Sorry for the trouble--I tried going through the help desk but what they suggested fell short for some reason. I attended the Sunday 12:00 pm class 68477-AS (Acquired Blepharoptosis....). It was the only class that didn't show upon the credit list afterward, and still isn't there today. The help desk told me to log off and back on, and go to the certificate list--still not there -- and then try to list at the bottom of the help page (I assume that's the list). I filled out that I took the class, but it said I had to prove it, or some such. Can you fix? Thank you. Karen T Walker, O.D.
Hi Karen, no problem. check your private messages! thanks Adam ps -- the problem you ran into is that the software for whatever reason thought you weren't there for the full hour, so didn't count the credit. pps -- ARBO is running weeks behind in uploading credits to the OE tracker. The pandemic has hit them hard, so expect to see any activity from this weekend's CEwire in your tracker sometime after thanksgiving.
Just wondering out loud...why does the "pandemic" affect arbo being able to process ce credits? I understand manufacturing delays, but this one...don't know
So I can only tell you what they at ARBO tell me -- I try to keep in touch with them at least on a weekly basis, I'll be calling them again today to get an update. Apparently they are 3+ weeks behind in processing credits, not just for us, but for everyone. In order to make an educated guess as to what is going on there, you need to understand how ARBO works. They aren't a large, rich organization with dozens of employees. They are in fact incredibly lean -- i'd guess there are no more than 3 or 4 people who are considered 'full time' staffers. In order to collect CE credits from various providers (like CEwire), ARBO built a web-based portal. Based on my interaction with it, it was developed a decade ago, and has only seen small continuous improvement rather than any wholesale redevelopment in that time. The process of getting credits from a provider into their system is semi-manual. We submit the credits to them electronically in a variety of ways, but this data isn't automatically imported into their system (in fact, you can even submit a well-formatted spreadsheet to them via email.) A HUMAN BEING on ARBOs end has to take this file, look it over to make sure the data looks reasonable, then enter it into their system where it appears on the OE Tracker. I have no idea what that back-end system looks like, but based on working with ARBO, i can confidently say it doesn't have super-robust exception handling, and instead they rely on humans to handle a lot of the integrity of the data. This system worked reasonably well in pre-COVID times. There were a limited number of CE providers, and a relatively limited number of events. They knew that after, say, Vision Expo or CEwire they'd be receiving gigantic data uploads of tens of thousands of credits in one giant glob. Then COVID happened. ARBO modified their rules to waive online testing. Suddenly, every tom, dick and harry was offering "COPE Approved" Zoom talks, with 1 credit here and there. So ARBO found themselves flooded with these small batches of data coming from all over the place. And as everyone knows, scale is good -- this is why it is more efficient to buy in bulk. Onesies and Twosies are always more costly. That is, whether a batch uploaded has 100 credits or 10,000, a human has to deal with it on ARBOs end. This is a rate-limiting step. So we're left with a traffic-jam and backlog of ARBO trying to deal with a flood of submission. I liken it to a backup of planes on the tarmac at O'Hare waiting to take off -- nothing more aggravating than seeing a two-seater prop plane taking up the same amount of runway and traffic time as a 737, but that's just the way it works. Better automation could help the OE Tracker issue, but is everyone willing to pay for it?
I wonder if it's more to do with more frequent virtual CEs that have been happening? We've done one almost monthly since the rules changed
Just thought I'd add that my first experience went well this past weekend. 14 hours in my underwear and all 14 hours show on my certificate. Great job.
Thanks Clarence! The trick now is seeing how long it takes ARBO to post the creduts, Again this is out of our control, but if all works well within the next 1-2 weeks you'll get an email confirmation from the OE Tracker. I spoke with ARBO yesterday, they wanted to remind everybody not to rely on those confirmation emails but instead to always log in and check your OE Tracker to make sure your credits have posted. Fortunately for everyone, you know the COPE administrator for the conference (me) so if anything goes awry, I can help you fix it, just drop me a line -- ad
Texas already has the live conference listed on their list of approved courses. I just printed out my certificate and faxed it to them. That should do it. I'll let you know if they say different.
Great! I'm hoping in 2021 ARBO catches up & gets used to this "new normal", at least until their rules revert to the old way of doing things (maybe in the summer?)
i am not getting the course numbers on OD wire CE certificate to match up to the numbers shown on the TOB course numbers ie, ODwire course numbers are 6_ _ _ _ and TOB course numbers are 2_ _ _ _ What am I missing?
Give me a couple of incorrect course names and numbers, i'll post the link to the course on the ARBO site so you can see definitively what it is supposed to be! (ARBO is the ultimate arbiter of what the proper course ID is -- is it possible that TX messed up inputting the numbers?) thanks, Adam
If you look at Ryan's post the OD wire courses in Texas don't all show course name, and the course ID numbers are 20781 and 20895 which are different from OD wire numbers (unless I am not looking at the correct info).
Just glancing at things I think Texas assigns it's own number to each conference. I don't think each individual course in the conference is listed on their site. http://www.tob.texas.gov/files/PDFdocs/LIVECE.pdf
ARBO pulls the video from the webcam on your laptop and has someone watch you the entire hour you're watching the lecture. This is so they can ensure you were actually paying attention and not wandering around raking leaves or whatever. With the increased usage of online CE, they need to watch many more hours of webcam recordings.
It took a while but Texas has my credits listed.............. So just printing out the certificate and mailing it to the board seems to have worked.
