Contact Hour or CEU?

By Gina Ulery @pdresources

Contact Hour or CEU?

Contact Hour or CEU?The definitions of contact hour and continuing education unit, or CEU – and the difference between the two – are often misunderstood.

Some professions (such as Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology) prefer the term CEU. Most mental health professions (Psychology, Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy, etc.), however, use CE contact hour or credit hour.

Although the terms seem interchangeable, they have different meanings. One CE contact hour is equal to 50-60 minutes of a learning activity, depending on jurisdictional requirements. One CEU is equal to 10 contact hours – meaning that one contact hour is equal to .1 (1/10 or one tenth) of a CEU.

So if your particular licensing board requires that you complete 3 CEUs per renewal cycle, that can be interpreted as 30 contact hours required.

It would be much simpler if all accrediting bodies and licensing boards could agree upon one standard term, but what fun would that be? 🙂

Professional Development Resources is a nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992. Our purpose is to provide high quality online continuing education (CE) courses on topics relevant to members of the healthcare professions we serve. We strive to keep our carbon footprint small by being completely paperless, allowing telecommuting, recycling, using energy-efficient lights and powering off electronics when not in use. We provide online CE courses to allow our colleagues to earn credits from the comfort of their own home or office so we can all be as green as possible (no paper, no shipping or handling, no travel expenses, etc.). Sustainability isn’t part of our work – it’s a guiding influence for all of our work.

We are approved to offer continuing education by the American Psychological Association (APA); the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR); the Alabama State Board of Occupational Therapy; the Florida Boards of Social Work, Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy, Psychology & School Psychology, Dietetics & Nutrition, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Occupational Therapy Practice; the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker & MFT Board and Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology; the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors & MFTs; the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists and State Board of Social Worker Examiners; and are CE Broker compliant (all courses are reported within one week of completion).

Earn CE Wherever YOU Love to Be.