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CE to fit you A majority of you say your employers pay for at least some aspect of continuing activities attended as a team, but even wider margins of you said you must fund any courses attended individually. Regardless of who is footing the bill, Schmidt says the team training opportunities are a great opportunities that can “help to develop teamwork and to create energy and synergy among the team” but solo opportunities also are important.
“Even though your employer may support you in certain endeavors, you need to be aware of what your own interests are and where you want to develop,” she says. “The ideal situation is to have that mix.” Once you know the direction you’d like to take your continuing studies, you need to get down to finding the courses that will meet your needs. The ADHA includes hands-on technology and technique-focused classes in the Center for Lifelong Learning programs at their Annual Session, and Schmidt says for training on new products and technologies, it often makes sense to target these “touch and feel” style courses at state association and national meetings where you can try things out for yourself. Mixing formats Live training sessions are often expensive to attend, especially when travel and hotel costs come into play. Schmidt thinks mixing live sessions with less expensive home study options is a good strategy for meeting your CE requirements, and points to studies showing that for many people, online delivery is just as educationally effective as live sessions. “It can be a superior way in some cases of receiving content and allowing someone to learn more at their own pace,” she says, adding, “some people don’t learn well just sitting in a lecture and hearing people talk.” Differing online styles Online courses come in many formats and can meet many needs. The courses from Dental Didactics come as downloadable PDFs. Students receive their CE credits by sending their answers to the post-course test by e-mail. They cover topics ranging from technology to HIV/AIDS and OSHA regulations. Students taking courses with Dynamic Dental Educators (dynamicdentaled.com) can access the ADA CERP and AGD PACE approved online content from any computer or print it out, but there are no files to download. Course development manager Mark Taris, says this makes the courses machine independent and there is no time limit for completion. DDE tends to stay away from technique courses to focus on providing information on diseases and regulations. “You don’t have to have hands on experience in a seminar to learn it, you just have to read and understand and know the precautions,” Taris says. DDE keeps track of state CE requirements and tries to provide courses that will help students meet those needs. New titles are added regularly, and dentists and hygienists with expertise in that subject write the courses. Topics often come from user surveys, and Taris believes anyone providing quality education will keep their ears open to their students. “If they just give their input to the people they’re taking their courses from of what other topics they’d like to see, the company will naturally respond to that,” he says. Looking ahead Beyond the downloadable and online accessible content, online training options also include audio and/or video Webinars which can be offered live or made available as a recording that can be played at anytime. Schmidt thinks the future for online CE is very bright, and as technology makes online education even easier, and the low cost continues to increase demand, more state licensing boards will be receptive to the format. “If somebody is sticking pretty firm to the fact that they want to see courses live, based on their geography, perhaps that’s more of a challenge,” she says. “But there’s a number of ways that they can receive quality continuing education with a mix of seeing some courses live and doing some courses online.”
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