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YACEP® Guide

Everything you need to know to get started with your new designation.

Set Up Your Profile

Not sure where to start with your new profile? Read these helpful hints to make your profile pop.

Market Your Courses

Courses are the core of being a YACEP®. Learn how to add, edit and promote your courses.

Confirm Your Participants

Learn how to review and confirm Course Confirmation Requests for participants who took your courses.

Respond to Reviews

Participants are encouraged to leave feedback for your courses. Discover how to read and respond to their reviews.

Benefits for YACEP®s

Set yourself apart in the yoga community as an expert, provide quality Continuing Education for RYT®s, and more.

Glossary

There is new language to go with your new designation. Read this quick guide to help you speak YACEP® like a pro.

Set Up Your Profile

Not sure where to start with your new profile? Read these helpful hints to make your profile pop.

Short on time?

  • If you have five minutes, add a profile picture, a tagline and set your profile to visible.
  • If you have 15 minutes, also add your contact info and your first course.
  • If you have 25 minutes, do the above, fill in your bio and add another course.

You can edit your profile at any time from your Edit YACEP® Profile page

Editing your profile

How Will People See Me?

You can choose for your profile to be:

  • Visible (published in the YACEP® Directory) or
  • Hidden (not published in the YACEP® Directory)
Quick tip

Your profile is hidden by default. Click "Show" in order for your profile to appear on the YACEP® Directory

Profile Image and Highlight Photos

Quick tip

Adding images is a great way to bring your teaching to life for potential participants.

Your profile image is the photo people will see when they find you in the Directory. It also shows in the top left hand corner of every page of your profile.

You can also add up to three highlight photos. These help to:

  • build your credibility,
  • share a glimpse of your teaching, and
  • provide a window into what taking a class with you looks like.

Consider showing pictures of yourself teaching a class, locations where you teach, or photos you feel represent you and your personality.

Please make sure you have permission to use any photos you upload including people other than yourself. For more information, see:

Legal and Directory Name

Quick tip

If you are a RYT®, your legal and Directory names are automatically linked. If you update either one on your RYT® profile, your YACEP® profile will also update (and vice versa).

Your Legal Name must be accurate and correspond exactly to your actual legal first and last names, expressed in English characters.

You can put whatever you want as your Directory Name. It does not need to be the same as your legal name.

Quick tip

The Directory name is how you will be found in the Yoga Alliance Directory, so we recommend using whatever name people know you by.

Directory Address

Quick tip

Most people search the Directory using a location. If you want to be found in these searches, make sure you add a Directory Address.

You don't need to use your home address. Some good options for a location other than your home may be a nearby park, train or subway station, yoga studio, point of interest, business or location where you teach. Because of how Google® location searches work, your Directory address does need to be an exact physical address.

Tagline

A tagline is your chance to introduce yourself to potential participants in 160 characters or less.

Quick tip

The most effective taglines are short, specific and memorable.

The tagline is not meant to tell your full story (use the About section for that) but instead works best as a snapshot that sparks interest in what you're teaching.

About

Here's the place to tell your story.

As part of that story, you might describe:

  • Your education and experience
  • Why you want to teach
  • What you teach
  • What your participants can expect in your classes

Quick tip

Your language doesn't have to be formal. The best bio will be the one written in your own voice.

If you choose not to personalize this section, the following sentence will appear on your profile:

"[Your Directory Name] is a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP®), which recognizes this person as an expert in one or more of Yoga Alliance's Educational Categories."

I Offer Courses At

You can add locations from your profile (under the heading I Offer Courses At) or directly when you are adding a new course. Locations may be physical (geographic places) or virtual (if you offer training online, over the phone, via Skype - anywhere that your participant doesn't need to be in the same place as you).

How is a Location different from my Directory Address?
Both help potential participants find you in the Directory. When you create a course, you associate it with the location where it is being offered. Many Continuing Education providers offer courses at a variety of locations.

