Continuing Education Requirements

The AOA runs its continuing education requirements on three year cycles. Each member is responsible to acquire credits to maintain their license. The current continuing education cycle ends Dec 31, 2008. The next three year cycle will run from Jan 1, 2009-Dec 31, 2011. The minimum requirements are listed below.

Registered Optician
20 Eyeglass Credits (12 EG min)


Contact Lens Practitioner
35 Contact Lens Credits ( 12 EG and 15 CL min)


Types of Credits

EG - eyeglass
CL - contact lens
RF - related field (max of 8 RF credits per 3 yr cycle)
EC - eyelgass and/or contact lens


Carry-over Credits
The AOA allows our members to carry-over credits at the end of each three year cycle.

Eyeglass: 5 credits
Contact Lens: 5 CL and 5 EG

Continuing Education Accreditation Fees

AOA Members:
$5.00 (for courses that have not yet been accredited by the Presenter)

Suppliers and Vendors:
$25 (for courses submitted within 90 days of event)
$150 (for courses submitted less than 90 days fo the event)

For Members:
Effective January 2008 the AOA will charge a fee to evaluatie all submissions for continuing education credits. If a vendor, employer or supplier has submitted and received accredition on their seminar they will be entitled to use our logo when advertising their seminar. If you attend a seminar that has not been accredited by the AOA, we require the presentation and information sent to the office along with all hanouts and notes along with the $5.00 accreditation fee. This fee is only to evaluate the seminar/lecture and does not guarantee credits will be issued.

For Vendors/Suppliers:
Effective January 2008 the AOA will charge vendors a fee to evaluate their lectures for continuing education seminars. The fee is $25 if the seminar is submitted at least 90 days prior to the seminar dates, in order to properly evaluate these seminars we ask that you send us the presenter's biography along with the power point presentation or a full slate of lecture notes. If the lecture is submitted less than 90 days from the presentation date the fee will be $150 for a rush evaluation. Because of the late notification on this, all lectures that are planned before April 1 st 2008 will only be charged the $25.

The Alberta Opticians Association/ College of Opticians of Alberta will allow you the use of its logos when advertising your events once your seminar has been accredited. We will be informing our members to look for our logo on all continuing education seminars. It is our hope that this process and allowing you to use our logos will help to ensure that you seminars are success full and well attended.

Receive a Copy of Professional Development Credits

In order to receive a copy of your professional deveopment credits, or to find out how many credits you have, you must send your request in writing to:

Attn: Registration Administrator
Alberta Opticians Association
aoa@albertaopticians.org
Fax: (780) 426-5576 or (800) 584-6896

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