Tips for Using Education Content on ALA’s Website

Last year, ALA launched a completely redesigned member website at ALAMembers.com, which included the launch of a new education platform. The education platform now allows ALA members to take control of their professional education by tracking completed courses, certifications, and more. The following tips are designed to assist ALA members in using the online education platform.

1. Creating an Account
To access any of ALA’s online education programming, or to make purchases on ALA’s new website, you need to be logged into your online account. If you are visiting ALAMembers.com for the first time, you need to create a new account using your email address and password of choice. Usernames and passwords from ALA’s old website did not transfer over to the new site. To create an account, visit ALAMembers.com/Register.

2. Purchasing Training Materials for Yourself
After creating an account and logging into the website, you can access ALA’s training materials. Paid training materials can be found in the member store at ALAMembers.com/More-Resources/Member-Store. There are also links to paid training opportunities, such as webinars and seminars in the Live Training section of the website under Professional Education. To utilize these courses, simply add them to your shopping cart and complete the checkout process. Once purchased, the course material (unless it is a physical item, such as a manual) will be available under your dashboard at ALAMembers.com/Dashboard.

3. Purchasing Training Materials for Your Team
At times, members prefer to go online to purchase training materials for a group of individuals within their organization. If you are trying to purchase a course for someone other than yourself, you will want to purchase vouchers. After you go to the member store to purchase the quantity of vouchers needed, you will receive an email with the voucher codes. Those codes are what should be provided to the individual(s) for whom the courses were purchased.

4. Using a Voucher Code
The first step to redeeming a voucher code that has been provided to you is to create your own login. Once logged in, you should add the associated product (not the voucher) to your cart. For example, if someone purchased a Lighting Associate voucher for you, add the Lighting Associate bundle of courses to your cart. Then, continue through the full checkout process in the shopping cart. During the checkout process, a place to enter the voucher code will appear, at this point, enter the code and select "none" as your payment method and complete the purchase. The courses will then be available under your dashboard at ALAMembers.com/Dashboard.

5. Accessing Free Training Courses
ALA members are also invited to take advantage of the free library of webinars available on the website. To access these courses, you will first need to log into your account. Then, under the Free Training page at ALAMembers.com/Professional-Education/Free-Training, enter the password "2019training." Once entered, you will have access to the available free courses. To view a course, add the webinar to your cart, continue through the checkout process, then the course will be available under your dashboard at ALAMembers.com/Dashboard.