Physical Locations
Because of how Google® location searches work, any address you enter for a physical location does need to be an exact address (house number, street, city, etc).

Virtual Locations
Continuing Education providers may provide training that can be offered online or remotely (Non-Contact Hours only). Virtual Locations help your training be found even though it is not tied to a particular geographic location.

Hide Location
If you choose to hide one of your locations, people will not be able to find courses at this location when they search the Directory. You may want to hide a location if you are setting up courses for the future and don't want them to be found yet.

Archived Locations
If you used to teach somewhere, but no longer do, you can archive that location. This allows you to keep an accurate historical record of the past without cluttering up your current list of locations. You will not be able to archive a location that has current or future courses associated with it.

Shipping and Billing Addresses

Quick tip

As an RYT®, your shipping and billing addresses are automatically linked. If you update either one on your YACEP® profile, your RYT® profile will also update (and vice versa).

Your shipping and billing addresses never appear on your public profile. It's easy to use the same address for both; just enter your Billing Address and click "Copy from Billing Address."

Teacher Profile Linking

Most people will have the same contact information for both their YACEP® and RYT® profiles. Linking these fields helps you be sure that neither one gets out of date.

Quick tip

Your Contact Info does not automatically link between your RYT® and YACEP® profiles. If you want your profiles to be linked, click the "Link Contact Info" button.

Connect With Me

Quick tip

If your YACEP® and RYT® profiles are linked, this information will only be editable from your RYT® profile.

Adding your social media accounts and website allows potential participants to learn more about you and your courses. Adding your email address and phone number allows them to contact you directly with any questions.

Don't worry - Email Me does not show your email address, but lets people send you a private message. For privacy reasons, this is not turned on by default, but we highly recommend turning it on. To use this feature, look for the check box under your email address when you're editing your contact information.

Other Information

Associated With
If you want people to find you by searching a school or organizational name, you can add it here. Names listed here do not create links to other Yoga Alliance profiles.

Languages is a space for you to list the languages in which you offer courses. This helps people who may want to take courses in languages other than English. For clarity, separate each listing with a comma.

Ready to Edit Your Profile?

Start or Edit YACEP® Profile
Quick tip

If you need help along the way, look for this icon: . Clicking on it provides more information and tips about the section you're editing!

Market Your Courses

The more courses you offer and add to your YACEP® account, the more likely people will find you in the Directory. Learn how to add, edit, and promote your courses.

How courses work: an overview

  1. You add an upcoming course to your YACEP® account.
  2. Potential participants search the Directory for Continuing Education opportunities. They see your course listing, and click through to your profile to learn more about this course.
  3. Your course is exactly what participants are looking for! They sign up to take this course with you.
  4. The participants take your course. Before they leave, you give each participant a Certificate of Completion. This certificate includes your:
    • course name
    • exact course start and end dates, and
    • the number of Contact or Non-Contact Hours of instruction per Educational Category
  5. When participants return home, they log in to their YA accounts and submit Course Confirmation Requests, which include your Certificate of Completion.
  6. You receive a Course Confirmation Request from each participant. If all of the details are correct on a request, you confirm it. This shows YA that participants completed your course, and counts it towards their Continuing Education requirements (if they are RYTs).
  7. Your participants see you've confirmed their CCRs. They go complete Course Evaluation Surveys to leave feedback about your course.
  8. You review the participants' feedback and note ideas to make your next course even better. If you want to, you may leave a response to participants thanking them for the feedback and for participating in your course.
  9. Repeat.

Adding and editing courses

Quick tip

Ensuring that the online course details match your course completion certificates will make the confirmation process go smoothly.

Required fields are marked with a small red asterisk ( * ). The following five fields are required to add a course:

Course Name

Have you named your course yet? When choosing a name, consider what keywords people might search for to find this course in the YACEP® Directory.

Educational Categories

This section is where you will organize your Contact and Non-Contact Hours into one or more Educational Categories.

