Council on Optometric Practitioner Education
Council on Optometric Practitioner Education
4340 East West Highway, Suite 401,Bethesda, MD 20814-4411,
(800)-758-COPE, (301)-718-6507, (301)-656-0989

The only requirement to become a COPE Qualified Administrator is to agree to comply with the following reasonable standards. Most CE providers meet the majority, if not all, of these criteria already. They represent the elements of good CE administration that are required by most state boards. You are asked simply to certify that you agree to abide by these standards. If you have any questions concerning these criteria, please contact the COPEr office.
1) Courses:
a) All courses must be open to all optometrists.
2) Registration:
a) Fees must be published clearly in promotional material;
b) Any difference in member and non-member fees must be reasonable.
3) Instructional hours:
a) The minimum credit for any COPE Approved Course is one hour;
b) Additional credits must be in half-hour increments;
c) One hour of continuing education credit equals 50 minutes of instructional time.
4) Facilities:
a) The physical environment used must be conducive to learning;
b) The instructional area must be appropriate and adequate to the content and method of delivery of the course and must be appropriately equipped with any audio-visual or clinical equipment needed to teach the course;
c) The instructional area must accommodate the size of the audience comfortably;
d) The venue must comply with
ADA standards
5) Documentation:
a) Attendance must be verified and actively monitored with integrity and impartiality;
b) Each participant must receive documentation of attendance, which will allow each course attended to be identified;
c) Documentation must be made available to participants in a timely fashion;
d) All certificates and/or other means of documenting CE credit must allow for the following information:
1) Name and address of the
participant
2) State(s) of licensure and
license number
3) Title(s) and COPE ID# of the
course(s)
NOTE: The COPE ID# is the one critical piece of information that state boards look for when the documentation is submitted for CE credit. Therefore, space for this should be in a prominent place.
4) Location and date(s) of the
course(s)
5) Name of the instructor(s)
6) Name of the administrator
7) Number of hours of CE
credit awarded
8) Authorized signature of
administrator or a duly
authorized representative, or
symbol verifying attendance
e) Participants must attend the complete course to receive credit for the course;
f) Attendance records must be retained for 5 years;
g) Any late changes / substitutions in a program must be notified to cope in writing.
6) Evaluations:
a) Evaluations of course effectiveness must be carried out;
b) A summary of the evaluation of each course must be kept on file for one year;
c) Each instructor must receive a copy of the evaluation summary for his/her course;
d) The evaluations must be used in planning future programs.
7) Financial support from proprietary organizations:
a) Instructors and administrators must disclose any financial interest or other relationship with a manufacturer, vendor, or distributor of any commercial products or services related to the practice of optometry;
b) Courses presented on behalf of a proprietary entity which specifically promotes one or more products of that company, will not be approved;
c) Proprietary entities must have no control over course development or presentation.
8) Notification of Course Approval:
Promotional information published by administrators of educational events will have the COPE symbol associated with each course that is COPE Approved. Statements such as "COPE approval applied for" or "COPE approval pending" are not permitted. Also, each COPE Approved Course must have the COPE Course Identification Number and COPE
categories clearly visible with the course description. COPE will issue the COPE symbol to Qualified Administrators to use with each COPE Approved Course to help doctors easily identify these courses in the promotional materials and printed program. This allows practitioners to determine the categories of courses they wish to attend before enrolling in the course.
Qualified Administrators also agree to allow COPE representatives access to their programs at no charge to monitor procedures as needed. However, COPE representatives who seek CE credit are expected to register and pay for courses in the same manner as any other participant.

Suggestions to: (Ernie Patterson)
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