Community Engagement Fundamentals Microcredential Course
This course provides a comprehensive foundation in the field of service-learning and community engagement (SLCE), designed for those who identify as, or aspire to become, community engagement professionals. Across seven modules, learners will explore the landscape of the SLCE field from the ground up, beginning with who CEPs are and what they do, moving through the historical traditions that have shaped contemporary practice, and building toward the principles, leadership strategies, and professional skills that define effective CEP work today.

Community-Engaged Learning & Teaching Microcredential Course
Across seven modules, this course addresses three interconnected pillars: the foundational principles of community-engaged teaching and learning; strategies for intentional course design and co-education with community partners; and approaches to assessment, critical reflection, and sustained community impact. It equips community engagement professionals (CEPs), faculty, students, and community partners with the knowledge, skills, and frameworks needed to design, implement, and assess high-quality community-engaged teaching and learning (CETL) experiences in higher education. 

Engaged Research Microcredential Course
This course introduces researchers, practitioners, and community members to the principles, practices, and ethics of conducting collaborative research with and for communities. Through seven interconnected modules, participants will examine the foundational concepts and historical context of community-engaged research, including participatory action research and community-based participatory research. 

Critical Commitments Microcredential Course
This course prepares CEPs to critically examine, articulate, and act on their commitments to ethical and effective community engagement practice. Participants will explore foundational concepts and frameworks that undergird equitable community engagement practice, including intersectionality, positionality, power and privilege, culturally relevant and sustaining approaches, and anticolonial stances. Participants will examine how implicit bias, structural inequities, and dominant narratives operate within institutions and community partnerships, and will identify concrete strategies to counter them in their daily work as CEPs.

Full certification as a community engagement professional formally recognizes an individual that has demonstrated competency across a range of areas related to higher education civic and community engagement. These are the requirements necessary for applying to become a fully certified CEP:

• Successful completion of 5 microcredentials in different competency areas including:
  • The following 3 core microcredential courses
    • Community Engagement Fundamentals
    • Community Partnerships
    • Critical Commitments
  • Plus 2 elective microcredential courses in areas of your choice
• Successful completion of a final Capstone Project in a format of your choice. Format options currently include:
  • Professional Portfolio. A curated collection of work artifacts such as partnership agreements, training materials, needs assessments, and communication plans with reflective annotations connecting each piece to CEP competencies. 
  • Community Engagement Project Plan. A full, implementation-ready engagement strategy for a real or realistic initiative. This format foregrounds strategic planning, equity analysis, and stakeholder thinking.
  • Reflective Case Study. An in-depth written analysis of a specific community engagement effort, applying at least three CEP frameworks to examine what worked, what didn't, and how you would approach it differently. 
  • Presentation or Scholarly Defense. A 20–25 minute live presentation before an evaluator panel, followed by a 10–15 minute Q&A. This format assesses depth of understanding across all five CEP course areas.
  • Teaching or Training Module. A complete, ready-to-facilitate workshop or professional development module (60–90 minutes) designed to build community engagement capacity in others.
  • Video or Multimedia Documentary. An 8–12 minute documentary or multimedia piece that amplifies community voices or illustrates a community engagement process or challenge. This format centers ethical storytelling and authentic representation.
  • Community-Based Action Research Project. An investigation of a real question in your community engagement practice using community-engaged research methods, culminating in findings and recommendations. 

Interested in learning more about full certification? Find out more here. 

By enrolling in a fully independent and self-paced version of the Community Partnerships Microcredential Course, you have full control over when and how you engage with the course material. You are able to enroll at any time throughout the year and move through the course material at a pace that fits your professional and personal demands. 

Courses are organized into 7 learning modules with learning checkpoints in the form of reflection prompts and knowledge checks between each module. This allows you to build your knowledge of the material in a systematic and sustainable way.

We have found that most people spend between 2.5 to 4 hours to complete each module in the courses. Between this time and the time needed to complete the final course assessment, you can expect to spend between 20 and 35 hours on each course. 

All materials needed for the course will be accessible within the learning platform. Courses materials include:

• Instructor-led videos
• Readings
• Reflection prompts
• Module self-assessments & learning checks
• Final course assessment

In order to successfully complete the course you must pass the final course assessment with a score of 80%. You can repeat the assessment a total of 3 times.

Once payment has been received, you will be enrolled in the course via the TalentLMS Learning Platform via the following process:

• You will receive an email linking you to your TalentLMS account and Community Partnerships Microcredential Course. If you have previously taken a Campus Compact course, this new course will be added to your account. If this is your first time taking a Campus Compact course, a new user profile will be created, and this email will provide information on setting up your account:

Once you have successfully completed the course, you will be removed from the course in 7 days and will no longer have access to course materials. 

Successful completion includes passing the final course assessment with a score of 80% or higher. 

• You can repeat the assessment a total of 3 times. 
• If you are unable to pass the final course assessment with a score of 80% or higher after 3 attempts, you will be unenrolled from the course and will need to pay for, re-enroll, and re-take the course.

After enrollment, you will have a maximum of 365 days to successfully complete the course. 

• If you do not complete the course within this time, you will be unenrolled from the course and will need to pay for, re-enroll, and re-take the course.