Course Qualification

Letter from COPE Chair

Dear Continuing Education Instructor:

The Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) developed the Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE) for one-stop CE approval for optometric regulatory boards, with no headaches! While COPE's main purpose is to assist optometric regulatory boards in the review and approval process for optometric continuing education (CE) necessary for license renewal, this centralized approval process benefits instructors as well.

It takes a great deal of work for sponsors of CE to obtain individual optometric regulatory board approval for the various courses in their programs. Working with COPE they can save a great deal of time and effort by offering courses that are already COPE Qualified. COPE-Approved programs attract the attention of more doctors nationwide seeking CE for license renewal because of the almost universal acceptance of COPE courses by optometric regulatory boards. This means that when your courses are COPE Qualified, they will be more attractive to planners of state, regional, and national CE programs. As COPE will provide a list of COPE Qualified Courses to program sponsors, your courses will receive significantly greater exposure to those committees planning CE programs.

Gaining COPE course approval is a simple process. First, you must submit your course(s) for COPE Qualification (your COPE Course Qualification remains in effect for three (3) years after approval). Then, when an Administrator submits a list of courses selected for their event, those that have been previously qualified from instructor submissions will be designated COPE Approved Courses. Obviously, CE programs with COPE Approved Courses will appeal to more doctors seeking CE credits for license renewal. That’s all it takes!

Should you need further information about COPE, or if you need help in completing your application, please call ARBO at (704) 970-2710 or email to arbo@arbo.org.  For more information on administrator event submission, see the Information for Administrator Qualification and Instructions for COPE Event Submission handbook.

Sincerely,

Jill R. Martinson, O.D., Chair
Council on Optometric Practitioner Education