One course can cover multiple Educational Categories. If you are unsure which categories your course applies to, click the video link next to each category for an explanation of the types of content it might include.

Course Description

It's up to you whether your course description is very brief or very detailed. You can enter up to 8,000 characters, including spaces.

Quick tip

The first 160 characters of your description will appear with your course in the Directory, so put the most important information first!

Start Date and End Date

If your course is only one day, enter the same date for both fields. You can enter any courses that start after the date you were verified as a YACEP®.

Location

All of the locations you add are listed here and available for editing. You can add a location if you're teaching a course somewhere new.


The following three fields are optional:

Additional Info

Additional information could include anything you think will be useful to participants, such as instructions about props to bring to your course or how to access online course materials.

Additional Schedule Details

Like additional info, this could include anything you think participants need to know about your course schedule. For example, your workshop takes place every Monday evening for two months, but you will not meet the first Monday in September in observance of a holiday.

Custom Survey Question

Collecting program-specific feedback from your participants is one way to learn more about the value your program had for them. You can add a custom survey question to the Course Review (Course Survey) for any course. The question you create and the participants’ answers are not visible to the public.

Ready to Add a Course?

Add and Manage Courses
Quick tip

If you need help along the way, look for this icon: . Clicking on it provides more information and tips about the section you're editing!

Confirm Your Participants

Confirming participants is an important part of being a YACEP®. It lets your participants get credit for Continuing Education they took with you, and gives you the opportunity to get feedback from them.

As an RYT®, your Program Confirmation Request was confirmed by your school so you could complete your registration with Yoga Alliance. As a YACEP®, participants send you a Course Confirmation Request and you confirm they completed your Continuing Education course.

How to know you have new Course Confirmation Requests

You'll see this alert on your YACEP® Dashboard and at the top of Manage Courses

How to Confirm
If the information isn't correct

If you're not 100% certain about any part of the Course Confirmation Request, you have two options.

  • Click Decline. If you know for sure that this person did not complete your Continuing Education course, or if some of the information doesn't match, Decline the Course Confirmation Request.

    You can include a message about why you declined the request. If you're declining because some of the information is incorrect, you can tell the person why and they can re-submit a correct request.

    Declined requests do not count towards Continuing Education hours, and people you decline will not be able to review your course.

  • Click Unable to Confirm. If you are unable to confirm or decline the request, you can send it to Yoga Alliance for investigation or review. Please make sure you explain why you are having a hard time confirming or declining the request.

    A member of the YA Credentialing team will review the request, may reach out to you for further information, and will eventually confirm or decline it on your behalf.

Respond to Reviews

Participants are encouraged to provide feedback for each course they take. Discover how the process works and how it helps you.

What your participants see

What your participants see

Once you confirm a Course Confirmation Request, a link appears in their Training Hours table inviting them to review your course.

Course Surveys ask participants four main questions.

  • Was the course content related to the Educational Categories associated with this course?
  • Did the YACEP® teach the number of Contact Hours included on the Certificate of Completion?
  • Did this course expand their knowledge or teaching skills in the fields of the Educational Categories associated with this course?
  • How likely are they to recommend this course?

When you create a course, you can add any question you would like to gather feedback about. That question will also be included in the survey filled out by participants.

Participants may also add general comments about your course.

Where to find reviews

Where to find reviews

Quick tip

You can see your reviews at any time on your All Reviews page.To access this from your left menu, click "YACEP® Reviews" and then "All Reviews."

  1. Go to your All Reviews page. This page has a summary of all your reviews to date, a visual representation of what will show on your profile, and helpful information about managing reviews.
  2. Scroll down to your All Reviews table. Click "View" next to the participant's name to go to their individual review page.
  3. From this page, you can read each question they were asked, their answer, and any comments they typed.
  4. To respond to a comment, click the "Post a Response" button underneath the comment you'd like to respond to. Please remember you can only respond once to each comment.
Quick tip

Not familiar with reviews? Learn all about YACEP® Reviews and how powerful responding to comments can be on Responding to Course Reviews

What the public sees

What the public sees

Your YACEP® Public Rating will always appear on your public profile, if you have your profile set to visible.

