Curt A. Bartlett, a CPA with Ajilon Consulting in Jersey City, N.J., has been using Bisk CPEasy, a division of Bisk Education, for the past three or four years to fulfill his CPE requirements. While he still prefers text-based courses, he acknowledges that online courses do offer certain advantages and that many of his colleagues are putting down the pencil and plugging in for continuing education.
“I think you could argue that the online [courses] are better, but for me, I like it wrapped up in a hard copy,” says Bartlett, who has used some online offerings. “It seems like everyone is going for online.”
Bartlett turns to Bisk for his CPE because of the ease of use and variety of topics. “All of it is up to date. A lot of their stuff you can apply to the real world,” says Bartlett. “I find it an easy product to keep my CPA [certification] active.”
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For Bartlett and other accounting professionals, CPE may be viewed as a necessary evil. Struggling with mounting workloads and slimmer staffs, keeping up with CPE isn’t easy for professionals and they often place it on the back burner. Another challenge professionals may face is keeping up with state CPE requirements, as each state is different.
CPE Moving to Streaming Video?
CPA Vern Hoven is a tax lecturer who does about 100 live seminars a year nationwide, mostly for CPA societies. While live seminars are his passion, Hoven says he found himself faced with more requests than he could accommodate so he is launching into streaming video — a move he considers will be a breakthrough in the CPE marketplace.
“To my knowledge, it is the first streaming video class with a manual component that is NASBA approved and QAS approved,” says Hoven of the self-study product that is now being test marketed.
The video, which was just approved for CPE in all 50 states, is in the early marketing stages and will likely kick off in the fall.
The streaming video, according to Hoven, takes all of the “good parts” of Webcasts and makes it on demand. Hoven believes this format is “as close to live as you can get.”
He wants to simulate a live teaching environment via a “three-pane environment.” In the first pane (window), users can see Hoven as he explains the most recent tax law changes. The second pane displays his PowerPoint slides, synchronized with his discussion of each topic, just as in a live seminar setting. In the third pane, users can follow along with Vern’s full text manual, topic by topic, and link to Web sites that contain IRS Code sections and pertinent cases rulings, while learning.
While the technology may, in certain cases, be better than live, given the ability to stop the video and link to additional resources, Hoven knows that there are two markets: those that prefer live CPE and those that prefer self-study.
“It will be interesting to see where this goes. Could this be a clone [of Vern Hoven]? My feeling is yes,” says Hoven. “Do I think it will replace live? No.”
“Make sure that the provider offers courses approved in the state [you are in],” says Andy Rosenberg, CPA, founder and chief executive officer of Akron, Ohio-based WiseGuides, which markets interactive computer-based CPE. “A lot of CPAs are not too familiar with the regulations in their state.”
For example, some states limit the amount of self-study CPE a professional may take.
While practitioners may not know all the regulations, they surely know that education has moved rapidly to online formats
Fifteen years ago, all WiseGuides courses were distributed on CDs with customers paying only for courses they used. Then in 1999, the company began offering the material online.
“As soon as we got in on the Web we saw it grow rapidly,” says Rosenberg.
Last year, only about 5 percent to 10 percent of its clients were still using CD versions; and this year all customers are using Web-based products.
The company currently offers about 55 courses-all Web-based-mainly in the tax arena. Customers can either purchase individual courses or a package of hours at a discounted rate. If customers do not use purchased hours within a year, they can carry over unused hours as long as they buy additional WiseGuides courses. Purchasers can also share those hours with colleagues in the same firm. Available plans include 20 hours for $149, 40 hours for $249 or 100 hours for $499. Rosenberg says that most of the 7,000 or so customers opt to buy a CPE plan versus individual courses.
Some Holdouts
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