All applications for Category 1 CEUs should be submitted through the NSGC CEU Portal

The email address associated with the account used to submit the application will be the only one to receive communications about the application. If multiple people will be working on the application, the organizer may want to create a new account for multiple people to access.

Activity organizers should submit an application for Category 1 CEU approval prior to the start of their educational activity. Applications that are reviewed and approved before the start of their activity receive “pre-approval.”

Activity Organizer Information

• Sponsoring Organization: This is the organization or group that is hosting the event.
• Activity Contact: This is the individual who is filing the application. It can be the same person as the Program Planner.

Activity Information

• Activity Title: This is the name of the event or activity that will appear on your CEU certificate.
• Activity Start and End Dates: This is the first date the course will be offered for CEUs and the final date it will be offered respectively.
  • This may be the same date if it was a one-day event.
  • The start date must be at least 4 weeks from the submission date.
• Event Format
  • In-person event (no recordings)
  • Live webinar (no recording)
  • On-demand or self-paced content
  • Available as 1) live and 2) on-demand or self-paced activity
  • Self-paced activities require 1) an attendance verification method and 2) a learning assessment/achievement of objectives.
    • Examples of attendance verification include but are not limited to: verified attendance list, sign-in signature sheet, badge scanning, verification code, or completion of a written examination/quiz.
    • Examples of learning assessments include but are not limited to: performance demonstration under real or simulated conditions, written or oral examinations/quizzes, written reports, completion of a project, self-assessment, or comprehensive evaluation.
    • Please note: Written examinations/quizzes qualify as both an attendance verification method and a learning assessment.

Activity Type

• Series: Activities that take place in multiple sessions over an extended period of time, up to a maximum of one year. Common examples include webinar series and journal clubs.
• Non-Series: Activities that do not fit the definition above.
• Activity Location
• Program Planner Information
• Anticipated Number of Attendees: Please indicate the estimated number of genetic counselors who will be claiming CEUs for attending this activity.
• ABGC Content Outline Domain(s)
• Activity Statement of Purpose: Please include 4-6 sentences about the overall purpose and goals of the activity.
• Number of Contact Hours

Learning Objectives: Learning objectives, or learning outcomes, are statements that clearly describe what the learner will know or be able to do as a result of having attended an educational program or activity.

• Three (3) Overall Learning Objectives:
  • Additional learning objectives may be required depending on the length of your activity. ABGC requires 1 learning objective per 0.5 Category 1 Contact Hours (30 minutes).
• Tips for Formatting Learning Objectives:
  • All objectives should follow Bloom’s Taxonomy.
  • Use one measurable, behavioral verb per objective.
  • Click here for some examples of behavioral verbs
  • The verb selected should describe an observable action an attendee could undertake after completing the course.
  • For example, understand, learn and know are not measurable verbs.

Below are documents that you will be required to upload as part of the Category 1 CEU application. Please make sure that all session times, speakers, learning objectives, and other information are consistent across all materials.

Education Activity Overview Form (EAO)

• This form should include a time-ordered agenda of all component sessions and parts of your activity, including session descriptions, speakers, and session learning objectives.
• As you develop the learning objectives, please reference the tips above.
• Please also keep in mind that one additional learning objective per 30-minutes of content is required for each session.
• If the entirety of the activity does not exceed 90 minutes, the three (3) overall learning objectives may be the same as the learning objectives on the EAO 
• An example EAO form can be found here.

Activity Agenda/Brochure/Schedule, including session times, titles, and speakers

• This should be public-facing information describing your activity to prospective attendees.

Evaluation

• Each activity is required to have an evaluation. The evaluation should include three components:
  • Overall quality of the educational program: The evaluation should assess the degree to which the stated learning objectives were achieved without bias and adhered to COI requirements, the program enhanced professional development, and program implementation was effective.
  • Speakers: Each speaker should be evaluated.
  • Session Learning Objectives: Attendees should evaluate whether each individual learning objective was met for each session.
• Please reference this example evaluation template. Your evaluation does not need to follow this specific format.
• For Category 1 applications for Conference activities, or other multi-session non-series events, that are at least 15 contact hours in length, you may choose to sign an attestation instead of submitting the full learning assessment and attendance verification documentation. Please be prepared to share all requested details with NSGC in the case of an audit.

