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Ohio CPA Group Launches State-Approved Micro-Learning

After receiving approval from the state’s accountancy board, the Ohio Society of CPAs has launched a collection of 10-minute courses. The approval makes certified public accountants in Ohio the first in the country to be eligible to earn continuing education credit for micro-learning courses.

Accountants in Ohio no longer have to wade through hours-long courses to fulfill their continuing education requirements. Earlier this week, the Ohio Society of CPAs announced it has entered into micro-learning territory and is now offering a collection of 10-minute modular courses called Quick Byte.

“The nature of professional education is changing,” OSCPA President and CEO Scott D. Wiley, CAE, said in a statement. “Studies show micro-learning can provide the quick, focused education that CPAs need to stay current in the marketplace. It’s an important way OSCPA is driving more value for CPAs and accounting professionals.”

The courses are the first under-one-hour learning resources developed by a state CPA association to qualify for CPA continuing education. Last year, OSCPA worked with the Accountancy Board of Ohio to adopt new rules allowing CPAs in the state to earn credit for continuing education beginning in 10-minute increments.

The collection of 42 video-based courses can be accessed via laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices and cover three topic areas: tax, accounting and auditing, and specialized knowledge.

“There’s recent research in brain science that tells us why micro-learning is a good idea,” said Josh Goldman, CAE, OSCPA director of professional development.

For example, this type of learning format can make retaining information easier, Goldman said. Trying to remember something learned in an eight-hour class or seminar can be much more difficult than trying to remember smaller, more concentrated pieces of information that are broken down in a 10-minute course.

Quick Byte also allows OSCPA to make more frequent changes and updates to the learning content.

Micro-learning formats can provide a tremendous amount of flexibility in educational programming, Goldman said. But associations need to change the way they have traditionally viewed learning design.

“For so long, association educators and learning professionals in general have thought in terms of amount of minutes or amount of time spent on a learning activity,” he said. “In micro-learning, you really have the ability to think purely about what is the learning objective I’m trying to achieve and what’s the best way to deliver that objective.”

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Katie Bascuas

By Katie Bascuas

Katie Bascuas is associate editor of Associations Now. MORE

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