1. (a) CPAs' fields of employment do not limit the need for continuing professional education. CPAs performing professional services need to have a broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Continuing Professional Education will be referred to herein as CPE.

2. (b) The fundamental purpose of CPE is to help ensure that licensees participate in learning activities that maintain and improve their professional competence to serve in a competent manner. Courses the board regards as improving the licensee's professional competence include:

   1. (1) "Technical Courses" are those courses pertaining to the profession of accounting. These courses include but are not limited to accounting, attest, tax, management advisory services, and other technical areas of benefit to a licensee and/or a licensee's employer; and
   2. (2) "Non-Technical Courses" are those courses not meeting the definition of "technical courses" that increase the licensee's ability to serve in a competent manner, such as but not limited to communications, ethics, behavioral science, practice management and advanced courses in foreign languages, all of which must relate and must benefit a licensee and/or a licensee's employer. Refer to §523.118 of this chapter (relating to Limitation for Non-Technical Courses).

3. (c) Licensees may participate in a variety of sponsored learning activities, such as "live programs" or "self-study programs".

   1. (1) "Live programs" are those educational processes that are designed to permit a participant to learn a given subject through interaction with an instructor/facilitator and other participants either in a classroom or conference setting or by using the internet, which includes the following:

      1. (A) Workshops, seminars, and conferences with substantial interaction by a qualified instructor/facilitator. A sponsor will issue certificates of completion at the end of the class for licensees and attendees who participated in the program.
      2. (B) "Group self-study" programs that are based on self-study materials presented in a group format with substantial interaction from a qualified instructor/facilitator who is responsible for answering participants' questions or who leads the discussion of individual topics presented in the materials.
      3. (C) "Webinar" is a live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments.
   2. (2) "Self-study programs" are those educational processes that are designed to permit a participant to learn a given subject by oneself using books and/or electronic media (internet and DVDs/CDs, for example) without substantial interaction with an instructor/facilitator. This type of program clearly defines learning objectives and manages the participant through the learning processes by requiring frequent response to questions that test for understanding of the material presented, providing evaluative feedback to incorrectly answered questions and correctly answered questions, and requiring the participant to pass a final exam that tests the participant's comprehension of the course materials. Refer to §523.140(e) of this chapter (relating to Program Standards).
4. (d) "Contact hour" means 50 minutes of continuous participation in a program. After the first contact hour has been earned in a given learning activity, one-half CPE credit increments (equal to 25 minutes) are permitted.

5. (e) "Credit hour" means the actual program length, with one 50-minute period equal to one contact hour. Credit hours for:

   1. (1) continuous conferences and conventions, when individuals segments are less than 50 minutes, should be combined and counted as one total program. For example, five 30-minute presentations would equal 150 minutes and should be counted as three contact hours; and
   2. (2) courses at an institution of higher education using semester hour credits equals 15 CPE hours and those institutions using quarter hour credits equals 10 CPE hours, toward the requirement.
6. (f) "Sponsor" means an individual or organization offering programs to participants. The sponsor may or may not have developed the program materials. However, the sponsor is responsible for insuring the presentation of the learning objectives, through the program materials and maintaining the documentation required by these program standards.
7. (g) Staff meetings and other settings cannot be claimed for CPE credit if the programs do not meet program standards.

Source Note:The provisions of this §523.102 adopted to be effective April 7, 2004, 29 TexReg 3476; amended to be effective February 17, 2008, 33 TexReg 1107; amended to be effective February 6, 2013, 38 TexReg 500; amended to be effective February 12, 2014, 39 TexReg 662.