Description:
NOW ENROLLING FOR SPRING 2026 START DATES
For an enriching and comprehensive experience, it is highly recommended that students consider enrolling in the full certificate American Sign Language Foundations Certificate, which includes American Sign Language I, American Sign Language II, and American Deaf Community.
The certificate’s three courses use interactive activities that give students the opportunity to concentrate on the purpose rather than the mechanics of a conversation. Students will also learn to tell stories, use the language in various settings, and study ASL grammar with attention to nonmanual features such as facial expressions, head positions and body positions.
Upon completion of the ASL Foundations Certificate, students can expect to acquire basic ASL skills to engage in everyday conversations and demonstrate understanding of Deaf culture and community.
Learning Outcomes:
- Display conversational and narrative skill proficiency with ASL vocabulary, fingerspelling, and number signs.
- Incorporate appropriate ASL grammatical rules, non-manual signals and features in sentences, dialogues and storytelling.
- Understand complex interactions using expanded ASL signs and sentence structures.
- Demonstrate advanced conversational and narrative skills in ASL with both concrete and abstract concepts.
- Utilize appropriate ASL grammatical features, nonmanual signals, intensity, and characterizations in dialogues and storytelling.
- Showcase understanding and respect for Deaf culture and community by applying ASL skills.
*These courses can also be purchased individually.
Course Dates
- American Sign Language I Course Dates: January - March 2026
- American Sign Language II Course Dates: March - May 2026
- American Deaf Community 2025-2026: Learners have access to the course for 1 year after upon registration.
American Sign Language Foundations Certificate
This option includes enrollment in all 3 courses of the American Sign Language series at a reduced rate compared to purchasing each course individually.
- American Sign Language I is a basic introduction course to American Sign Language (ASL). This course introduces students to the tools for mastering grammar at a basic expressive and receptive level. Introduction to cultural and historical aspects of ASL and the Deaf community is also included.
- American Sign Language II is designed to build on and apply ASL conversational skills and cultural behaviors acquired from ASL 1 to a functional level that includes new expanded conversational and narrative skills using both concrete and abstract concepts.
- American Deaf Community is designed to introduce students to American Deaf culture and components of the American Deaf community including history, norms, rules of social interactions, values, traditions, and dynamics during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Alternatively, learners may choose to enroll in a two-course certificate option, which offers both courses at a reduced rate compared to purchasing each course individually.
American Sign Language Certificate
- American Sign Language I & American Sign Language II - Only Option: In these two, instructor-led, asynchronous courses, you will be introduced to sign language in a very hands-on, pragmatic way. In the first course you’ll learn language functions/features of mastering ASL grammar at a basic expressive and receptive level for functional communication purposes. In the second course, you’ll obtain further study of the language with more emphasis on receptive and expressive conversational skills. Includes readings of research studies relevant to lectures. An introduction to cultural and historical aspects of ASL and the Deaf Community is also included.
Required materials for the ASL I and ASL II courses. These are not included in the registration fee and need to be purchased by the learner. Prices are subject to change.
- Signing Naturally Interactive Online Student Materials. Includes chapters 1-6; One-time payment covers access to the entire workbook.
- Finding Zoe: A Deaf Woman’s Story of Identity, Love and Adoption
ISBN-13: 978-1940363226. Learners may choose the ebook or physical copy.
- GoReact is an online tool that allows students to record their assignments in ASL. This is a required course tool, and the student fee costs $31.99 which will provide access for the duration of the course. Students’ GoReact account must be created via Brightspace, do not set up your account on GoReact’s website. Note: If enrolling in both ASL 1 and ASL 2, the subscription needs to be purchased separately for each course
For questions related to registration for the certificate, payment, or how to access the course content in Brightspace, contact noncredit@purdue.edu.
Disclaimer: The American Sign Language (ASL) professional development certificate programs offered through Purdue University are designed for educational purposes only. Completion of these programs does not result in sign language interpreter certification, nor do they serve as a certification pathway for becoming a licensed ASL interpreter. Individuals seeking interpreter certification should refer to the requirements set by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) or other relevant credentialing organizations.