You can most likely thank your "peers" who had their teenager or secretary take the online courses for them.
Once again the actions of the few affect us all.
Not so much that as the "I was able to get 7 hours of credit in only two hours by going straight to the answers and guessing until I got it right."
Look for more of this in distance education. Some of the providers didn't do their job in terms of providing meaningful and adequate content, so the AQB became more demanding in what they were looking for in a 7-hr. USPAP update delivered on-line.
As Don stated, distance education is based on the mastery-based model, which usually means that you have to "succeed" (pass the quiz at the end of the module) before you can "proceed" to the next module. The latest trend is to test for fluency in addition to mastery. This is why some distance education classes require that you go through the material twice. The first pass is for mastery. The second pass is based on fluency, and requires you to go the material again and then pass the test in a limited amount of time.
Additionally, the third-party that most states require to certify distance education seems to be taking a harder look (rightfully so) at the amount of content. Perhaps some providers are attempting to make their presentations more credible as to the amount of time spent in the material by using timing devices that prevent the student from moving along too quickly. Hitting the space bar twice per sentence and then waiting a few seconds before proceeding is apparently a method of doing that.
It's unfortunate that appraisal CE has become what it has. There is good stuff out there for sure, but I've heard too many stories of poorly developed and poorly delivered material to believe that the good stuff is in the majority. And appraisers pay enough, compared to insurance agents, nurses, Realtors, etc. to deserve meaningful and interesting CE. If appraisers were more demanding and avoided the bad providers, CE would be better. However, that would mean not waiting until the end of one's cycle and taking whatever was convenient. And I don't mean to disparage others for indulging in one of my favorite vices; procrastination. It's just human nature to put things off. But careful selection of providers and presenters, whether classroom or distance education, would improve the overall quality of CE. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.
