35 contact hours in the 9 project management knowledge areas are one of the requirements for PMP certification. What would be the cheapest route to completing this requirement. I know that Aspen University is $200 per semester credit but was wondering if I could do even better. I am currently a distance learning MBA student at Liberty University and was hoping to be able to use some of my courses such as Managerial Information Technology and Organizational Behavior toward the 35 hours. I inquired about the number of contact hours per course and interestingly was told by the Dean of the DLP program that contact hours are an outdated term and that PMI should come up to the times and not use contact hours. I said that I am not in a position to tell PMI to change but that I had to abide by their rules in order to qualify for the certification. I also said that if they could not tell me the number of contact hours per course and would not agree to sign off, if I were audited by PMI, that I would have to interrupt my MBA studies and take a course(s) at another DL institution. I still was not able to get anywhere with them and hence my question above.
It would be very difficult to get any one course that would cover 35 hours and all 9 areas from a university. You can get the 35 hours and content areas covered by taking a PMP prep course, but not cheaply(ESI, Cheetah Learning and others). The nine areas not the contact hours is the problem. Any semester long course would have sufficient contact hours if you figure a minimum of two hours per week per course (if you went in residence), since you are DL if your courseware logs the amount of time you spend in the course use it for documentation. Amberton university is the best deal for a PM certificate and can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit, however it is four classes $200 per credit, 12 credits total. RA accredited also. have you looked at the following: http://www.esi-intl.com/public/index.asp http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_AppliedFramework.asp?nav=0405 http://sparky.occe.ou.edu/pmi/adsearch.cfm http://www.pmi.org/prod/groups/public/documents/info/pdc_accreditationoverview.asp You might want to check with your local PMI chapter for some assistance as they would most likely have their arms around training to maintain continuing certification requirements. http://www.pmi.org/prod/groups/public/documents/info/gmc_chaptersoverview.asp Good luck.
Based on Aspen's website, it appears it could be done with one course or am I misreading. http://www.aspen.edu/pdu.htm
The 35 hours can be done with literally with 35 hours of class time. It gets a little trickier with an online class as your rear isn't in a real classroom. For example, if you take a one day, Saturday class from 9 - 5 it would count for 8 contact hours. I am not a PMP, however I will be taking the exam in late April. Also, the test will be changing (new version of PMBOK) Sept 1 2005. Steve
It appears that Aspen is covered for all areas based upon the table presented. Just ensure you document your "seat" time for the contact hours and keep the syllabus in the event of an audit. I don't know of a cheaper route. You could still use your Liberty courses but the content areas would be the key. As Steve mentioned the exam is changing and so my recommendation is to press on. Steve, a note for the exam. Take one sheet of paper and write the various mathematical (Earned Value, etc..) and content areas (fig 3-9, pg 38 of the PMBOK is a good thing to know, 2000 ed) in a fashion that makes memorization easy. Use acronyms, colors and shapes around the various areas. Practice every day writing this information from memory, give yourself at least a week to do the memorization but a month would be better. On the day of your test do a memory dump on your scrap paper before starting the test. I found this freed my mind from having to remember formulas when testing. if you pass the PMP, UW Plattville will award 6 semester hours of graduate credit towards their MS in Project Management. Good luck to both of you.
