How do I host a course?

Thank you for your interest in hosting an NAI course at your site. NAI offers a variety of professional development courses that help interpreters advance their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Each course NAI offers is described below, along with details on how to schedule that course and what to expect as a host site.

Interpretive Guiding™ / Interpretive Hosting™

NAI’s Interpretive Guiding (CIG™) and Interpretive Hosting (CIH™) courses are our most popular and provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of interpretation. To schedule a four-day CIG or two-day CIH course, you must contact a CIG or CIH instructor directly. A list of who can teach either a CIG or CIH course can be found on our See Who’s Certified page. There, you can search for instructors by state or last name and contact them about leading a course at your site. Host sites should plan to pay for an instructor’s travel costs.

Certified Interpretive Guiding Train-the-Trainer™ / Certified Interpretive Hosting Train-the-Trainer™

The Interpretive Guiding Train-the-Trainer course is a five-day course, which covers essentials for teaching the CIG curriculum as well as NAI’s policies and procedures. NAI aims to offer several of these workshops per year.

The Interpretive Hosting Train-the-Trainer™ course is a four-day course. New trainers attend a four-day course to learn the essentials for teaching the CIH curriculum as well as NAI’s policies and procedures. As this course is requested less frequently than the CIG Train-the-Trainer course, NAI will conduct this course wherever there may be demand and generally offers a couple of these courses per year.

Sites interested in hosting a course can contact NAI by emailing [email protected]. To ensure a course will run, it is recommended that interested host sites solicit six individuals* interested in taking the course before contacting NAI. Host sites receive one free registration* in the course they are hosting in exchange for providing a meeting space for course participants, A/V equipment, and light refreshments each day of the course.

*In order to enroll in a Train-the-Trainer course, interested instructors must have taken the course they wish to teach: CIG or CIH, and already be a Certified Interpretive Trainer™ (CIT) with NAI.

For more information on CIT prerequisites visit the CIT page

Coaching Interpreters

The Coaching Interpreters course is designed to help interpreters both learn and hone their coaching skills. This is a three-day course with a practicum component where participants are asked to observe an interpreter leading a program and provide them with feedback. Therefore, the host site should be able to provide and schedule an interpretive program on the third day of the course.

Sites interested in hosting this course can contact NAI by emailing [email protected]. To ensure a course will run, it is recommended that host sites solicit six individuals interested in taking the course before contacting NAI. Host sites receive one free registration in the course in exchange for providing a meeting space for course participants, A/V equipment, and light refreshments each day of the course.

Interpretive Planning: A Visitor Experience Approach

The Interpretive Planning: A Visitor Experience Approach course builds participants' understanding of interpretive planning through the development of a comprehensive interpretive plan using a Visitor Experience Approach. This is a five-day-course, during which participants utilize the host site to develop key elements of an interpretive plan. Therefore, the host site must be undergoing interpretive planning or be ready to develop an interpretive plan for their site.

Both in-person and virtual courses require a host site. Sites interested in hosting this course in person or virtually can contact NAI by emailing [email protected]. Host sites must solicit six individuals interested in taking the course before contacting NAI. For in-person courses, host sites receive one free registration in the course in exchange for providing a meeting space for course participants, A/V equipment, and light refreshments each day of the course. For virtual courses, the host site receives two free registrations and agrees to record a site walkthrough highlighting indoor and outdoor areas of the site with visitor-facing interpretive elements and provide additional information as requested by the instructor regarding the site, as well as answer site-specific questions during class.