Much like many EMS professionals around the country I am getting ready for my re certification in March. This year I opted to try the online Paramedic Refresher from Distance CME. I deeply regret giving them a single dime of my money.
It is very rare for me to speak negatively about much of anything, let alone write something about it, but this is beyond the limits of my patience and willingness to accept.
Lets start with the website itself, poorly laid out with a dated feel, as well as difficult to navigate from a mobile device, and there are no clear instructions in how to join a class. I ended up adding the class to my google calendar and then having to click through via the link in order to view my class. The sites only saving grace and I mean only saving grace is that they are using a third party app to facilitate those on mobile devices.
Course availability and selection is another severe short coming. When i went to sign up for classes I was presented with a significant lack of available classes, I understand that they have to set up live course times in order to meet the requirements, but as of this writing there are no classes scheduled after next week, and the next round of classes isnt scheduled to start till August of 2018, whether this is in fact true or they are limiting the course availability so as to not overwhelm the system or the user I am not sure, What I do know is that instead of being able to schedule my classes on days off or prior to the start of my shifts I am juggling sleep, work, and online courses, frequently having to give up my sleep or do my lectures while at work. This is compounded by the fact that had I not signed up for this now I am not sure I would have been able to get my required hours in before my re-certification time.
Participation is another poorly laid out requirement, somewhere in the emails and instructions that I admittedly did not read there is a snipet about having to respond every 8 minutes or so in order to receive credit for the class, This was not reinforced or even mentioned for my first class, in which I sat through, I interacted for the first hour with simple “yup” answers until I realized I was simply parroting my classmates and actually paying attention to the lecture or my notes. The next class the instructor reminded all of us that we needed to say something every eight minutes so he knew we hadn’t just wandered off and let the video run. I sat through that first lecture and found myself locked out, without anyway to close out the window or knowledge as what to do I was unable to be active, i did pass the test with 100%, but evidently have to retake that course again because I supposedly not there.
The web designer and User Experience Architect in me wants to say a few words. It is simple enough to put a warning on someones screen indicating that they have been idle for a period of time, it is furthermore very simple to give a user an clearly identified way back in should they perhaps have set their phone on the sink while they are pooping and didn’t realize they had been idle for to long.
While i am at it, it also doesn’t take a genius to lay out courses and tests in a manner that indicates wif you have taken them already or if you have scheduled them and when.
Overall I am giving Distance CME overall a D+ and that is me being generous, so far the instructors have been knowledgeable and the tests appropriate for the material covered.
I would not recommend this company to anyone looking to re-certify their National Registry or State Level Paramedic.