Course Planning Form Instructions
Due June 25, 2025 – email completed forms to Jolene Steele at jsteele@exchange.kean.edu
By submitting a proposal, you are stating that you are willing to follow the rules and procedures mandated by the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety and that the material you are proposing to teach is adequate to provide 5 full hours of instruction regardless of the number of students in attendance or the level of class participation. Please note, in order to be sure that you have enough course material, you may need to prepare for 6 (full day) or more hours of teaching. By submitting a proposal, you are also acknowledging that you have read these instructions.
Handouts are required for all scheduled classes.
Handouts must be printed. We print and ship your handouts as a courtesy. Unless you’re travelling by air, you are responsible for accepting delivery and distributing them to your students. If you’re travelling by air, but teaching multiple classes in a row, we will send all handouts to your first assigned location for you to pick up. We may send you enough handouts to cover multiple classes in the following semester. It is your responsibility to maintain the supply and notify us if you do not have enough. You may have to make your own handouts if you have not maintained the supply shipped to you.
For printing purposes, all handouts (new classes or updated material) must be submitted electronically by September 2, 2025. Handouts not submitted on time will be the responsibility of the instructor to print and distribute.
Handouts must be in either original PowerPoint or PDF. PowerPoint saved as PDF must be in handout, 3 slide to a page format. If your handout is in multiple parts, they must be compiled into one pdf. If you want to provide multiple handout parts throughout the class, please plan to make your own copies of those pages that you want separated, for example quizzes/tests, 1-5 page articles and other supplementary handouts.
Lastly, please use care in the creation of your handouts. They must be able to be read easily in the aforementioned format. For example, using a yellow size 10 font in your PowerPoint, will most likely not work. We print in black and white and DO NOT adjust or edit your submissions. A font in size 12 is probably a minimum, with a 14 being a consideration depending on the color and font type. Please review your work to ensure you don’t receive complaints.
Please email your handouts as an attachment or mail me a usb. I no longer use Dropbox, so please do not use that platform as I’m not always notified if documents are shared there. Let me know if you need a mail address. Email to jsteele@exchange.kean.edu and ldumont@exchange.kean.edu.
You must be willing to travel throughout the state of New Jersey to teach at any of our facilities.
Please note, “Training which is controlled by NJAC 5:71 or 5:73 shall be reviewed and approved by the Office of Training and Certification within the Division of Fire Safety. All approval shall be confirmed by written response from the Office of Training and Certification.” All classroom/facility requests made by Kean University are made only for the sole use of classrooms and audio/visual equipment in that facility.
If you intend to include any “hands on” training that involves group/student participation and/or a live burn demonstration of any type, you, the instructor, are responsible for contacting the Office of Training and Certification, to obtain the requisite permission and/or permits. You are also responsible for following up with all scheduled locations to coordinate and verify that everyone on site is prepared. No exceptions will be made to this requirement. Approval for Kean University to schedule your course does NOT include the permission/permits as required in NJAC 5:71 or 5:73.
Please use the form attached separately to submit your proposal, the information below is a guide. Proposals are due June 25, 2025.
- Contact information including name, title/bio, phone number and email address is included.
- The exact course title. (This is a class you have not previously taught for DFS.) This is the title that will be in the brochure.
- All-inclusive fee for five hours of instruction, not including breaks. This fee is the fee for the entire fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.
For the proposal, we ask for an all-inclusive fee, but if you’re travelling from out of state, we also ask that you break down that fee so we can compare your instructor fee (5 hours of teaching) to the fee of in state instructors.
If travelling, please base your fee on the use of refundable travel reservations as we will not be responsible for change fees, deposits lost or any other travel fees that you may incur. We reserve the right to cancel for any reason within 24 hours of your scheduled class.
In an effort to simplify fees, please provide a full day, in-person fee. The fee you propose is for the upcoming fiscal year 2026 for all titles you propose. If you provide different fees for different classes, we will use your lowest quoted fee for all titles. Certification classes such as Fire Instructor may be quoted as one fee for the entire class.
As an example of how to break down your fee for out of state instructors:
Instructor fee: $500 (five hours of teaching)
Travel fee: $750 (Round trip air travel plus hotel based on refundable rates. I appreciate you’re estimating and if selected will try to schedule you on latest dates you provide to help you get the lowest rates possible. There is no need to break down the travel fee any further, just provide the total estimated amount.)
Total fee: $1250
Please keep in mind, when you propose your fees, this is a grant. We may or may not ask you to negotiate your fee, if it is too high. Also, please keep in mind that for high fees we may require a higher student registration in order to run the class.
- Three dates.
Please provide three dates per course title, Monday through Saturday’s only. Please include at least one Saturday per title.
The dates for the Fall semester are September 17 – December 12.
Due to holidays, please DO NOT include the following dates:
Oct 13, Nov 4, Nov 11, and Nov 27 – 29.
Please hold dates until August 29.
Notify me immediately if you have any date conflict arise and be careful to watch for usage of any changes when we get to the proofreading/verification stage.
- A short, 3 – 5 sentence, course description for marketing and publication purposes. Word format is required. Your proposal will be rejected if the course description is not included.
- The course objectives are clearly defined.
- The target audience and sub-codes to be addressed are indicated.
- A detailed course abstract is included.
- A description of audio-visual materials is included. You do not need to include your entire presentation; two to three pages is plenty.
- A resume and/or statement of qualifications is included. References and/or statement of experience is included. There is a one-page limit for each. Do not submit more than once. Please skip this step if you have taught for DFS within the last 5 years.
- Please limit the entire package to ten pages or less.”
Instructions for Proposals for Previously Taught Courses Fall 2025
Instructions for New Course Proposals Fall 2025