Continuing Education

Today, continuous learning and education is required to stay competitive in industry and job markets, keep your license or certificate current, stay abreast of new developments in your field, enhance your personal knowledge and skills, and to serve your clients more effectively.

Online Continuing Education brings learning into your home or office so you can learn at your own pace, at your own time, and at your convenience.

With a wide range of courses, tests and exams offered online, you can develop your skills and gain your certifications quickly and easily. Many local, regional and national professional organizations offer training and exams online, so you can save time and money while getting necessary qualifications and increasing your knowledge in your field.

How Online Continuing Education Works
You will find a range of self-paced short courses, reading material, virtual classroom courses and exams online. These course are:

  • Standards-based
  • University credits available
  • Asynchronous – start at any time
  • Self-paced – work at your own convenience
  • Completely online – no commuting, parking, missed classes, or dress codes
  • User friendly and engaging with numerous videos that model new strategies and skills
  • Facilitated by experienced moderators

Prices range from Free to $25 per credit hour, but the majority range from $5 to $15 per credit hour. Often, after taking an exam, you will be able to print your certificate right off the web site. Getting your CEUs is a simple and convenient process.

What You Should Look For
There are many factors in evaluating an online continuing education program. You’ll need to look for the delivery method that best suits your needs.

And as online learning requires a certain amount of self-discipline, you may want to look at your particular learning style. Before enrolling in any online CE course, you will want to check the course provider’s website to see if the course offered is recognized by your professional organization.

Organizations providing professional continuing education include:

ceu4u.com – Nursing, Teachers, Medical & More
A Plus Online CE – Financial Planner, Insurance CE
eLearning Essentials – Social Work, Mental Health CE
Institute for Continuing Education – Respiratory Care Practitioners, Nurses
The Virtual Lecture Hall – Medical & Nursing

Many courses are offered by local, regional or national professional organizations, or will be approved by these organizations. Course providers will list all of the organizations that approve the course for CE credit. Make sure the organization providing the training is approved by the IACET before you invest any time or money.

CEUs (Continuing Education Units) are different from college credits; thus, they are not always accepted by colleges and universities. CEUs were designed for professionals who had already attained a certain level of education and needed to take a certain amount of continuing education and training per year to renew or maintain their license or certification such as engineers, nurses and other health-care-related professionals, teachers, early childhood educators, human resource professionals, etc. Most colleges will not directly accept CEUs for college or graduate credit. However, some colleges and universities will look at an individual’s portfolio that includes work experience and continuing education and training offerings (measured by CEUs).

Generally, a CEU is defined as ten hours of participation in a recognized continuing education program, with qualified instruction and sponsorship.