Architects in most states are required to take continuing education courses to maintain their licenses. For those who don’t, they still need those courses to maintain membership in the AIA. Currently that requirement is 18 learning units per year (about 18 actual contact hours). To meet these requirements, architects can attend lectures, go to the national convention seminars, complete mail-in tests from the AIA’s official magazine, or even have box lunch presentations in their own offices made by product manufacturers or distributors. However, there are times when the deadline is rapidly approaching and you may be able to eat 4 box lunches on the same day.
For those architects out there that are in need of continuing education credits (and free ones at that), I’ve been really happy with an online service AEC Daily. The collect a crazy number of online continuing education courses, well sorted and organized, and allow you to take them at your leisure. They also automatically report your course completion to the AIA, who in turn can provide transcripts for your state licensing board if required.
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n addition to the courses being online, making them great for any-time learning (read waiting for the plotter at 9pm before a deadline), they give you the material in PDF format. This means that if you have a dual monitor (which a lot of us architects do)… After you have thoroughly studied the course material (you did read it first, right?), open the PDF file on one screen, the online test on the other, and you have the digital equivalent of an open book test. Now I don’t tell you this so you can cut corners, only that you can more effectively use your time at the computer – like reading architectblog.org