PD Distance Learning Program

[thing]

Just a heads up -- if you paid for distance learning as part of your PD app and haven't heard anything yet, write them a note. I got tired of waiting and sent a "nag letter", and got my virtual campus info and order form the next morning. Coincidence? :shake2:

[Holy Grail]

I sent a nag note too, over a week ago, but *still* no info. What's going on here?

[night cat]

For exampel: will the CD for the Life Insurance Conference seminar be avaliable in the distance learning program? I think the seminar is held by LOMA not SOA. Is that ture the CD/taps only be available for seminars held by SOA? Thanks!

[Ndugu]

How long should we wait for the order info from the time our plan is approved? I want to get this ball rolling...

[DoppelGranger]

Don't wait. Send an email to pdcomments@soa.org right away. No reason to lose time being polite. I was delayed a couple of weeks from starting on my audio tapes because of this.

[BucsFan]

I've got a question. What's the advantage of subscribing to the Distance Learning Subscription Program vs. not subscribing to it? I went ahead and paid for it thinking it would be better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I thought I'd subscribe to it just in case I still need, like 1.5 or 2 or 3 PD units after I do my project and write up on my seminars I attended. Thanks.

[DoppelGranger]

The advantage for me was that my employer at the time wouldn't pay for me to go to unlimited meetings, but they would pay for the tapes, so I did my project, went to a meeting on their dime, and listened to 15 credits worth of tapes that they bought me. Sadly for me, I needed to get all 50 credits so I still had to pay for a meeting out of pocket (15 project + 15 tapes + 15 SOA meeting < 50). But that was the big advantage for me - if I hadn't ordered the tapes through my employer, I would have had to pay for an additional ~$1000 meeting or two out of pocket.

[BucsFan]

How often is the list of available tapes updated? Seminars and webinars come up all the time that are worth a certain number of PD credits; but as we all know, that doesn't necessarily mean we can use them all for our particular PD plans.

[James Madison]

Tapes can be purchased from the Audio Visual Education Network at the following address: http://www.aven.com/list.cfm. The cost per tape is $12.50. The maximum number of distance learning credits allowed is 15 and each tape is worth 1.5 PD units; consequently, $125 is needed to purchase 10 tapes worth 15 credits.

The SOA PD filing fee with the distance learning subscription is $305 while the filing fee without is only $175; the difference is $130. What is the advantage of filing for PD with the distance learning subscription? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m sure there is an advantage; I just don’t know what it is. Does the SOA have a larger selection of taped seminars than does AVEN? Are there no shipping charges with the SOA? Does anyone know?

[BucsFan]

Thanks. I never know when I may need to get those few extra points.

[night cat]

Only sessions from the spring and annual meetings and valuation actuarial symposium are availabe thru the distance learning program becuase the vendor of tapes of these meeting are Aven. Other meetings are not available. And if SOA changes vendor for these meeting, for example: 05 Annual meeting, then these tapes are not available thru the distance learning program either. You have to pay extra to purchase these tapes.

If you haven't had any 15 credits prior of sumbitting initial plan, then the program is a good way to get these credits. Otherwise, it is not as useful. The list of available tapes are not so updated. I have waited May 06 spring meeting tapes for 3 months, and they still aren't available yet. I decided to purchase the Product development CD Rom for my 5 remaining credits.