Five Questions to Ask When Choosing an Online Insurance Continuing Education Provider

Making sure that you comply with your state's insurance licensing regulations is one of the most important issues you have to deal with as an insurance professional. Your career depends on it. Getting the required insurance continuing education (or "CE") is a big part of that, and thanks to current technology, you have more insurance CE options than ever.

A recent study from Agent Media indicated that 67 percent of respondents now get at least some of their insurance CE credits online. It really is the most efficient option, saving the travel costs and time away from the office associated with classroom training. Because of its increasing popularity, there are a lot of web-based businesses now offering online insurance continuing education. How do you narrow down all these options to find best insurance CE provider for you?

Before you sign up for your next course, consider these questions:

Does the provider offer high quality, compelling course material?

Online insurance CE courses should take advantage of the multimedia (audio, video, animation) capacity of the web to maximize the effectiveness of the learning experience. The courses should be written by recognized industry experts, should follow the required format, and should be approved in all 50 states. Ask for a no-charge sample course to make sure the provider meets these requirements. Also, review the provider's course catalog to make sure they offer a wide enough variety of courses so that you can get all the training you need from one source.

Does the provider track and report training results for you and your employees?

For you to remain compliant, the results of your insurance continuing education courses must get into the right hands in a timely manner. Look for an insurance CE provider who will handle that for you without additional paperwork on your part. The whole idea of getting your required credits online is to make the process faster and more efficient, so make sure your provider will track all your courses automatically, inform you of the courses you still need to take, and report your results to state within two to three business days (as allowed by your state's licensing board). You should also immediately receive a Certificate of Completion when you pass a course, so you'll have proof in-hand when needed. These services should be available to you at no additional charge.

Are the courses flexible enough to fit your schedule?

Online learning has made it possible to take your insurance CE courses anywhere and anytime you have a web connection, but sometimes it's still difficult to find the time to sit down and complete a course in one sitting. Look for an online insurance CE provider that allows you to save your sessions and pick up where you left off, so you can truly work at your own pace.

Can you re-take courses without additional charges?

Once you have paid for a course, you should be able to review it as many times as you want without being charged again. You should also be allowed to re-take the exams as often as you need to pass the course and earn the credits.

If you are going to be away from your computer, can you take the course material with you?

Just because you are taking a web-based course, you need not be tied to the computer the entire time. Look for a provider that will allow you to print out pages from the course material for later review. Also, your provider should allow you to download the audio from multimedia courses. These audio downloads can be saved like a podcast to your MP3 player for even more flexibility. You can review the information while on the road, exercising, doing housework -- anywhere you can use you iPod.

The point of insurance continuing education is to make sure you stay up-to-date on all the latest developments in insurance services and regulations. When you receive the best possible training, both you and your clients will reap the rewards. Finding a high quality, accredited online continuing education partner is the first step in maximizing the benefit to your business, and it's worth the effort to do your homework.

Bruce MacMillian is the President and CEO of CEU.com. CEU offers multimedia-rich online insurance continuing education courses to licensed insurance professionals.

Concepts in Linear Regression You Need to Know Before Learning Multilevel Models

It seems very many researchers are needing to learn multilevel and mixed models, and I have to say, it's not so easy on your own. I too went to graduate school before it was taught in classes--we did learn mixed models as in Split Plot designs, but things have progressed a bit since then. So I too have had to learn them without benefit of a class, or teacher. So I feel your pain. But I've struggled through and learned a lot, although I had the advantage of seeing very, very many examples as I've worked with clients over the years, and of having knowledgeable colleagues to ponder and learn with. So if reading Singer makes you feel stupid, you're not alone.

I've also had the advantage of having really good training in the general linear model. This came not only from numerous classes in graduate school, but once again, from seeing so many examples in consulting, and having to explain it so many times. (Teaching is when you learn best).

Why is this important? Because multilevel models are just general linear models with extra sources of variation. It's much harder to learn multilevel models if you're still unsure about some of the concepts in linear regression. You want to focus on figuring out what a random slope really means, not a centered predictor.

