AIIM Update to the CIP Program, May 12, 2022

Update 5/24:Biannual is every 2 years, not every 6 months. I've noted that in my reponse to the final bullet. 

AIIM sent out the following email today, updating CIPs on some decisions they've made. I'll post my thoughts after the email. 

Our sincere thanks to you and all CIPs that have provided feedback through various channels about recent changes to the examination and recertification process. We appreciate your passion and your dedication to the Intelligent Information Management practice. As you may remember, we solicited feedback from the extended CIP community via anonymous survey. Having now analyzed the survey responses from 120 participating CIPs, we are proposing the following actions to be taken:

• The examination proctoring will be reinstated to provide assurance of authenticity and rigor. A new proctoring system will be available within approximately sixty days

• Examinations will be available 24/7 through the AIIM learning management system (with proctoring added to the functionality) and occasionally in person at AIIM events

• Instructor-led CIP prep classes with optional testing to follow will be offered at designated times/places throughout the year

• Recertification after three years will be obtainable by re-sitting the CIP exam OR by submitting 60 hours of approved Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The tracking and submission of CEUs will be automated to the full extent possible for your convenience

• The body of knowledge upon which the exam is based, and the exam question set will be updated on a bi-annual basis. Efforts in this regard have begun at the staff level and will be expanded to include select CIP content advisors in this calendar year with a view to completing the update by year’s end.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding as we modernize and grow the CIP program. You will shortly receive a personal status update with a requalification timeline.

All the best,

Peggy

Me: I think it's good that AIIM took into account the feedback from the CIP community, and seems to be reverting many of the changes. Specifically:

• I'm glad they are going back to a proctored exam; the devil will be in the details....and to completely redo the exam from scratch in 60 days will be extremely difficult to do appropriately. Peggy didn't specifically say that they would do that, but since the exam has been compromised, there's really no other way around it, and if they simply turn proctoring on on the compromised exam, that's not appropriate at all. In the interests of transparency, I call on AIIM to disclose who their psychometrician will be in terms of developing the new exam. I also think AIIM should require anyone who passed the unproctored exam, including AIIM staff, to retake the proctored exam, but to let them do it for free. 
• I identified a number of concerns with the current exam delivery through the AIIM+ Pro learning management system. If they can get those addressed as part of this update, it should be workable. 
• AIIM used to offer this; I delivered and proctored a number of CIP exams myself over the last few years. The format - in-person at an event, in-person at a testing center, or virtual - doesn't matter, providing the appropriate tools and processes are put in place to support the security of the exam. 
• Again, reverting to allow CIPs the choice to resit the (proctored) CIP exam or submit CEUs is great; again, I think AIIM needs to provide more information about precisely what they mean by "approved" CEUs. 
• I like the idea of this, but I don't think AIIM recognizes the work, psychometric as well as content development-wise, that will be required to do this. I think they can update the current exam, including the body of knowledge, etc., by the end of the year (versus the 60 days identified above), but to redo that every 6 months is going to be a challenge given everything else AIIM has going on. Update: Biannually is every 2 years, not twice a year. Sigh. Still, AIIM was barely able to make it every 3 years when I was running it, in no small part because of the cost and time required to do it the right, statistically valid, way. 

Re: that final line, I'm still waiting for official notice that I am eligible for renewing my CIP. I hope this notification is better set up and tested than that one. 

Again, I think AIIM is saying the right things, but I'll wait to see the details of how they plan to execute all of this in a way that is open, transparent, and adheres to the principles of effective certification development. If they do so, and if they start to market the CIP program, I think it could really be a benefit to the AIIM and broader information management community. I will continue to monitor this closely.