Research Determination

Project Determination
CDC TRAIN course submission and evaluation
Project ID:

0900f3eb8259e846

Accession #:

PHIC-ODSIO-7/2/25-9e846

Project Contact:

Marion Carter

Organization:

PHIC/OD

Status:

Pending Clearance

Intended Use:

Project Determination

Estimated Start Date:

11/01/25

Estimated Completion Date:

09/30/28

CDC/ATSDR HRPO/IRB Protocol#:
OMB Control#:
End of Human Research Date:
OMB Discontinuation Date:

Description
Priority
Standard

Date Needed
07/11/25

CDC Priority Area for this Project
Other CDC Priority - Workforce development

Determination Start Date
07/08/25

Description

0920-0017

CDC TRAIN is part of the Public Health Foundation’s larger TRAIN Learning Network. This Network is a national learning management system used by affiliate
organizations to manage and share public health trainings with over 5 million registered learners. CDC’s electronic portal into the TRAIN Learning Network is called
CDC TRAIN. Using CDC TRAIN to offer these courses helps CDC reach the public health workforce where they already go to learn. CDC is accredited by multiple
accreditation organizations to award continuing education (CE) for public health and health professionals (learners). To comply with the mandatory requirements of
accreditation organization standards and to manage the accreditation process, CDC collects standardized information through the Continuing Education Proposal, a
secure web-based platform developed and managed internally by DWD. This is used to collect information from educational developers about the courses to be
offered, which are reviewed to ensure accreditation and training quality standards are met.

Courses approved to confer CE credits (accredited courses), as well as

other online trainings for the broader public health workforce (non-accredited courses) are made available to learners through CDC TRAIN. Learners who take
courses through CDC TRAIN submit information needed for course evaluation and improvement (OMB No. 0920-0017). Moreover, completing course evaluations is
required for learners seeking CE, as part of accrediting agencies’ requirements. This project is limited in scope to these information collections: submissions by
course providers to have their courses available for CE credits and the evaluation of courses offered in CDC TRAIN. This is not about the full scope of CDC's
participation in CDC TRAIN.

IMS/CIO/Epi-Aid/Lab-Aid/Chemical Exposure Submission
No

IMS Activation Name
Not selected

Submitted through IMS clearance matrix
Not selected

Primary Scientific Priority
Not selected

Secondary Scientific Priority (s)
Not selected

Task Force Responsible
Not selected

CIO Emergency Response Name
Not selected

Epi-Aid Name
Not selected

Lab-Aid Name
Not selected

Assessment of Chemical Exposure Name
Not selected

Goals/Purpose

The goal of this project is to continually improve CDC training activities and to maintain CDC compliance with mandatory accreditation organization standards by
efficiently collecting information through the CDC TRAIN learning management system.

Objective
The objectives are, first, to allow CDC to receive information from course developers who seek for their courses to offer CE credits to learners, so CDC can assess
whether those courses meet the relevant criteria for CE. Second, the objective is to allow all course providers (for accedited courses or not) to easily offer course
evaluation of their courses to learners, from within the CDC TRAIN system.

Does your project measure health disparities among populations/groups experiencing social, economic, geographic, and/or
environmental disadvantages?
No

Does your project investigate underlying contributors to health inequities among populations/groups experiencing social,
economic, geographic, and/or environmental disadvantages?
No

Does your project propose, implement, or evaluate an action to move towards eliminating health inequities?
No

Activities or Tasks
New Collection of Information, Data, or Biospecimens

Target Population to be Included/Represented
General US Population; Healthcare Provider; Other-Course providers

Tags/Keywords
Training Support; Education, Professional, Retraining; Accreditation

CDC's Role
Activity originated and designed by CDC staff, or conducted at the specific request of CDC, or CDC staff will approve study design and data collection as a condition
of any funding provided

Method Categories
Survey

Methods
For the CE Proposal submitted by course developers seeking CE accreditation of their courses and for CDC TRAIN, data are collected though secure, online portals.
For course evaluation, there is an immediate post-course evaluation survey offered, as well as a follow-up (3 weeks later) course evaluation survey. Both of these
instruments are designed to be brief, while meeting the needs of course providers and accrediting agencies and adhering to scientific standards for effective
training evaluation.

Collection of Info, Data, or Bio specimens

CE Proposal In the currently approved CE Proposal, course developers are required to submit their educational activities one time for each application for
continuing education accreditation using the secure, web-based platform. Once in the platform and approved for accreditation, the educational activity is added to
CDC TRAIN for public health professionals to earn continuing education. No interviews or surveys are used to collect this information. Course providers may include
federal and non-federal staff, and are estimated at approximately 130 respondents per year. CDC TRAIN Learners taking accredited trainings must complete the
CDC TRAIN Post-Course Evaluation in order to receive continuing education credit. For accredited courses, learners are prompted to complete the evaluation after
completion of learning content. Information gathered in the evaluation is required by accrediting organizations, and is also used by course providers to improve
courses.

