By Annette Alfonsi
Our website, Empowering Education, is now completely free. This means continuing education credits are free. The only exception would be if a presenter or funder chose to charge for their course. Right now, we have courses approved for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and attorneys.
Why did we choose this route? In a nutshell, because we believe everyone should have access to education regardless of economic ability. For some people fifty dollars may as well be fifty million. Many experiences added up to making this change.
During the first few years of planning health conferences, I subscribed to the notion that events with continuing education should have a fee to attend, even if the fee was small. Locally, standard practice was that if someone could not afford to attend a paid event, they could request a “scholarship” to attend the event free. So I did what the standard was, and charged for attendance or lunch, and offered scholarships for free attendance. But it felt strange to expect people to out their economic situation by requesting the benevolence of a free ticket.
One year, a friend mentioned considering letting her nursing license expire because it’s so expensive to keep up. I invited her to attend my conference and sign in on the conference registration. We had gotten Category 1 Physician CMEs approved, and in Alaska those can be used by nurses too. She attended and received her earned credits listed on her certificate.
I’ve received emails and seen social media requests for free continuing education options from people with disabilities who want the option to maintain the licenses they fought so hard to get, and from people who want credentialed courses that aren’t just marketing a product (free courses could just be marketing videos).
Over time, I found myself wondering why people charged for events with a small free option, instead of having free events with a small paid option. Of course this excluded events paid for by entities like the state, which dictated that educational events must be free to attend. Hybrid events were not standard practice at the time. If someone couldn’t travel to the conference room in person, they missed out on the free event. Sometimes, travel plans made by event planners fell through, so that meant rural providers had to find other ways to get their educational needs met. Those with disabilities who couldn’t travel simply missed out.
Fast forward a few years, and we have this amazing website with on-demand education. This structural foundation has so many possibilities, some of which we haven’t begun to explore. As we move forward, we want everyone to be able to benefit from the existence of this space. That means, as much as we can, making sure there aren’t economic barriers. Please sign up and enjoy learning!