Are NCSEA webinars worth the money?

[north_man]

I understand some of you may be participating because your company pays for them, so my question would be directed towards the person in charge of paying for those webinars for your employees - is it worth it? Cost seems insane to me.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

If it's a topic you're interested in and it will help you in your work, it is more than worth it. I've paid for a few from AISC over the years and found them to be generally good. I probably did an NCSEA one at some point.... though I cannot remember.

However, I feel like most people do it for Continuing Education (CE) hours. I think there are other options. I think ASCE / SEI has a number of free webinars that are good.

As far as professional development goes, I tend to thing the best thing is to attend a trade show (NASCC, or the Structures Congress, or something like that) every now and then. You get to meet vendors on the show floor and see what everyone is selling. Then you have a number of seminars you can attend. It's more expensive and a bigger time commitment, so a lot of engineers pass. But, I love this type of opportunity.

 

[ANE91]

My Webinar Quality Ranking:
1. SK Gosh
2. NSCEA
3. AISC
4. ACI
5. ASCE

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I think Brian Quinn's company (SE Solutions) has some webinars as well. I think I watched one and it was pretty good and affordable. The only catch is it's a yearly subscription that includes the ability to watch a bunch of their webinars over that time. So, it's best for a larger organization that can have multiple people take advantage of it during the year.

Continuing Education, PDH for Structural Engineers | SEU

learnwithseu.com

 

[KootK]

I am a solo practitioner in Canada and I annually purchase NCSEA's webinar subscription. So, with a 0.69 exchange rate and nobody else to share the webinars with, you can imagine how that bill stings each year. Here's what I like about it:

1) It counts for my US licenses and counts as "live". It can be a struggle to find something that checks those boxes when not actually residing in the US.

2) It's simple in the sense that it's kind of one stop shopping. Easy to track upcoming events, easy to record what you've attended etc.

3) In addition to keeping up with PDH, I get a healthy backlog of old webinars which I can watch on my bike trainer when I'm feeling ambitious.

4) I think that the content is pretty great. Or, at the least, it's got a better batting average than most programs that I have experienced with. Is every single webinar awesome? Hardly. But I kind of know how to game it now:

- Avoid professors.

- Avoid EIT's working on their brands.

- Seek practitioners with gobs of experience.

These are general trends with lots of exceptions of course.

I hate wasting my time on sales adjacent, supplier webinars, even if they are free. As a solo practitioner now, I do not have a great diversity of work. The NCSEA webinars give me a way to stay abreast of topics that I'm not longer involved with professionally.

One thing that is a bit annoying about the webinar subscription is that it does not include many of the nifty miniseries webinars that come out from time to time. It sucks to get excited about one and then find out that it's not included in my subscription. I get why it's that way though.

 

[FrederickSinclair]

Yes, some webinars justify the cost, others feel excessive.

 

[XR250]

I do the crappy online courses. Buy a years subscription and get two years worth as I do the second before it expires.
I do a free webinar each year that my insurance company provides for a 10% policy discount.
I feel like this forum is where my CE comes from.
I'd rather spend my money on non-work related stuff.

 

[EZBuilding]

I feel like this forum is where my CE comes from.

Absolutely and generally, it is hard to find PDH's that are worthwhile. I try to line up the PDH courses to new topics or refreshers for items in my practice, and am often finding that lacking. Often the PDH requirements becomes more of a checkbox exercise than something that is beneficial.

 

[RWW0002]

AISC steel conference is usually a decent (and fairly affordable) chance to rack up some hours. Offered online and live.

 

[GaStruct]

I do as many free ones as possible. Most PDH's I've done are terrible IMO. I'd rather buy a book or read a Structure Mag article if my knowledge is lacking. I can't stand the awful handouts with vague bullet points that make it impossible to reference in the future. Just my $0.02