CPE Monitor Newsletters

During the 2020 Summit, Elizabeth Wolfe, Regulatory Counsel, NASBA, discussed the Accessibility provisions under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Wolfe stated that under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, the ADA establishes requirements that electronic information and technology, developed, maintained, procured or otherwise used by the federal government must be accessible for people with disabilities, which includes employees and members of the public.

Right away, Usable Learning’s Julie Dirksen addressed the fact that there are current challenges with keeping attention and engagement levels up from an audience now that many people have transitioned out of the classroom/office to an online environment. So, what should we be aware of and what kinds of strategies should we consider?

The compliance desk audit cycle normally begins in April but was delayed, until September 1, 2020, due to the pandemic. In recent years, NASBA’s National Registry team has noticed an alarming trend of the increasing number of desk audit failures. In fact, there has been more than 60 percent audit failures in the sample selected for the 2019 desk audit cycle.

Joe Urbanski, COO and Org. Culture Strategist of Total Solutions Group, declared during his 2020 National Registry eSummit presentation that we’re doing webinars all wrong. Why is this? According to Urbanski, since 2007, the world has changed thanks in part to the use of Smartphones. Now, an enormous amount of information can be reached instantly at our fingertips. Therefore, learning providers must improve how learners are engaged.

Olivia Patrick, Senior Consultant, CPE & Licensing Compliance, Plante Moran, discussed how her team pivoted their learning from almost an entirely live environment to a completely virtual one in the span of one month. She attributes much of the success to how her firm responded as a whole, versus strictly focusing on adapting the training content and delivery methods. Patrick mentioned that in May 2020, Plante Moran management decided to cancel all live (in-person) trainings and meetings through July 2021 and host everything virtually in Microsoft Teams.

The National Registry team continues to receive a constant stream of emails and calls from continuing professional education (CPE) sponsors on how to handle CPE events that can no longer be offered in person due to the government-imposed social distancing requirements resulting from COVID-19. There has been a great need to continue these training events so that participants can attend remotely.

NASBA has noticed an alarming increase in compliance audit failures and wants to reverse this trend. As such and as previously announced, NASBA is implementing a new compliance desk audit policy in connection with the 2020 compliance desk audit cycle to institute financial penalties for audit failures. If a sponsor fails an audit, a penalty fee will be assessed to equal 25 percent of the most recent renewal fee paid by the sponsor. The penalty fee must be paid within 30 days of receipt of the failed audit report. Sponsors will continue to be required to submit a corrective action plan within 30 days, detailing how the deficiencies will be remediated.

During NASBA’s June Regional Meetings, NASBA Chair Laurie Tish gave a compelling and informative presentation on CPA Evolution, covering next steps and the progress milestones through 2024. Over the past two years, NASBA has engaged with state boards and other stakeholders to work through the tough issues to develop a model that has widespread support.

After careful consideration of the government-imposed social distancing requirements and travel restrictions as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, NASBA has decided to cancel the in-person National Registry Summit that was scheduled to be held in Nashville, TN, on September 22–23, 2020.

Given the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 and the government-imposed business closures and social distancing, CPAs are now performing their responsibilities to clients in a virtual manner. These professionals continue to seek out relevant, quality education on a variety of technical and non-technical topics. Event facilities and travel restrictions have forced conferences to be cancelled and postponed, causing an increasing demand for virtual learning events.

On December 19, 2019, NASBA and the AICPA announced approval of the proposed revisions to the Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs (Standards) as well as the NASBA Fields of Study document, during the respective October and November 2019 Board of Directors meetings.

The purpose of the compliance audit is to confirm the responses provided to NASBA during the most recently submitted self-certification renewal. The compliance audit is designed to confirm that Registry sponsors continue to adhere to the Statement on Standards for CPE Programs (Standards) in developing, presenting, measuring and reporting of CPE programs.

Michael Grant, the director of learning design and development at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), directs a team of 50+ diverse professional staff and serves as a member of senior leadership for Member Learning and Competency. During this year’s Registry Summit, he presented on the advantages of using virtual reality (VR) and what the AICPA has achieved, in terms of moving the needle to help CPAs worldwide.

Among the most significant changes to the Standards is allowing for adaptive learning self study programs within the self study Standards with references to the two methodologies to be used in determining the CPE credit for an adaptive learning program. The adaptive learning self study standards can be found at paragraphs S17-09 through S17-17 of the 2019 Standards. Adaptive learning is not a separate instructional delivery method.

Jen Shirkani, a nationally recognized expert on emotional intelligence, has been a featured speaker at national and state conferences, universities, government agencies and business organizations around the world. She began her Summit presentation by familiarizing the audience with background information on emotional intelligence. Shirkani explained to the audience that the concept was uncovered and researched in 1980 and can be separated into three components: your ability to recognize yourself, the ability to read others  and your ability to respond appropriately to your audience.

Bill Sheridan, Chief Communications Officer for the Business Learning Institute (BLI), is described as a knowledge hunter, content curator, lifelong learner, and EOS implementer. “If I had to boil everything that we do at BLI down to one phrase, it would be that our mission is to help this profession be a little more future-ready.”

Chris Werling, a director in the Learning & Development organization at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), began his journey in adaptive learning to try and understand what this new technology was all about. What he discovered is that the learner benefits from personalization. With the help of personalization, the user can fast-track through certain content based on their experience, as it enables them to use their time in a more beneficial way.

On May 19, 2019, NASBA and the AICPA issued proposed revisions to the Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs (Standards) as well as the NASBA Fields of Study document for public comment. The public comment period on the Exposure Draft of the proposed revisions closed on August 31, 2019. The Explanatory Memorandum that accompanied the Exposure Draft included two specific requests for comment.

NASBA’s National Registry Summit was held in the nation’s Circle City – Indianapolis, IN – September 24 – 25, 2019. Held annually since 2012, the Summit is coordinated and hosted by NASBA’s National Registry team and attracts members of NASBA’s National Registry of CPE Sponsors.

The National Registry Summit welcomed NASBA’s own Elizabeth Wolfe, Regulatory Counsel, for a discussion on the recent changes in regulatory law impacting continuing professional education (CPE) for CPAs. As Regulatory Counsel at NASBA, Wolfe tracks and analyzes legislation and rulemaking changes pertaining to CPAs and the accounting profession.