In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, AGD would like to share the following information regarding offering webinars or other electronically mediated CE activities:

Organizations with national PACE approval have permission to offer electronically mediated events. If your organization has not offered electronically mediated events in the past, we ask that you review PACE Standard XIII: Self-Instruction and Electronically Mediated Programs.

For a limited time, organizations with local PACE approval are also being given permission to offer electronically mediated events (such as webinars) to local participants. Organizations with local approval are expected to limit attendees of electronically mediated events to dental professionals within their own state or province. Locally approved providers have permission to offer these types of programs through June 30, 2020.

Keep in mind AGD does not have a recommended platform to offer electronically mediated events. It is the responsibility of the provider to identify the platform that best fits their needs.

When offering electronically mediated events, providers must:

• Provide specific hardware and software requirements to attendees in advance of the event.
• Ensure technical assistance is available to participants for the duration of the course.

Additional conditions:

• Embedded advertising or direct commercial links cannot be included within the educational content.
• There must be a process to verify attendance of each attendee throughout the program. To accomplish this, it is recommend that providers use polling or chat tools throughout the program to ensure all attendees are engaged.
• There must be a process by which attendees can interact with instructors directly during the program, such as by allowing attendees to verbally ask or type questions directly to the instructor or facilitator so questions can be read aloud.

Approved providers are not required to report these types of programs to AGD in advance, but the courses should be identified in their annual reports or applications when re-applying.

If providers have any questions, contact PACE@agd.org.