ASHI Edge: A New Era of Education

In December 2021, the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) launched its all-new online education platform: the ASHI Edge. The momentous endeavor was headed by ASHI’s Director of Education Edwin Barrera and his skillful team in the education department.

With this new platform ASHI can provide top-level education opportunities to members and the home inspection profession to offer even more engaging and effective learning.

Out with the Old

Before the ASHI Edge, the ASHI Online Learning Center (commonly referred to as the AOLC) was the hub for ASHI’s online education for members to earn Continuing Education credits and stay on top of emerging trends in home inspection. When the AOLC first launched, it was a valuable option for members who could not attend as many live conferences and events as they wished while still allowing them to access the most crucial aspect of those events—education.

The AOLC served the association faithfully for years. However, between the launch of ASHI’s updated website in the summer of 2020 and the continued global pandemic, there was a clear need for an updated platform that would allow ASHI to provide more comprehensive education backed by a new focus on the principles of adult learning. The 100+ most popular and highest rated courses from the AOLC have been migrated to the ASHI Edge.

In with the New

The ASHI Edge is more than just an updated platform to host educational courses. There are plenty of new features that provide a greater degree of accessibility and convenience to your educational experience. To start, accessing the ASHI Edge is a breeze with the new single sign-on feature, which allows you to quickly move between ASHI’s main website and your ASHI Edge educational profile. Just like the AOLC before it, the ASHI Edge will continue to offer Continuing Education credits toward the association’s requirements as well as state licensing requirements.

My Learning Dashboard

The Learning Dashboard will be your central hub for your online education in the ASHI Edge. The Learning Dashboard will keep track of all of your current courses as well as your progress on them so you can easily pick up where you left off. In addition, the Learning Dashboard will allow you to access your course history to review courses you have completed and keep you in the loop on new or featured courses available and any related ASHI news.

Course Catalog

The Course Catalog in the ASHI Edge helps you find the courses you’re looking for effortlessly. Take advantage of the various filters in the search menu that match the specific topics you wish to learn about or fulfill state requirements for your licensing. Each course in the catalog will have the user ratings, CE credit amounts, and price, though most offerings will be free for ASHI members. To learn more about the course before you start, you’ll also find even more details and information written by the course instructors as well as a brief preview for a better sense of the content.

New Courses

At the launch of the ASHI Edge, the education department debuted two new courses that will give you the first taste of what to expect from the future of ASHI education. The all-new courses, “Exterior: Wall Coverings” and “Inspecting Roofs,” were designed and developed by ASHI’s instructional designers. These courses utilized the various engagement and interactive tools and methods found in sound instructional design practices that the ASHI Edge platform has the capability to host. More courses are currently in development, and you can expect to see courses added to the catalog regularly.

A New Learning Experience

The goal of the ASHI Edge is to improve the quality of education ASHI offers in the hopes that you receive greater comprehension and retention of the information found in the courses. They will be spearheaded by ASHI’s education department, specifically the aforementioned instructional designers, as they lead the course creation for our new platform. When you take one of the new courses, you will quickly understand that these courses provide enhanced content delivery with focused video content, knowledge checks, and varied interactions.

These course features will facilitate greater engagement and active learning to promote knowledge retention and recall. In practice, this means you won’t just be staring at the screen while a video plays. You will be applying the knowledge presented in real-time and have real-world scenarios and examples to bring the lessons’ principles to life. Additionally, the instructional designers will keep working closely with known home inspection professionals and experts like Mike Casey, Shannon Cory, Scott Patterson, ASHI school instructors like Scott Johnson, and other subject matter experts. We believe this will ensure the highest quality educational content in each course.

Final Note

There is a lot to be excited about the ASHI Edge, and we are proud to present the new platform and courses to the membership. If you haven’t done so yet, we encourage you to access the ASHI Edge for yourself and take the new courses for a spin. ASHI has always committed itself to being a leader in education within the home inspection profession, and the launch of the ASHI Edge is a testament to that commitment. We invite you to join us as ASHI’s educational opportunities continue to grow and evolve for years to come!