Online CE Education Weighs In

For most agents and brokers, earning their state-mandated continuing education credits and certificates is undoubtedly a hassle. The earning of CE credits equals time away from the office, time away from the family, and in most cases, a couple of hours in a classroom listening to an experienced professional educate agents on a variety of insurance-related subjects. Sounds as exciting as a day at traffic school. But unlike traffic school, just staying out of trouble won’t get you out of those CE credits.

Granted, not all classroom courses are boring. A lot of CE providers are making it a point to provide interesting and enlightening education for agents and brokers. Many providers offer both classroom and online training, allowing the agent to choose from several course methods. Still, online CE is becoming an increasingly popular option to many who want to complete their CE education in the comfort of their office or their own home.

“Research has indicated that there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with taking a day or two off every year to go to a classroom to do your CE requirement,” Bruce MacMillian, president of New Haven, Conn.-based CEU.com, said. With online CE, “[agents] don’t have to take time away to go to a classroom.”

The advantages
Many agents are turning to online education for the many advantages it offers over traditional, classroom-based education.

“Advantages really depend upon focus. For some agents, using a computer is their preferred method of study. For others, books via the mail is preferred. We do both,” Toni Amell, owner of Graham, Wash.-based United Insurance Educators Inc., said.

“In the past four years we have seem a tremendous increase in the number of agents taking their continuing education online,” Gary Henkel, CEO of Richardson, Texas-based WebCE, said. “The time and cost savings our customers experience through e-learning are enormous.”

Convenience
Many online CE providers allow for courses to be completed in several sittings, as opposed to just one. “Courses can be completed during non-selling time and courses are often completed at home, after children are asleep,” Henkel said. “Large assignments can even be broken-down and completed in manageable pieces or as the agent has time throughout the day.”

Richard Coskren, president of San Francisco-based Insurance Educational Association, says pacing is a big advantage in online CE. Agents participating in self-study can pace themselves and complete the course when they are ready too, instead of cramming a couple of hours of information into one night. Another advantage is that online CE is not instructor dependent.

“I find that many agents tend to wait until the end of their compliance term to consider completing their education. Since education is available online seven days a week, 24 hours a day they can go online at any time—even if they have waited until the last minute. Completion time is recorded online so there is never any question as to whether or not they completed it on time. The states like that,” Amell said.

“In fact, in Oregon agents who do their education online are not required to have a monitor present, but they that is a requirement if their education is completed with a book through the mail. Even the states apparently like the fact that online education has certain advantages for them as watchdogs.”

BISYS’ “Anytime… anywhere CE” allows producers and brokers to complete the course from location and whenever they are available, according to Eric P. Anderson, president of Atlanta-based BISYS Education Services Inc. All of BISYS’ online courses include a bookmark feature allowing users to save their progress, and return to it at a later time to the point where they left off. According to MacMillian, CEU.com allows the agent to print out the study materials and take them on the road, as do many other online providers. This provides the agent the opportunity to review the information at any time in preparation for the exam.

Cost savings
Another benefit of online CE is the cost savings. In many cases, online courses are less expensive than traditional courses. Classroom education often incurs extra expenses in the form of instructors and room rental fees, which are in turn passed on to the agent.

“With online courses there are no shipping costs to send courses to the agent or for the agent sending the exams back,” Henkel added. “In addition, these courses eliminate travel and per diem costs the agent would pay to attend a classroom seminar.”

In addition, many providers, such as UIECE.com, allow the agent to take the test until they receive a passing grade without any additional charge. UIECE.com actually allows agents to complete their online test prior to paying for it. Credits are awarded after successful completion of the exam and payment.

Time savings
For agents and brokers, every minute spent in the office is precious. Traditional CE methods inevitably take up a great deal of the agent’s time, which is why so many put it off until the last minute. But online CE offers increased productivity, Anderson said, by eliminating lost selling time associated with traditional classroom-based courses. Because agents can work at their own pace, they can briefly review material they are already familiar with and move on to new material, affording the opportunity to reduce the amount of time spent reviewing the course material. Online CE also eliminates the need to travel out of the office or home to the classroom site.

The flip side
Of course, online CE education is not for everyone. Some agents thrive on the interactive atmosphere of a classroom setting. Online CE is better suited for the agent who can focus on the content and complete their course in a timely manner without the benefit or a teacher or proctor to monitor their progress. Self-study is a disciplined process, and some agents may find that they don’t take as much away from it as they would if they had been in a classroom.

For Coskren, classroom interaction is a definite advantage over online CE. “The instructor can see if you’re engaged a lot more easily,” he said, whereas with self-study, the agent might just be going through the motions and not learn as much as if they were in the classroom.

MacMillian said the biggest disadvantage he sees is the lack of networking opportunities for agents participating in a self-study course. “When you go to a seminar, you have the opportunity to talk with other agents,” he said. In response to the lack of networking with online CE, MacMillian said CEU.com is adding a chat room to our Web site so that can be networking accomplished online.

Another problem CE providers have identified is that users must be connected to the Internet via their PC. While most providers make their offerings simple in content with text-based lessons, others utilize graphics and slideshow presentations to spice up their lessons. This can present a problem for agents who have not yet signed on to high-speed Internet services.

“Those with dial-up Internet connection do not want to tie up their phone line for the time it takes to read the course all at once,” Henkel said. “To combat this, WebCE’s online course delivery system allows a student to pause a course and bookmark where the agent left off. Agents will also have the option to print the courses out
or download them to a disk or computer folder.”

In the end, Amell chalks up the differences between online CE and classroom CE to personal preference. “If one does not like using the computer, then having to would be a disadvantage. Other than personal preference or lack of computer comfort, I don’t feel there is a disadvantage.

“We have attempted to make the system as user friendly as possible, but for those who do not feel comfortable on the computer, it may still seem stressful,” Amell said. “As time goes by, however, I feel all education will end up being online. In today’s computer climate everyone needs to learn to use them. Agents tend to use computers in their jobs so they will find it easier than many other industries might.”

“We’ve tried to respond to the different ways people learn,” MacMillian added. Overall, “I think that it’s a better learning experience for [agents]. They walk away with more knowledge.”

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