Qualifying activities expressly recognized in Indiana’s continuing education rule include:

• Distance learning courses obtained by distance learning methods.

• Courses relevant to the professional engineer’s professional skills that are part of the curriculum of an accredited university, college, or educational institution, at 15 hours per academic semester hour or 10 hours per academic quarter hour.

• Teaching a course at an accredited university, college, or educational institution, at two times the student credit, but only the first time the instructor teaches the course.

• Serving as an instructor or presenter at a qualified continuing education course, at 2 hours of continuing education for each hour taught, but only for the initial instruction or presentation.

• Active participation in educational outreach activities with K–12 or higher-education students related to professional engineer registration or the engineering profession, up to 1 hour per activity and 2 hours per biennium.

• Active participation in a professional or technical society related to engineering practice, 1 hour per year of service, up to 2 hours per biennium.

• Authoring published papers, articles, or books relevant to professional engineering practice, 5 hours, or 10 hours if peer reviewed for an archival journal, with no more than one counted in a biennium.

• Attainment of a patent relevant to professional engineering practice, 10 hours for each patent.

Indiana does not require an individual licensee to seek board authorization before completing continuing education. However, hours completed by licensees remain subject to the statutes and rules, and the board states that it has discretion to approve or deny courses at any time. The rule also states that it is the professional engineer’s responsibility to ensure that a course is applicable to enhancing the practice of engineering.

For course and provider approval, Indiana recognizes courses approved by an “approved organization” under IC 25-1-4-0.2 when the subject matter is acceptable under the engineering continuing education rule. For courses not automatically approved, the rule lists board-approval criteria, including stated objectives, proper administration and records, thoughtfully planned curriculum, qualified instructors, appropriate facilities and educational methods, evaluation methods, attendance verification, and certificates or other meaningful attendance records stating the continuing education hours involved.

At renewal, the Indiana renewal form asks the licensee to verify whether the required continuing education has been completed or will be completed by the end of the renewal cycle. Indiana Code requires practitioners to provide a sworn statement of compliance, retain certificates of completion for 3 years from the end of the licensing period, and provide certificates to the board upon request for a compliance audit.