"CE Credit Will Continue to be Awarded for Self-Learning Activities Such as Directed Readings and Home Studies"

(The following policy statement is taken directly from the ARRT website. It is the ARRT's official policy on home study continuing education courses.)

Misunderstanding of an article on page 10 of the 2005 ARRT Annual Report ("No CE Credit for Post-Tests of Self Learning Activities") is generating unwarranted concern among R.T.s who mistakenly think that, as a result of proposed changes to the CE Requirements, self-learning activities (home study, directed reading, online courses) will no longer be eligible for CE credit.

In fact, the only change proposed is that the post-test for a self-learning activity will no longer earn additional credit. The learning activity itself will continue to earn credit.

Why the distinction? Simply to clarify the separation between "learning" time and "assessment" time, and to ensure that credit is awarded for actual learning, and not for demonstrating that learning has taken place.

ARRT will notify the Recognized Continuing Education Evaluation Mechanisms (RCEEMs) so that evaluations completed after January 1, 2006 will recognize the new policy.

Here´s an example of the type of situation the change would address: a CE sponsor submitted, for a RCEEM?s approval, an activity that presented 20 minutes of actual learning followed by a post-test that took 40 minutes. The sponsor requested 1 CE credit because the typical participant would take 1 hour to complete the activity. In reality, however, the actual "learning time" in this scenario is less than one half hour - not enough time to earn CE credit. To earn one CE credit, a learning activity must last at least 50 minutes; post-test time doesn´t count.

A Continuing Education Activity is defined as a learning activity that is planned, organized and administered to enhance the professional knowledge and skills underlying professional performance that a technologist uses to provide services for patients, the public or the medical profession. The most important part of this definition is that it is a "learning activity."

There are two major components to any self-learning CE activity. The first will continue to earn credit; the second will not earn additional credit.

The first component is "learning," which takes place while reading a text, listening to an audiotape tape, watching a videotape, or participating in online learning. ARRT recognizes the learning that takes place during these types of activities and allows CE credits to be awarded for completion of the learning component.

The second component of a self-learning activity is the post-test. Time spent completing a post-test isn?t "learning"; rather, it´s assessment of whether learning took place. Under the proposed change, this assessment of the self-learning activity will, in and of itself, not earn CE credit.

In other words, it´s the learning that earns the credit. Proving that learning occurred will not earn additional credit.

Under the proposed changes, beginning in January 2006, evaluators of CE activities (RCEEMs and state licensing agencies) will award CE credit only for the learning component of the self learning activity.

Where did this idea come from, anyway? It was suggested by the RCEEMs themselves, at the fall 2004 ARRT CE Consensus Conference, which represents 9 professional organizations and 7 state licensing agencies who do the evaluating for CE credit.