What the Heck are ‘Test Only’ Courses?

‘Test Only’ CE courses are just that. The CE test. Only. No course materials are included. Nothing is shipped.

They were originally designed so that colleagues could share a course book, or online PDF, and all earn credit without having to pay the full course price.

They provide a means for earning CE credit after reading a published course book (which may be purchased through Amazon, or another source).

Here’s how it works:

  1. Purchase the ‘test only’ @ www.pdresources.org and print it out
  2. Purchase the book (or e-book) @ Amazon.com (or another source)
  3. Read the book and mark your answers on the printed test
  4. Login to your account @ www.pdresources.org to submit your test
  5. Receive a certificate of completion

The biggest benefit of purchasing books through Amazon is the cost savings. Amazon is able to offer course books at greater discounts than almost anyone else. They also provide free shipping on orders over $25 (in most cases). AND they are offering more and more books as kindle edition, meaning you can have instant access to the book to read on your computer or other reader (iPad, Kindle, Android, etc.).

Here’s an example:

We are offering the ‘test only’ for a book titled Autism Spectrum Disorders in Infants and Toddlers on closeout for $40. Completion of the book and test will earn you 7 hours of continuing education credit.

Autism Spectrum Disorders in Infants & Toddlers

So you can purchase the ‘test only’ from us for $40. Then head over to Amazon to download the e-book for $14.30. You’ll have instant access to both the CE ‘test only’ and the book.

Best of all, your total cost for 7-hours of CE credit is only $54.30!

(This is a savings $54.70 from when we used to provide the book and test together.)

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Goodbye Books – The End of an Era

A Picture of a eBook

Image via Wikipedia

We here at Professional Development Resources are in process of combining the convenience of our online CE tests with the power of Amazon’s exceptional inventory of book titles. We have found that you can get books from Amazon faster and for less than we can deliver, and you get CE tests instantly on our website.

We originally created ‘test only‘ courses so you could share course materials and earn CE credit. Up until now we have carried an inventory of our book-based home study courses to ship to you. With the recent rise in fuel costs, this is no longer an economical choice for us or for you.

An added benefit to Amazon’s services is the convenience of books being available for Kindle, or other e-book readers. This allows you instant access to your CE tests (from PDResources) and to your books (from Amazon). All for less money! (Average savings of 20%!)

This means that over the next few months we will be phasing out course books and offering only the CE tests that accompany the books. We will continue to create and offer CE tests based on published books, but you will have the freedom to choose from ordering the book online (from Amazon or another source), sharing with a colleague, or checking out from the library.

This is a great time to save on the remaining mail order courses in stock, now on closeout: http://www.pdresources.org/Courses/Other/Closeout/CourseName/1/

Our goal is to be book-free by the of 2011. What do you think?

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