Water Education - Academic Technology and Outreach

Due to changes in course funding/underwriting we now need to charge a nominal fee to cover the costs to provide these courses. As of Friday, October 10, 2025, we are now charging a user fee of $15 for each course. This user fee will include a digital badge and Certificate of Completion upon sucessful completion of the course.

If you are unable to cover this cost please contact us directly at ContinuingEd@montana.edu.

Operator Basics

MWC operator basics The Operator Basics program was released in 2000, with the most recent version updated in 2005. While the primary audience for Operator Basics was initially small water system operators, much of the content in these programs focuses on basic hydrology, water quality and community water system issues. These courses may also be beneficial to a wide range of professionals, including local and state-level policymakers and planners, educators, construction managers, landowners, natural resource managers, real estate professionals and others.

Operator Basics contains three complete courses (and a Water Exploration showcase). Certified operators may use this training to meet continuing education requirements if approved in their state. Please verify this with your certification agency before taking any of these courses.

Operator Basics: Ground Water Systems

Operator Basics: Ground Water Systems is an update of the Ground Water Systems module from the Operator Basics course, initially released in 2005, and focuses on basic hydrology, water quality and issues related to groundwater-dependent community systems. Registration link below -- $15 fee!

This course contains 5.5 hours of reading content and 5.5 hours of video-viewing content, totaling 11.0 hours. It also includes a 50-question final quiz. To complete this course, you must view all content and obtain a score of 70% or greater on the final quiz.

ATO will award you a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION when you have viewed all 268 pages and passed the quiz with a score of 70%.

Here is the breakdown of course content in HOURS.

Operator Basics: Surface & Ground Water Systems

Operator Basics: Surface & Ground Water Systems is an update of the Surface & Ground Water Systems module from the Operator Basics course, initially released in 2005, and focuses on basic hydrology, water qualityandissues related to surface and groundwater-dependent community systems. Registration link below -- $15 fee!

This course contains 5.5 hours of reading content and 6.5 hours of video-viewing content, totaling 13.0 hours. It also includes a 50-question final quiz. To complete this course, you must view all content and obtain a score of 70% or greater on the final quiz.

ATO will award you a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION when you have viewed all 292 pages and passed the quiz with a score of 70%.

Here is the breakdown of course content in HOURS.

Operator Basics: Wastewater & Lagoon Systems

Operator Basics: Wastewater & Lagoon Systems is an update of the Wastewater & Lagoon Systems module from the Operator Basics course, initially released in 2005, and focuses on collection systems, treatment options, operations and maintenance, monitoring and reporting, and troubleshooting common problems in community wastewater lagoon systems. Registration link below -- $15 fee!

This course contains 4.2 hours of reading content and 4.8 hours of video-viewing content, totaling 9.0 hours. It also includes a 50-question final quiz. To complete this course, you must view all content and obtain a score of 70% or greater on the final quiz.

ATO will award you a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION when you have viewed all 211 pages and passed the quiz with a score of 70%.

Here is the breakdown of course content in HOURS.

PLEASE NOTE: These videos are RECORDINGS of illustrative and interactive animated activities and quizzes. These videos are not themselves interactive, but you can follow along and pause to test your own knowledge.

Water Quality Basics

WQE screenshot

Water Quality Basics is a repackaging of the Water Quality Expedition program, initially released in 2007. This course takes water system personnel and regulators on a virtual expedition through water quality issues, including primers on the hydrologic cycle and determinants of water quality. The course includes sections on essential topics such as fate and transport, iron and manganese, hard water, fire in the watershed, animal feeding operations, nutrients, wastewater treatment and emerging contaminants. Registration link below -- $15 fee!

This course contains 1.0 hour of reading content and 1.5 hours of video-viewing content, totaling 2.5 hours. It also includes a 50-point final quiz.

ATO will award you a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION when you have viewed all 102 pages and passed the quiz with a score of 70%.

Here is the breakdown of course content in HOURS.

Badges Available!

MSU has partnered with Canvas Credentials to provide digital badges through the Badgr platform. Badges enable you to showcase your abilities online in a simple, trusted and easily verifiable manner in real-time. Badges also provide employers and peers with concrete evidence of your capabilities and the tasks you completed to earn your credential.

Each of the WATER courses offered through ATO has its own badge!

Plus, there is a WATER BASICS MASTERY badge for completing ALL FOUR water courses! You can find more information about badges on MSU Academic Technology & Outreach's (ATO) Digital Badges page.

You can also obtain a PDF Certificate of Completion upon successful completion of each course. Once you've opened your badge, either through email or the Credentials link in your Canvas Course, you can download or print a copy of your certificate.

About the Water Courses

MWC training programs Between 2000 and 2010, the Montana Water Center developed a series of online, CD and DVD training resources for small water and wastewater system operators. Created through a series of grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these resources provided valuable training and continuing education opportunities, particularly for small, rural water system operators. Using the technology and tools available at the time, the media team at the Montana Water Center (MWC) developed programs covering groundwater and surface water basics, water contamination, water quality, water treatment technologies, stormwater issues and small water system operations. Most U.S. states offered continuing education credits to small-systems operators for completing the courses.

More than 10,000 copies of each program (in some cases 40,000+) were freely distributed via disk to small water systems and state water departments throughout the country and U.S. territories. In addition, thousands more accessed the programs online or by attending hands-on workshops. By 2021, however, the original (Flash) format of these courses had become outdated, making them inaccessible to most users.

As interest and demand for accessible educational resources for water professionals continued, Montana State University Academic Technology and Outreach (ATO) "repackaged" the content from the original water courses and offers them online in the Canvas learning management system (LMS). Using an LMS like Canvas makes the courses accessible to anyone with a computer, smartphone or tablet.

Note: The Montana Water Center no longer directly facilitates awarding/processing CEUs for these resources. We can vouch for the content, accuracyand relevance of these resources, should individuals desire to apply for CEUs in their own state using these resources. We strongly recommend investigating this potential with your state's certifying organization before beginning any of these programs.

The Montana Water Center and MSU ATO are NOT able to award CEUs for these resources. However, we can vouch for the content, accuracy and relevance of these resources, should individuals desire to apply for CEUs in their own state using these resources. We strongly recommend investigating this potential with your state’s certifying organization BEFORE beginning any of these programs.

Note: In the original Operator Basics program, it was generally accepted that 10 hours of reading/viewing time = 1 CEU. This is just a suggestion.

Montana State University Academic Technology & Outreach (ATO) partnered with the Montana Water Center (MWC) at Montana State University to create these courses. ATO administers the courses. The media development team at the MWC created the original content for these courses. This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement OIA-1757351. Please include the following wording on all publications (including web pages) of material based on or developed under this award, except scientific articles or papers appearing in scientific, technical or professional journals:

"Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."

Water Programs

Operator Basics

Operator Basics: Ground Water Systems

Operator Basics: Surface & Ground Water Systems

Operator Basics: Wastewater & Lagoon Systems

Water Quality Basics

Badges Available!

Each of the WATER courses offered through ATO has its own badge!

About the Water Courses

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