So here are 4 concepts in linear regression that you really, really should get clear about before you attempt to read the Singer article. It won't make it easy, but it will make it easier.

1. What centering does to your variables. Intercepts are pretty important in multilevel models, so centering is often required to make intercepts meaningful.

2. Working with categorical and continuous predictors. You will want to use both dummy and effect coding in different situations. Likewise, you want to be able to understand what it means if you make a variable continuous or categorical. What different information to you get from it and what does it mean? Even if you're a regular ANOVA user, it may make sense to treat time as continuous, not categorical.

3. Interactions. I know you know that you have to leave in lower order terms for each interaction (right?). Make sure you can interpret interactions, regardless of how many categorical and continuous variables they contain. And make sure you understand.

4. Polynomial terms. Random slopes can be hard enough to grasp (and keep straight from random intercepts). Random curvature is worse. Know thy Polynomials.

And finally, understand how they all fit together. These 4 concepts really come down to understanding what the estimates in your model mean. How to interpret them. And that will come largely from practice, asking questions, and relearning the basics in the context of your data.

The advantage is that understanding these concepts will behoove you in learning any advanced modeling--nonlinear models, logistic regression, Cox regression, and so on.

I'd like to invite you to learn more about linear regression analysis, including interpreting interactions, centered predictors, polynomials, and more in one of my FREE monthly Analysis Factor Teleseminars: "Interpreting Linear Regression Parameters: A Walk Through Output." Visit Teletraining 4 to get started today.

© 2008 Karen Grace-Martin -- Statistical Consultant and founder of The Analysis Factor

4 Tips to Avoid Being Scammed by Diploma Mills

Online education has been introduced for decodes and it is now receiving increased respect from top employers. Students who are interested to earn their degree online generally do not need to worry about the acceptance of their online degree as long as they earn their degree from a legitimate online college. However, diploma mills who offer valueless degree limit the prestige of a legitimate online degree. You as an online student need to ensure the degree you pursue online is from $a properly accredited college, else you will have problem to use the degree to start your career later. Here are a few tips to avoid being scammed by diploma mills.

Tip #1: Understand the college's past performance

The college past performance is useful to identify legitimate online colleges. Online colleges that won yearly award or participating themselves to be reviewed for ranking position such as The Best College of Year 2009 should be cleared enough to identify as legitimate online colleges.

Tip #2: Find out which accrediting agency that performs accreditation

Accreditation is an important indicator for quality assurance of the online degree programs offered by any college. However, it is not enough to know that your selected online college is accredited, but you need to know which organization is accrediting the college and whether that accrediting agency is a body recognized by the Department of Education of your country. The reason is diploma mills do claim accreditation, which they are accredited by a "fake" accrediting agency. Hence, you should find out which accrediting agency that performs the accreditation process of your selected online college and ensure the accrediting agency is in the list of CHEA.org, an official online database that keeps information about accreditation.

Tip #3: Join the forums that discuss about online colleges

What other people talk about the online college that you are interested to may give some hints about how good the college is and whether the college is a diploma mill that cheats money without providing legitimate degrees. In the forums, people will talk about the good things and the bad things about the colleges and their degree programs. You should be able to get a lot of information about the online colleges that offer the degree program you are interested in. Avoid those online colleges that have bad comments and suspicious to be diploma mills.

Tip #4: Avoid online colleges that offer deals that look too good

When you see something is too good to be true, then it better trigger your alert sensor on any potential scam activities by diploma mill. When you see that the requirements to earn a degree is too easy until you don't need to put in any effort, then the degree you are going to earn is most probably be a fake degree then a legitimate one. Hence, keep in mind that earning a degree online has no different than the campus-based degree except there are some advantages that will benefit you. Other than that, you still need to put in efforts for coursework, attending online classes and complete the total credits required for graduation. Avoid totally any offer from online colleges that look to good to be true.

Summary

Don't let yourself have chances to be scammed by diploma mills. Use the above 4 tips to distinguish a legitimate online college before you sign up any of it online degree program.

Julie Harvard would like to invite you to explore more information on online education at http://www.studykiosk.com which will help in making your education decision and select a legitimate online college that best fit your goals.