How Many Activities Do I Need?

How do you determine if you have the "right" number of activities represented in your application? From a purely numbers perspective:

• You must have a minimum 5 of the 32 activity categories represented in your application. For example, you may have (1) Case Study, (2) Fieldwork Supervision, (3) Learning - Formal, (4) Presentations - Live, and (5) Quality Improvement. You may certainly have more than 5 activity categories represented.
• You can use as many different individual activities within a single category as you want. For example, your application might have 7 case studies in it.
• Each single activity (e.g., each unique case study) may be used to address up to 4 indicators. It does not matter which competencies those 4 indicators represent; they can all be from 1 competency…or you can use the activity for 1 indicator in 4 different competencies…or any other combination of 4 indicators you can come up with.
• All indicators for all competencies must be addressed. You may use as many different activities as needed to meet that requirement and support the application.

Having the "right" numbers alone isn't enough, though. The goal is to select the best activity for each indicator. It is certainly possible that 1 activity may be used for only 1 indicator and nothing else. An applicant could have a uniquely different activity assigned to every indicator; resulting in 31 different pieces of evidence (in the case of peds, for example) if that's what they felt gave them the best application.

As you are choosing activities to assign to indicators ask yourself, "Does this activity best represent my ability to meet the requirements represented in this particular indicator relative to this competency? As you answer that question for yourself, jot your thoughts down and use them to guide your response to the reflection for that competency later!

Maria Elena E. Louch, Professional Development Program Manager