All learners of a given accredited educational activity who complete the content, pass the post-test, and complete the post-course evaluation to earn CE

and will receive an invitation email with a link back to CDC TRAIN to complete an optional Follow-up Evaluation 21 days after earning CE. The CDC TRAIN PostCourse Evaluation will also be available to course providers offering non-accredited trainings within CDC TRAIN. Completion of the tool will not be required for all
courses but may be required for the learner to get credit for completing the course. A course completion adds the course to the learner’s CDC TRAIN transcript and
he or she can receive a certificate of completion, if offered.

Learners in CDC TRAIN include federal and non-federal persons and are estimated to be about 270,00

respondents per year. CDC will use identifiable information in CDC TRAIN to track participant completion of educational activities to facilitate required reporting to
earn continuing education credits, hours, or units. Aggregate data from the evaluations in CDC TRAIN will be used to improve educational activities and assess
learning outcomes.

Expected Use of Findings/Results and their impact
CDC will use information collected in CDC TRAIN to evaluate and improve courses based on learner feedback. For accredited trainings, this information will also be
used to generate certificates of attendance and verify training completion, review and approve proposals for educational activities to receive continuing education
accreditation, and ensure compliance with mandatory accreditation standards.

Could Individuals potentially be identified based on Information Collected?
Yes

Will PII be captured (including coded data)?
Yes

Does CDC have access to the Identifiers (including coded data)?
Yes

Is this project covered by an Assurance of Confidentiality?
No

Does this activity meet the criteria for a Certificate of Confidentiality (CoC)?
No

Is there a formal written agreement prohibiting the release of identifiers?
No

Funding
Funding Type

Funding Title

Funding #

CDC Cooperative

National Partnership Umbrella Cooperative

PW-24-0080

Agreement

Agreement

Original Fiscal
Year

# of Years
of Award

Budget
Amount

HSC Review
HSC Attributes
Program Evaluation
Yes

Regulation and Policy
Do you anticipate this project will require review by a CDC IRB or HRPO?
No

Will you be working with an outside Organization or Institution? Yes

Institutions
Institution

FWA #

FWA Exp.
Date

Funding

Funding Restriction
Amount

Public Health

National Partnership Umbrella Cooperative Agreement - PW-24-

Foundation

0080

Institution

Funding Restriction Percentage

Funding Restriction Reason

Funding Restriction has been
lifted

Public Health Foundation

Institution

Institution Role(s)

Public Health Foundation

Implementing the Project

Institution Project Title

Institution Project
Tracking #

Prime Institution

Institution

Regulatory Coverage

Public Health Foundation

IRB Review is Not Required

Institution

IRB Review Status

Registered IRB

IRB Registration Exp. Date

IRB Approval Status

IRB Approval Date

IRB Approval Exp. Date

Relying Institution IRB

Public Health Foundation

Institution
Public Health Foundation

Staff
Staff
Member

SIQT Exp.
Date

BritneyJohnson

09/15/2026

Citi
Biomedical
Exp. Date

Citi Social
and
Behavioral
Exp. Date

Citi Good
Clinical
Exp. Date

03/26/2028

Citi Good
Laboratory
Practice
Exp. Date

Staff Role

Email

Phone #

Organizatio
n/
Institution

Principal

mwq4@cd

404-718-5604

DIVISION OF

Investigator

c.gov

WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT

CindiMelanson

12/31/2099

Program Lead

zii6@cdc.g
ov

404-498-4281

TRAINING
DELIVERY
TEAM

DMP
Proposed Data Collection Start Date

11/01/25

Proposed Data Collection End Date

10/31/28

Proposed Public Access Level

Non-Public

Reason for not Releasing the Data

Removal of identifiers renders the remaining data of no value

Public Access justification

The information from course developers seeking accreditation for their courses is not public health
data and not appropriate to make public in any way. The evaluation data that learners provide is
for program improvement purposes only and also is not public health data. Investing in making
these data publicly available, even in aggregate, would serve no known audience or purpose.

How Access Will Be Provided for Data

All data are securely stored and governed by various privacy and confidentialy protections and
policies. For CE accreditation, access to some learners' information is carefully curated and given to
accrediting agencies for the purposes of awarding the CE that learners seek from them. This is
required as part of accreditation and arguably does not constitute "data sharing" in the sense of this
DMP.

Plans for archival and long-term preservation of

Data are stored in accordance with federal records management guidelines in secure locations on

the data

the CDC environment (CE proposals) and CDC TRAIN environments (evaluation, learner data).

Spatiality (Geographic Location)
Country

State/Province

County/Region

United States

Determinations
Determination

Justification

Completed

Entered By & Role

HSC:

Not Research / Other

07/10/25

Macaluso_Renita (arp5) CIO HSC

07/10/25

Macaluso_Renita (arp5) OMB/PRA

Does NOT Require HRPO
Review

45 CFR 46.102(l)

Program Evaluation
PRA:
PRA Applies