Guidelines for CME providers detailing how ACOE assesses the educational value of e-learning material to be accredited for CME
The Accreditation Council of Oncology in Europe will assess e-learning CME activities addressed to an international audience and submitted to it by organisations involved in CME in the field of oncology.
Organisers must be ready to provide a copy of their statutes and disclose their sources of funding upon request.
Please note that ACOE restrains its accreditation to web-based material; any other, i.e. CD-ROM, DVDs,.., are not evaluated. Also note that, for the moment, ACOE will not accredit e-books/handbooks.
In order to achieve this, the following standards will be applied to each educational e-learning material.
Guideline 1: Statement of intent
The provider should have a written statement of purpose or intent relating to the CME e- learning material. The statement should:
Describe the goals of the educational e-learning activity
Outline the characteristics of the potential users
Specify any needs assessment performed prior to developing this e-learning material
Guideline 2: Provision of information to prospective users
The provider should ensure that likely users are informed about the content, nature and target group for the e-learning CME material. Within the material, the provider should:
State the most important planned learning outcomes
Indicate the optimum target group for the educational material
State if there is an interactive tool included in the teaching methodology
List the members of the editorial board
ACOE believes that interactive CME activities increase the knowledge and problem solving abilities of the users to a much higher extent than pure presentations.
Guideline 3: CME credits
The CME provider must provide the users with an estimate of how long the target group will take to complete the activity.
1 educational hour equals 1 credit (with a minimum of 1 credit per activity).
Guideline 4: Evaluation of the quality of the material
The CME provider must provide users with an evaluation tool. Users must be requested to fill in an evaluation questionnaire in order to assess the quality of the material.
Guideline 5: Self-evaluation instrument
The CME provider must provide users with a self-evaluation instrument aimed at testing the learning outcomes (for example, a multiple choice questionnaire).
The CME provider must give the relevant background information that leads to the correct answer.
Guideline 6: Certificate of participation
The delivery of the certificate of participation is linked to the completion of the evaluation form as described under guideline 4 and the passing of the test referred to under guideline 5. The CME provider will define the criteria for passing the test.
The CME provider must propose to users a convenient way of obtaining their certificate. A web-based system is recommended for e-learning materials.
Guideline 7: In case of e-CME material
Users must be informed of the minimum hardware/software required to run the programme. A policy on privacy and confidentiality should be in place and needs to be specified in the material.
Guideline 8: Validity of the ACOE accreditation
The accreditation of the material submitted to ACOE is valid for a period of two years from the date of confirmation of accreditation.
Guideline 9: Sponsorship
CME Organisers must guarantee that their education programme is free of any bias.
ACOE accepts that the industry may support an educational activity. ACOE asks for sponsorship provided by multiple commercial/pharmaceutical companies (more than 1) to guarantee the neutrality of the education provided.
The financial support provided by the commercial companies must be acknowledged on the eLearning modules.
Guideline 10: E-learning CME material generated from a live event
E-learning CME material generated from a live event must be the subject of a separate application. However, the same Councillors will be designated to evaluate the quality of the live event and the subsequent e-learning material produced.
Credits cannot be accumulated.
Page last modified: 28 Oct 2010