Self-Reporting Credit

"Zoom call. Teams call. Teams call. Oh, an interesting Zoom call! Can I get CES credit for this? ". You may have attended a webinar or presentation and asked yourself a similar question, and the answer is Yes! You can self report up to 6 hours of your annual AIA requirements.

This is done by filling out a form on the AIA National website. This form comes with almost no guidance on what is required in the Learning Statement, aside from a word count. AIA National will then review and approve or return comments 

While I can't offer definitive guidance on what would be accepted, here are some suggestions on how to complete the self-report.

To test out self reporting, I submitted a report for attending a webinar panel presented by our friends at New London Architecture. I kept the course description relative short, and made it clear that it was an online webinar and listed the presenters. For the learning statement I used the more detailed description of the event. The learning statement should make the content you learned and the topics covered. If you checked the record of other courses on your AIA Transcript, you would find several learning objectives listed. In practical terms, the learning statement takes the place of those learning objectives.

Self Reporting Credits

It is possible to self-report some credits towards your annual AIA requirements. At the moment, there are numerous webinars available in the UK that are not offered via an AIA Continuing Education Provider. These may be suitable to self-report.

You may not self-report for Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) credit. Additionally, some state licensing boards will not accept self-reported credits to meet mandatory continuing education (MCE) requirements. Please note that HSW constitutes 12/18 of your AIA learning unit requirements. 

Please note, you may not self-report credits for courses that are offered directly by an AIA Continuing Education Provider. For example, please do not self-report for a lecture organised by the AIA UK Chapter where the chapter is offering credits.

To access the self-report form on the AIA website please visit: https://www.aia.org/my-account/self-report . The information required includes:

• Course/Activity Name

• Description of the Activity (less than 1000 words)

• Learning Statement (250 - 1000 words)

• Completion Date

• Number of Learning Units (LU)

State Licensing Requirements

For example, AIA NY Chapter notes that self-reported activities will not be credited towards the continuing education requirements for your registration renewal as an architect in New York. 

Written by Alex Miller AIA