How to Choose a Course

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How to Choose a Course


Course Selection Guide

How to Choose a Course

Select continuing-education courses based on professional relevance,
licensing requirements, subject matter, credit classification, and
your individual learning needs.


Selection Principle

Begin with Professional Relevance

A continuing-education course should contribute to the knowledge,
skill, judgment, or professional competence used in your licensed
practice. Begin by identifying the subjects most relevant to your
work, current responsibilities, and anticipated assignments.

A course does not need to address every aspect of your practice.
It should, however, provide meaningful professional education and
fit within the subject-matter requirements established by the
licensing authority that will receive the credit.

The licensee remains responsible for selecting appropriate
coursework and confirming whether a licensing board will accept
the resulting credit.


Selection Process

Evaluate Each Course Before Enrolling

Use the following process to select courses that are suitable for
your license and professional-development objectives.

01

Identify Your Requirements

Determine the number and type of continuing-education hours needed
for your current renewal period.

02

Select a Practice Area

Browse the catalog by boundary, legal, geospatial, applied,
technical, safety, ethics, or business-practice subject.

03

Review the Course Description

Read the stated scope, objectives, credit hours, intended audience,
and completion requirements.

04

Confirm Course Acceptance

Compare the course with your board’s current requirements and seek
clarification when eligibility is uncertain.


Catalog Organization

Choose a Surveying Practice Area

SurveyorCE organizes its course catalog into four principal
professional families.


01

Property, Boundary, and Legal Practice

Select this family for boundary determination, surveying law, land
records, title surveys, public lands, cadastral practice, and land
development.


02

Measurement, Positioning, and Geospatial Technology

Select this family for GNSS, geodesy, control, topographic work,
GIS, remote sensing, UAS, LiDAR, mapping, and emerging technology.


03

Applied Surveying Practice

Select this family for construction, transportation, hydrographic,
floodplain, elevation, engineering, deformation, and forensic work.


04

Professional Practice and Operations

Select this family for ethics, professional standards, field safety,
business operations, project delivery, and practice management.


Credit Classification

Consider the Type of Credit You Need

Some jurisdictions require particular subjects within the overall
continuing-education total.

Technical Credit

Technical courses address surveying knowledge, methods,
measurement, analysis, technology, or professional application.

Ethics, Laws, and Rules

Some boards require education specifically addressing professional
ethics, statutes, administrative rules, or standards of conduct.

Health, Safety, and Welfare

HSW classifications generally concern subjects that protect public
health, safety, property, and welfare.


Need help understanding credit classifications?


Review the SurveyorCE guide to ethics, laws, rules, HSW, and
technical continuing-education credit.


Review Credit Types


Course Information

Review the Course Details

The course page should provide enough information to determine
whether the subject and level of instruction are appropriate.
Review this information before enrolling.

A longer course is not automatically more appropriate than a
shorter course. Select the course that best addresses the
professional knowledge or renewal requirement you need.

Do not claim the same course for duplicate credit when the applicable
licensing authority prohibits repeated credit. Review your previous
certificates and course history before selecting a course you may have
completed during an earlier renewal period.

Duplicate-Credit Reminder


Licensee Responsibility

Confirm Requirements When Necessary

Licensing requirements differ among jurisdictions and may change.
SurveyorCE provides general course and regulatory information, but it
cannot make a binding acceptance decision on behalf of a licensing
board.

If a course’s eligibility is uncertain, provide the course title,
description, objectives, credit hours, delivery method, and provider
information to the applicable board before claiming the credit.


Select a Course

Browse the SurveyorCE Catalog

Explore professional surveying courses by subject and practice area.