College of Direct Support

The College of Direct Support (external link) is a set of online training courses offered to lead agencies, providers, people with disabilities and their families. CDS provides information that focuses on improving knowledge, promoting high-quality services, creating trained professionals and helping people with disabilities so that they may lead more self-directed, person-centered lives. Course content is available through learning administrators who are able to set up online accounts and assign trainings.

Courses
Benefits
Cost
Contact

Courses

The University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living leads the development of course content.

The College of Direct Support (external link) is made up of 38 courses, broken up into 209 lessons. It takes about 146 hours and 45 minutes to complete all of the lessons. By discussing options with a learning administrator, learners are able to select which courses they want to take, allowing for individualized learning opportunities.

CDS courses include information on:
- Civil rights and advocacy
- Community inclusion
- Cultural competence
- Direct support professionalism
- Employment supports for people with disabilities
- Functional assessment
- Individual rights and choice
- Developmental disabilities
- Mental health and mental illnesses
- Maltreatment: prevention and response
- Personal care
- Person-centered planning
- Positive behavior support
- Working with families and support networks.
Benefits

What are the benefits of using the DirectCourse?
- 24-hour access to training classes you may complete at your own pace
- Ability to track and measure performance of learners
- Ability to customize training modules
- Courses are competency-based and go through a rigorous development process
- Learners are able to select which courses they want to take, allowing for individualized learning opportunities
- Helps providers to meet some of the 245D training requirements
- Offers support from DHS staff and the University of Minnesota
- Prepares direct support professionals for National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) credentialing
- Ability to archive transcripts
- Certificates are available upon completion of lessons
- Extensive reporting functions that can be exported to other formats
- Helps to ensure that staff are capable and well-trained
Cost

Online courses are available for free to people with disabilities and their families.

Courses are also free for state agencies, county and tribal employees, as well as their advisory groups and board members.

Social service professionals and staff of provider agencies that serve one to nine people with disabilities may also take online courses for free.

For more information about the no-cost option for access, email Minnesota’s CDS learning administrator.

Under the contract with DHS, DirectCourse bases its cost for larger agencies on the number of people served by an agency, not the number of employees:
- Providers who serve 10 to 100 people with disabilities pay a $500 licensing fee annually.
- Providers who serve 101 or more people with disabilities pay a $2,950 licensing fee annually.
For more information about online course access for larger providers, email Elsevier customer support.
Contact

For more information about DirectCourse online training, email Minnesota’s CDS learning administrator.

For access to courses, request a free learner account if you are:
- A social service professional
- With a provider agency serving 10 or fewer people with disabilities
- An employee of a state agency
- County or tribal staff
- A person with disabilities who self-directs
- A family member of a person with disabilities
- A member of an advisory group or a board.
If you are with a provider agency serving 11 or more people with disabilities, email Elsevier customer support.

Related online courses

Person-Centered Counseling | College of Employment Services