Reply
Thu 17 Jun, 2010 09:06 pm
Anyone with a professional license is required to amass a certain amount of Continuing Education Units (usually 24 for a 2 year license period for the state of Pa ). Moast of my CEUS were supplied via teaching (A real dodge in the licensing laws). However, I will not be teaching the next license period after 2012 so Im considering enrolling in some of the "on-line" courses specific to my craft (geology).
My discussion point is this. Do online CEUs "cut it" for you (Physicians , vets, lawyers, engineers , nurses, teachers, pharmacists, surveyors, undertakers, accountants etc).
If youve taken on-line courses do you feel that you satisified the CEU requirement honorably and did you get your money's worth?
I dont expect much in the way of volumes of response except for those who have the requirement from year to year.
In PA and Delaware, we are allowed to count publications, conference presentations, patents, and professional organization activities. (In Pa its up to a maximum of 6 for prof org board work and committee work and 10 for one published paper per license period).
Id like your opinion about whether you feel that the system is doing what it was intended(to keep you current in your field)
Mostly though, Im interested in your opinions of on-line course work.
@farmerman,
I've had two state licenses, one in medical technology and one in landscape architecture. The med tech license required ceus. I can see the point of them, but the lectures drove me nuts. None of the lectures were on my area of technology (immunology) and if they had been I could have taught them (at least when I was still working in the field) - and I never would have considered a job in a regular general hospital lab in any case. So I went and half paid attention, paying some sort of hefty fee. After I had changed fields, I kept this up for a bunch of years for almost sentimental reasons, and finally dropped it.
I retired my land arch license a year ago, and to that date they didn't require ceu classes. I might not have minded them, but for the money, since I'm interested in a lot of aspects of that field even now.
Anyway, I've no experience with the online classes.
@ossobuco,
In Pa there is a requirement for all architects (reglar, engineers, and landscape) to have CEUs' The architecture and planning group at Penn (Wallace and Mcgargh school) was behind "keeping current" Today, In most states with licensing (except for some of the deep south states where they still use the apprentice system for lawyers) There they dont require CEUs'
So you didnt ever have any experience with on-line courses?
I can see your point. I recall that, in sveral license periods I was working with some paleontologists who were helping us explore some evaporite deposits in desert basins in the Mid East.In order to understand their lingo I did some grad course work that was like 2 courses a year and I hated every minute. ALl those damn fossils were just a Pain to justify when I was mostly in mining and this was for a specialty that Id never use again (little did I know that A2K would come along).
@farmerman,
Yeh, I have a friend who went after our courses to Penn for a masters.
CA was one of the early states to have any licensing for L. Archs.. at the time I took the boards, they were national, and the CA part was only one morning's worth of testing and then, assuming you passed it, sometime later a scare the crap out of you interview. They've changed a lot since then - by now they may require ceus, dunno. The CA board is pretty tough though re practice issues.
No, I've never taken an online course..
@ossobuco,
Its like a priesthood isnt it?
@ossobuco,
Yes, but they let women in it.
@ossobuco,
Unitarian priesthood then
No comment on online courses. I've never taken one, either.
I'm not sure I assign a lot of value to CEU's in general. As farmerman says, many things qualify that might not be especially helpful. It probably also gives rise to various seminars and other programs with the sole purpose of meeting the requirement. In other words, more expense without much benefit except to the promoters and "presenters".
Rather like the GI benefits in the early '60s. Schools popped up like mushrooms, mostly to take advantage of the government money. Bartender's college, anyone?
My wife has done some online courses. We found that the feedback and support were almost non existant in several cases. Assignmnets were not returned and in one case she was given a pass mark for a unit she had not done. several phone calls had to be made to actually get marks for completed units sent out.
In anothe rcase the support was exempliary.
Both of these courses were from the major government funded adult education providor in Australia.
I guess its all down to the quality and commitment of the providor and their teaching staff.
I've not taken any online courses but I have transcribed more than a few sessions of them for online colleges. From my own exposure to them I'd say there are some good and some rather bad ones when it comes to instructor quality.
Many of the instructors could use remedial training in public speaking and a few hours of listening to themselves to eliminate the speech disfluencies, sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Most of the audio tapes sound like the instructor is mostly either reading straight out of a workbook or talking free-form with an unorganized flow of information.
I was impressed with one online college in Nevada. They too use the audio videos, but they also supplement those course videos with the use a message board forum to present additional course material, reading lists, between-class assignments, progress reports and to interact with each student for individual questions about the subject.
Thanks guys. As far as the "rise in an ed industry riven by state licensing requirements" I guess that will be unavoidable especially since each state licensing board does NOT audit the available courses. The American Association of PEtroleum Geologists (AAPG) seems to offer some decent courses that are very specific in scope. I was looking over some of the titles and their syllibusess and they seem relevant and focused(and reasonable 50$ a contact hour) . I guess if there are some very poor presenters I wont know till I sign up.
One thing I noticed was that the science "clubs" , like the (REGIONAL) Geological Societies are now posting their meetings as a way to satisfy the CEU requirement. ALl techy meetings are awarding 1 CEU for each meeting so, In a 2 year licenece cycle, it would be possible to get all 24 CEUs fro just attending their monthly technical meetings. Thats all right but I dont feel like driving halfway across the state to attend some damn lecture when the same thing is offrered on the internet.
@farmerman,
Do any other states award CEU's to anyone attending a conference? What sort of point count do you amass for say a three day conference/
Im required to amass 24 in each license period or 12 per year.
@farmerman,
My boss at the title company was a certified public accountant. He also had required CEU's to fulfill to maintain his license and certification. I recall him getting credits for attending seminars and workshops that were accounting-related.
I looked it up on Wikipedia and here's what they have:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Public_Accountant
Quote:CPAs are required to take continuing education courses in order to renew their license. Requirements vary by state but the vast majority require 120 hours of CPE every 3 years with a minimum of 20 hours per calendar year. The requirement can be fulfilled through attending live seminars, webcast seminars, or through self-study (textbooks, videos, online courses, all of which require a test to receive credit). As part of the CPE requirement, most states require their CPAs to take an ethics course during every renewal period. Again, ethics requirements vary by state but the courses range from 2–8 hours
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_education
Quote:Within the domain of Continuing Education, professional continuing education is a specific learning activity generally characterized by the issuance of a certificate or continuing education units (CEU) for the purpose of documenting attendance at a designated seminar or course of instruction. Licensing bodies in a number of fields impose continuing education requirements on members who hold licenses to practice within a particular profession. These requirements are intended to encourage professionals to expand their knowledge base and stay up-to-date on new developments. Depending on the field, these requirements may be satisfied through college or university coursework, extension courses or conferences and seminars attendance. Although individual professions may have different standards, the most widely accepted standard, developed by the International Association for Continuing Education & Training, is that ten contact hours equals one Continuing Education Unit.[5]
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace