabilities as a learning technology professional, while reflecting on your practice and ongoing professional development.

At the heart of both is reflection. The portfolio is not simply about demonstrating what you have done, but considering why you did it, the decisions and choices you made, the impact of your work, and what you learned from the experience.

Both accreditations consider professional practice across four core areas:

• Operational issues: understanding and using learning technology, including its development, adoption and deployment.
• Teaching, learning and assessment: understanding how technology can support and influence educational practice.
• The wider context: understanding and engaging with the legislation, policies and standards that influence our work.
• Communication and working with others: demonstrating how we work with, support and influence colleagues and others.

There are also opportunities to explore areas of specialist professional practice. For SCMALT, these are accompanied by an Advanced Area of Practice, reflecting the greater emphasis on advanced skills, expertise, leadership, influence and impact.

Throughout the portfolio, the important thing is to connect appropriate evidence to your reflection. I’ve seen many examples of portfolios, as an assessor, and collaborative projects can provide excellent evidence — just be clear about your own contribution, decisions and reflections. It is, after all, your portfolio.

I’ve shared my own CMALT portfolio and, when complete, I will share my SCMALT portfolio here too, representing different stages of my professional practice and development.

If you’re working on CMALT or SCMALT yourself, please drop me a line. Perhaps we can help each other out.