CPE Tech: Course Delivery Methods of the Future.

• Author: Blitz, Adam

This year I have the honor of being the chair of the CalCPA Education Foundation Board of Trustees. The Education Foundation is the vehicle llial CalCPA uses to offer continuing education courses to CalCPA members as well as CPAs and financial professionals from around the country.

While continuing education is a requirement for the CPA profession, continuing education is also about helping CPAs push the profession forward lo be on the frontline of business trends and industry issues.

Times Change

The Education Foundation strives to provide the highest quality courses in an environment that stimulates accounting professionals to improve their individual and collective skills.

Since I started taking courses from CalCPA in 2004, the expectations of accounting professionals of how we consume our learning have changed significantly. In 2004, the expectation was that you take an eight-hour, in-person course and have the opportunity to meet and interact with other CPAs.

As you are well aware, that is no longer the case.

My earliest experience with the Education Foundation led me to a place where I could meet other accountants. At the stimulating events, I would gain the opportunity to listen to the instructor and learn about specific subjects. With that being said, the best part of these events for me was the opportunity to discuss the topic with other accountants. To listen to how they applied accounting solutions to their clientele assisted me in growing as a professional and as a human. I was able to meet other like-minded professionals to grow my network and build future economic opportunities for myself and others.

Today, we expect to take the courses we need wherever, whenever and however we want. The eight-hour course has been replaced by the snippet of the specific issue we want to learn about to the tune of quick, specific on-demand courses. Despite the majority of our courses being taken individually in a silo of one's office. the importance of building relationships and engaging with others around high-level content is one that must be maintained in the CPE environment.

Conference Technology

Despite the interest in high-quality, on-demand content, the Education Foundation continues to believe there's an appetite for community style courses with interactivity and networking. Engaging with and bouncing ideas off each other is a critical part of how we learn. The question then becomes, how can the Education Foundation offer this unique...