Participants rate from 0-10 how likely they are to recommend your course, and this is converted to a five-star rating. Only the ratings from Yoga Alliance members are averaged into the five-star rating that appears as your YACEP® Public Rating.

Beyond the public rating, you can decide how much information you want to show on your profile related to:

  • Course content ratings and comments
  • Knowledge/teaching skills ratings and comments
  • Net Promoter Score
  • General comments

Your responses to comments will be visible if you have that category of comments set to visible. To control what review questions appear on your profile, go to your Review Settings page.

How reviews help you

How reviews help you

Taking part in allowing public reviews of your courses is brave, and not always easy, but openness and transparency provides benefits to YACEP®s, participants, and the overall quality of Continuing Education.

Reviews and responses help you in a number of ways, including:

  • Responding to comments shows you're engaged with your students and gives you an opportunity to provide additional information about you and your courses
  • Reading participants' feedback can help you improve your courses
  • Including custom survey questions help you gather information you want to know about some element of your course
  • Potential course participants looking for Continuing Education opportunities on the Directory use reviews to see if your course will be the right fit for them
  • A large number of reviews demonstrates that people are taking your courses

Please remember the vast majority of comments and reviews are positive and encouraging.

Benefits of YACEP®

Now that you have the YACEP designation, you can start to take advantage of all the benefits the directory offers you!

Make sure you complete your profile so you can market your courses to the growing number of yoga teachers looking for qualified experts just like you.

More Exposure

With the YACEP® Directory, you can share your knowledge more easily by listing your bio, workshop information and locations all in one place. Not to mention your profile gives potential participants a place to sign up to receive email updates about your future courses.

The Yoga Alliance site receives over 150,000 visits a month, with over 50 percent coming from new visitors. By having your name listed in more places on our site, those eyes will be on you even more than before.

More Students

Over the years, many Yoga Alliance members have asked directly for easier ways to find qualified Continuing Education providers.

According to the 2016 Yoga In America Study, over 90 percent of existing teachers said they will be taking further education in the next 12 months. In addition, there are two people in training to be a yoga teacher for every active teacher. That's a lot of potential students!

More Experience

Of the 5,000+ members surveyed about YACEP®, 79 percent saw it as a way to help them develop as a teacher. Becoming a YACEP® not only solidifies your qualifications to teach Continuing Education, but it also puts you on a path of becoming a better teacher through deeper experiences and richer feedback.

With each course you create, you’ll get actionable feedback and reviews from participants that help you grow and develop your programs.

More Growth

In a recent survey, most yoga teachers told Yoga Alliance they teach continuing education to help share their knowledge with the community.

However, Continuing Education workshops also traditionally provide a higher source of revenue to yoga teachers. Based on our survey, the most popular costs for workshops are $30-$50 or over $100. Providing workshops and Continuing Education courses is a great way to supplement your teaching earnings while helping RYT®s become even better yoga teachers.

Glossary

There are many terms, old and new, that can help you, your participants, and Yoga Alliance all speak the same language.

Continuing Education (CE) Requirements
Every three years, Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT®s) must complete 30 hours of Continuing Education training, 10 of which need to be Contact Hours in the presence of a qualified CE provider.

Continuing Education Provider
A YACEP® or a qualified provider who meets the following criteria:

  • is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT®) currently registered with Yoga Alliance, or
  • has a relevant degree or certification, and/or substantial education in an area of expertise that is related to one of the YA Educational Categories, combined with substantial teaching and/or professional experience in that area

If the CE provider is not a YACEP®, the participant must be able to provide supporting documentation about the instructor's qualifications if it is requested by Yoga Alliance.

Educational Categories
Continuing Education for RYT®s must directly relate to at least one of these four Educational Categories.