COI (Conflict of Interest) Disclosure Forms

• ABGC requires all presenters to acknowledge that they understand and will comply with Standard 7 in ABGC’s Standards for Continuing Education.
• ABGC also requires that all presenters disclose their actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest. You are required (1) to submit these disclosures as part of your CEU application or (2) attest that they have been collected and the Program Planner has reviewed and mitigated them.
• Please reference this example COI Disclosure Form. You may choose to have your speakers fill out this form individually, or you may collect their responses and submit them together in a single PDF or excel file.
• You should maintain the disclosures for at least five years following the conclusion of the activity.
• We cannot accept website links or online forms within the application. We require downloadable copies of any submitted information, preferably as PDF or .xlsx files.

There are two fees associated with Category 1 CEU activities: (1) Application Fees and (2) Filing Fees.

Application Fees

Application fees are calculated automatically based on the date of submission and how many contact hours are requested. Application fees must be paid prior to receiving final approval for the activity.

Please note: Approval for CEUs is not valid until application fees are paid. Application fees are not refundable for any reason, including if an application is denied for CEUs. Please be aware that the rush fee assessed for late applications does not guarantee a faster review, but is compensatory for applications where reviewers have more limited time to complete their reviews before the course start date.

Filing Fees

A Filing Fee is assessed for each participant who wishes to claim CEUs for an activity. The Activity Organizer is responsible for paying filing fees for each participant who will be claiming CEUs at the time of submitting the final attendance list for the activity to NSGC.

Filing fees are set at $35 per participant. For example, an activity with one participant would require the Activity Organizer to pay a $35 filling fee. An activity with one-hundred participants would require the Activity Organizer to pay $3,500 in filing fees.

As the Activity Organizer, you are responsible for collecting the filing fee payments and submitting them to NSGC as part of the post-activity documentation following the end of an approved activity. CEU certificates will not be issued if filing fees are not received from the Activity Organizer.

NSGC will not:

• Collect CEU filing fees from attendees on the organizer’s behalf
• Reach out to attendees to collect the CEU filing fees individually
• Accept individually mailed checks from activity participants

Application Monitoring and Revision Requests

If NSGC needs additional information for an application review, we will contact the Activity Organizer via an “Applicant Inquiry” from the NSGC CEU Portal. You will be notified by email when an application inquiry has been submitted.

Within the NSGC CEU Portal, each application will have an orange or gray status button.

Orange buttons indicate an action is required by the organizer. Actions required may include payment of fees, revision requests, attendance upload, or other actions.

Gray buttons indicate that the application or activity is in a stage where changes or adjustments cannot be made by the organizer.

Please note: Your Activity List will default to “My Inbox,” showing only applications that require your immediate attention. To see all applications, including those that have been approved or are still in review, change the setting from “My Inbox” to “All” and click “Filter.”

Responding to an Inquiry

On the course list on your Activity Organizer profile, click the “Respond to Inquiry” button on the application in question.

The requested revisions are noted at the top of the application pop-up under “Comments to Applicant.”

To upload any revised documents, click the trashcan icon next to the current upload and then replace it with the revised document.

Please note: When doing so, please ensure the new document contains all previously submitted information in addition to any changes. Do not submit a document that only contains the changes that have been requested.

If more than one document must be uploaded to a particular field, combine multiple files into a merged PDF or compress them into a zipped file (.zip) for upload.

If the size of the document is too large, consider reformatting the information into a spreadsheet, or contact ceu@nsgc.org

The system does not store previous versions of documents. Please ensure any uploads are either a revised or combined version with all relevant information for the application.

Enter a description of the changes that have been made in the “Description of changes to Review Team” box.

Click “Resubmit”. This will send the application back to the reviewers for final review. If further revisions are required, another inquiry will be sent. For this reason, please include all requested changes in the first set of revisions.

