RISKVUE ARCHIVE | FEATURE STORIES

Online Education For Risk And Insurance Professionals

By Marcus Covas

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article,¹ there has been a dramatic increase in the number of executives returning to classrooms to “brush up on traditional management skills and to learn new ones.” In the risk management and insurance industry, this is nothing new. Whether it is a required insurance continuing-education course, or a class to prepare for a CPCU national exam, risk and insurance professionals always have pursued higher education.

For years, classroom courses that prepare students for the national exams have been available in cities around the country. Some students, though, have neither the time nor the patience to sit through a weekly three-hour course for 18 weeks.

The Institutes, RIMS, and some other organizations have created online exam-preparation courses that offer risk and insurance professionals more educational options available than ever before.

RIMS’ Online ARM Courses

I was intrigued when I heard that the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) was offering online exam-preparation courses for the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) series. My classroom experience with the ARM 54 course was less than engaging, spending the requisite instructional time confined in a small classroom listening to an instructor ramble on about many topics unrelated to risk management.

I passed the national exam for ARM 54, but wanted to self-study for ARM 55 and ARM 56. Knowing my tendency to procrastinate, I sought out some sort of organized structure to help me avoid cramming the night before exams. RIMS’ new online course for ARM 55 was just the ticket. I enrolled online, paid the $350 non-RIMS member fee, and within 24 hours had a user name and password to enter the website.

In coordination with Learning Space,² RIMS has built an easy-to-navigate website that contains all the needed study information. Online courses are divided into four sections:

(1) Schedule: Assignment and exam schedules

(2) Media Center: Course materials and exams

(3) Discussions: Students’ bulletin board forum for posting thoughts and answering the instructor’s questions

(4) Profiles: Profiles of the instructor and students

RIMS’ online learning environment is somewhere between the two extremes of traditional classroom learning and self-studying. Instead of dominating the learning environment with a lecture, the instructor serves as a facilitator, each week laying out the coursework and leaving it up to the students to download the material, study and take the quizzes. Therefore, students must be highly motivated.

The success of RIMS’ online learning environment relies on active student participation. When class began, the discussion area was very active. The instructor posed questions and most students followed up with their thoughts. It was interesting to finish an assignment, jump online and instantly read other students’ solutions. But after a few weeks, the number of postings in the discussion area dropped and the instructor had to send weekly e-mails to solicit student participation. I sometimes waited days before receiving a response from the instructor or other students to my postings in the discussion area. My interest in the course began to wane and I visited the website less and less often.

When the course concluded and it was time for the national exam, the online classroom afforded me the opportunity to go back in time and review discussions and assignments. I studied the course materials and sent a few e-mails to the instructor, asking for help in certain areas. With his help, and the help of the materials on the website, I passed the national exam.

Overall, RIMS’ online learning experience served its purpose, but students who take online courses must remember that it is up to them to stay current with the assignments and discussions. Aside from the ARM series, RIMS offers other courses, including FRM (Fellow in Risk Management) test-preparation courses, general risk courses (such as Managing Business Risk and Small Business Risk Management), and “skill-enhancement” courses, which focus on improving basic business skills.

CPCU Online Series

The American Institute for CPCU recently teamed up with Blackboard.com, an online learning provider, to create an e-learning environment that is very similar to RIMS’ online educational program. The “classroom” is divided into three main sections that lead students through the day-to-day activities: (1) announcements, (2) calendar, and (3) tasks.

Claire Reiss, director of the Grants and Research Program at the Public Entity Research Institute (PERI), recently completed the online course for CPCU 8–Accounting and Finance, possibly one of the most difficult CPCU courses. The online course helped her prepare for the national exam in a way that fit in with her schedule as a working mother of two. Instead of sacrificing one night per week for a classroom course, Reiss studied online whenever and as often as she liked, from her home.

The best part of the course for Reiss was having someone to turn to with questions: “The teacher was very helpful and responsive. She provided thoughtful responses to our answers to assigned questions, quizzes and the practice final. She also provided lecture notes that highlighted the main points of each assignment and gave us some advice about how to focus our efforts.” Overall, Reiss enjoyed the course and says it adequately prepared her for the national exam, which she passed.

The Future Of Online Education

Claire Reiss and I had similar experiences and outcomes in our online learning adventures. Both RIMS and CPCU provided ways to study on our own time and pace, yet we both noticed that the interactivity of the programs was virtually nonexistent. The format has potential for discussion among students, but lacks the urgency and leadership of a traditional classroom environment that promotes expression of ideas.

According to an article in Interactive Week magazine,³ creating the feel of a traditional learning environment online is nearly impossible because it requires more bandwidth (very fast connections) than most people currently have to deliver the interactive audio, video, and animation required for an immersive educational experience.

Nevertheless, one online education company appears to be ahead of the curve. Corpedia, a Phoenix, Arizona-based e-learning company that specializes in web-based business-management-and-compliance education, uses streaming audio⁴ and creative animations to teach courses. I recently completed a one-hour course titled “Recognizing and Preventing Employment Discrimination,” a look at the laws, history, causes and much more surrounding employment discrimination. I was thoroughly impressed with the course’s in-depth content and streamlined visual presentation.

Using Macromedia Flash^TM software, Corpedia presents the material with audio and visual cues that make the material interesting and easy to follow. During interaction with the course, exams test your knowledge. The learning experience is somewhere between watching a training video and sitting through a live presentation. Students can rewind, fast-forward, or pause the lesson at any moment. In addition, users can completely stop the course and return later. The course remembers where you left off.

The programs also have some nice features for managers who require employees to take the courses. The employer can monitor each employee’s performance and progress, and keep online records of who took which courses.

Though Corpedia’s class catalog focuses mostly on general business management training, many of the topics are applicable to risk management. Two sections dealing with Safety & Health and Legal Compliance & Workplace Issues are particularly geared toward risk control topics, ranging from “A Manager’s Guide to Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets” to “Workers’ Compensation-Preventing Accidents and Managing Claims.”

Conclusion

Online learning still is in its infancy and far from being the immersive experience of traditional classrooms. Nevertheless, students taking online courses benefit from the ability to study anywhere at anytime. Just like traditional classroom environments, students must be highly motivated to learn the material, stay abreast of the latest assignments and join in discussion groups to reap the full benefits of online learning. We will provide future updates as the technology improves and more risk and insurance educators move their classes online. 

Notes
¹ Carol Hymowitz, “Executives Head Back to School to Polish Skills and Rub Elbows,” The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2000.
² Learning Space provides “e-learning” technology to organizations, integrating their software with the educational program of the educator.
³ James E. Gaskin, “Virtual Learning: Struggling to Make the Grade,” Interactive Week, August 28, 2000.
⁴ Technology allowing a user to listen and watch continuously as the signal is transferred to user’s system from a remote server.

riskVue | The webzine for risk management professionals
June 2001