  • Techniques, Training & Practice (TTP): How to do (practice) yoga
  • Teaching Methodology (TM): How to teach (yoga) effectively
  • Anatomy & Physiology (AP): The physical and energetic bodies
  • Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle & Ethics (YPLE): History, philosophy, ethics and lifestyle practices of yoga

The Yoga Alliance Educational Categories do not include diagnosis or treatment of mental or physical health conditions.

For more information and videos about each category, please visit the Educational Categories page.

Continuing Education Contact Hour
Continuing Education Contact Hours are in-person classroom hours in the physical presence of a YACEP® or another qualified CE provider. All hours must be directly related to one or more Educational Category.

Continuing Education Non-Contact Hour
Continuing Education Non-Contact Hours consist of learning outside of the classroom and physical presence of a YACEP® or qualified CE Provider. All Non-Contact Hours must be directly related to one or more Educational Category.

Participants are required to submit a written reflection of each Non-Contact Hour activity to demonstrate what was learned and how it relates to the educational categories and CE Requirements.

Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP®)
That's you! Your YACEP® designation means Yoga Alliance has verified that you have the expertise to provide continuing education in one or more of YA's Educational Categories.

YACEP® Course(s)
Courses you offer in one or more of the Educational Categories for which you have received the YACEP® designation.

Please visit the Courses page in this guide for detailed information about how to add and edit courses.

Virtual/Remote Course
A virtual or remote course is a course that participants can take regardless of their geographic location. This includes webinars you're teaching, courses over Skype or the phone, or any type of online training. Virtual or remote courses may only be counted as Non-Contact Hours because the participant is not in the physical presence of the YACEP®.

Participant
A participant is someone who takes one of your continuing education courses. Participants may or may not be RYT®s.

YACEP® Certificate of Completion
You are responsible for providing a Certificate of Completion to each participant who finishes your course. This certificate includes:

  • the course name,
  • the number of Contact and Non-Contact Hours taught in each applicable Educational Category,
  • the exact date(s) of the course,
  • your legal name,
  • your handwritten signature, and
  • the full name of the participant who completed the training.

The participant needs this certificate to get their CE Credits.

Course Confirmation Request (CCR)
The record created when a participant uploads a Certificate of Completion to confirm he or she attended that course.

Course Reviews (Course Surveys)
Participants are asked to review completed courses. Reviews from your participants give both you and Yoga Alliance ongoing, structured feedback that can help improve the quality of Continuing Education.

You can also add a custom question for each course. Learn more about Social Credentialing

YACEP® Directory
The YACEP® Directory promotes your profile and courses on the Yoga Alliance website. Learn more on the Directory page of this guide.

YACEP® Profile
Your profile is your personalized page within the Directory. The more information you fill in, the more opportunities you have to market yourself. You can include upcoming courses, locations where you teach, a biography about your education and experience, photos and contact information.

To learn more about filling out your profile, please visit the Profile page in this guide.

Course Reviews (Course Surveys)
Participants are asked to review completed courses. Reviews from your participants give both you and Yoga Alliance ongoing, structured feedback that can help improve the quality of continuing education.

You can also add a custom question for each course. Learn more about Social Credentialing

Review Settings
Some questions from the participant course reviews may show on your public profile if you choose to make them visible. Other questions are always private. The only thing that always shows on your public profile is the YACEP® Public Rating.

You can configure your settings on your Course Review Settings page.

Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) from -10 to 10 is a measure of how likely course participants are to recommend your courses to others. The NPS is not an indication of how well the course was delivered. Whether your NPS score shows on your public profile is up to you.

Overall Rating and YACEP® Public Rating
Participants rate from 0-10 how likely they are to recommend your course to someone else.

Ratings from Yoga Alliance members are averaged into the five-star rating that appears on your YACEP® profile. Learn more about YACEP® Reviews

Application Fee
E-RYT®s are pre-qualified based on their current designation and don't need to pay an application fee.

Annual Dues
The Annual Dues are the amount that you pay each year to maintain your YACEP® designation.

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