Submitting Post-Activity Materials

After the activity has taken place, the organizer should log in to the NSGC CEU Portal, select the activity, and click the orange “Report Attendance” button to report the number of attendees who are claiming CEUs and upload all necessary post-activity documents. These include: 

• Attendance Spreadsheet: This should be a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV). Word documents, PDFs, and other scanned documents are invalid and will not be accepted. 
• One row should include attendance information for one individual.  All attendance information for each activity should be included in one spreadsheet. If your activity was composed of multiple sessions, please add these together into a single line before submitting.  
• For “date of completion,” please either use the end date of the activity. 
• Do not include any attendees who are not earning CEUs or any additional information not outlined above.  
• This document should only include attendees who have completed all requirements to claim CEUs (verified attendance, completed evaluations, paid fees, passed quizzes) and should match the number of CEU earners reported in the portal. 

Evaluation Results: Activity Organizers are required to implement an evaluation for each activity to attendees to claim CEUs.  

• You may (1) submit results from the evaluation form which was approved with the application alongside your other post activity materials or (2) sign an attestation at the time of submission confirming that you have collected this information and will use it to improve future educational activities.  
• In either case, please retain your evaluation records for a period of five years following the completion of the activity. NSGC may request this evaluation data in the event of an audit.  
• Summarized or anonymous evaluation results are permissible as long as they include any comments made in the evaluation. 

Payment for Filing Fees 

• For further details on NSGC’s CEU Filing Fees, please refer to the section on Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Fees above.  

Additional Uploads Required for Series and Self-Paced Activities

The following post-activity materials are required for Series-Style Activities in addition to those required for other activities.

• Education Activity Overview Forms (EAO)
  • Please submit a completed version of the EAO form from your original application that includes the final dates, times, and speaker details for the sessions from your series or self-paced activity.
• COI (Conflict of Interest) Disclosure Forms
  • You must attest that you collected all COI information and mitigated for them as part of your activity. NSGC requires that you maintain records of all collected COIs for a period of five years following the conclusion of your activity in the case of an audit.

Finalizing Submission and Payment

Once all necessary documents have been uploaded, click the orange “Continue” button to proceed to the payment step. Please note: It is not possible to go back to the “Upload” page once you hit "Continue.” For this reason, please ensure that all the correct documents have been uploaded and the correct number of attendees claiming CEUs has been entered.

• The system will automatically calculate the filing fees owed based on the number of CEU attendees entered on the previous page.
• NSGC will not collect CEU filing fees directly from attendees. It is the responsibility of the activity organizer to collect filing fees from participants and submit them to NSGC.
• Once payment has been completed and received by NSGC, we will issue certificates to the participants via the NSGC CEU Portal within two weeks. Please inform participants about this timeline for viewing certificates in the NSGC CEU Portal.

The following major dates from application to certification for a Category 1 Activity. Examples are also included to provide concrete examples of each deadline.

12 Weeks prior to Activity Start Date
This is the recommended date for filing an application for Category 1 CEU Approval.

8 Weeks prior to Activity Start Date
The application filing fee doubles with the addition of rush fees

4 Weeks prior to Activity Start Date:
The application filing fee is now triple the original amount.

22 Days prior to Activity Start Date:
This is the final day an application can be filed. No applications filed after this point will be considered.

Activity Date
The actual period that the activity occurs. This can span a single day, or several depending on the structure of the activity.
For recorded or self-paced content the “activity date range” can be a period of up to two years from the activity start date.

1-60 Days following the Activity
Following the conclusion of the activity, the organizer will distribute learning assessment materials and any post-activity attendance verification. Final results in the form of an attendance sheet must be submitted by 60 days following the completion of the activity. For series or self-paced content, most Activity Organizers choose to gather and submit their attendance information at regular intervals. Please contact ceu@nsgc.org if you wish to do so.

61+ Days following the Activity
Once the activity attendance report, filing fees, and other post-activity materials are submitted, NSGC will issue certificates for attendees. You can direct any questions about the delivery of your certificates to ceu@nsgc.org.