1. (a) Continuing Professional Education will be referred to herein as CPE.
2. (b) The purpose of CPE is to help ensure that licensees are able to serve the public in a competent manner.

3. (c) Licensees may participate in a variety of sponsored learning activities, such as "live classroom 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 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 participants who attended the entire program.

      2. (B) "Blended programs or interactive computer programs" include:

         1. (i) "Group self-study" programs that are based on self-study materials presented in a group format with substantial interaction from a qualified instructor who is responsible for answering participant's questions or who leads the discussion of individual topics presented in the materials.
         2. (ii) "Webinar" is a program that is a web cast and the participants are led by a discussion leader/facilitator that interacts with the web cast instructors. Sponsors will issue certificates of completion at the end of the class.

   2. (2) "Self-study programs" provide ongoing feedback for the participant regarding the learning process without substantial interaction of an instructor/facilitator.

      1. (A) This type of program clearly defines learning objectives and manages the participant through the learning process by:

         1. (i) requiring frequent response to questions that test for understanding of the material presented: providing evaluative feedback to incorrectly answered questions; and
         2. (ii) providing evaluative feedback to correctly answered questions.
      2. (B) Sponsor will provide a certificate of completion upon successfully passing the final exam.

      3. (C) Self-study programs include the following:

         1. (i) programs that are taken on the internet individually and involve the participant answering questions that test for understanding after each section of the course and passing a final exam to earn credit for the course. A certificate of completion is immediately received once the participant successfully passes the final exam.
         2. (ii) courses in which course materials are sent to a participant and after completing the course and the final exam, the participant sends the final exam to the sponsor either electronically or by mail for grading. The sponsor may send the grade either electronically or by mail to the participant.

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.