Another Online Opportunity

Online learning is on our minds here at NEPPA as we search for new educational opportunities for our members. In addition to the Web-based courses provided by Energy Management University, we have also identified a webinar provider, Tennessee-based Continuum Education and Training, that offers webinars related to the electric utility industry.

Unlike the Web-based courses, which are pre-packaged and can be accessed any time of the day or night, webinars are live sessions with live instructors scheduled at a particular time that users log in to. The sessions are one hour long, with an additional 30-minute Q&A session, but instructors will stay as long as there are questions.

Rockie Blunt, NEPPA’s director of educational services, has previewed Continuum’s webinars, and he came away impressed. "They’re interactive," he said. "Instructors don’t just read the slides; they discuss them." They also ask the learners various questions to elicit their responses. "Students can click a button to ‘raise their hand’ to let the instructor know that they have a question," Rockie added, "and they can communicate over a ‘chat’ feature." He noted that in each webinar he accessed, the content was good and it was delivered by knowledgeable instructors who kept everyone’s attention.

Continuum’s webinars are $99/person. Each webinar is recorded and saved for one year, so that people who miss the live version still have access to the recorded version. Click here to view or print the 2011-2012 schedule.