Which PEOI services require fees?

There is absolutely no fee or charge for viewing and using any material, test, assignment, citation or link of a PEOI professional course. There is no charge for registering. There is no charge for viewing the course content of review courses, taking tests and having test grades recorded in a student grade sheet.

There are four types of fees that a student may have to pay, plus a surcharge which is not currently assessed for any course.

1)- Enrollment fee in professional course:

This fee is assessed for enrollment in each professional course, but only for professional courses, and none is required for review courses. The fee covers the costs of maintaining course content and question data banks, arranging for student quiz and comprehensive test taking, grading tests, recording test grades into student grade sheet and maintaining student records including the course completions record. The enrollment fee is paid once. As of June 2001, the enrollment fee for Financial Analysis is $100.

Students in extreme hardship situations can apply to PEOI by email for the enrollment fee to be reduced or waived.

2)- Course completion certificate mailing:

Once your grade book shows that you have completed all course completion requirements, you are entitled to receive PEOI's course completion certificate by mail. PEOI will print and mail PEOI's course completion certificate if you request if by sending a message to peoi@peoi.org with subject: "Request for course completion certificate", and pay a fee of $20 (twenty US dollars). Payment is accepted by bank check, money order or through Paypal.

3)- Final exam fee for professional course:

A major course requirement for every PEOI professional course is an in-person final examination (which is further described in How is a student's knowledge evaluated? and in "What is a typical grade composition?"). The final exam is administered by independent testing service providers, such as colleges, which are members of the Association of College Testing Centers. The final exam fee covers the costs of question writing, administering exam, grading and recording. It is anticipated that the final exam fee will range from $20 to $50 depending on the number of students taking part in the exam on a particular date and in a given location. The final exam may be taken by a student any number of times, and a final exam fee must be paid each time.

At present, no waiving of final exam fee is possible or anticipated. But that may change if external funding can be secured.

4)- Supervision by instructor:

Supervision of student progress in a PEOI professional course by an instructor is NOT mandatory, but it is recommended. Only a faculty member registered with PEOI is authorized to supervise a student in a PEOI professional course. A list of such faculty can be found at Faculty list. Some of the instructors may also be authors or editors of the course material, and PEOI staff members. If a student wishes to take a PEOI course with a professor at the university where the student is matriculated, the professor must be asked to register with PEOI. There is no charge for faculty registration, but verification of identity and credentials may take some time.

Instructors set their own fees and extent of interaction with the student. Whereas there are no time constraints on completion of any PEOI courses, that is not the case for instructor assistance. An instructor will specify the length of time his/her assistance is available, and beyond that deadline a new instructor fee may become necessary. Students pay their instructor directly. It is anticipated that instructor's fees may range from $100 to $300 (depending on the amount and type of assistance given to students) with $200 being an average.

PEOI has no control over instructor fees and has no mechanism for waiving such fees since an instructor is optional on the part of the student.

5)- Professional course development surcharge:

PEOI will strive to obtain donations and/or grants from foundations, businesses and governments to pay for new course development. In certain cases, such funding may not be found, and course development expenses will have to be amortized (over a period of at least ten years) with a professional course development surcharge. The surcharge could range from $100 to $500. At present none of PEOI courses have any such surcharge.

If and when course development surcharges become necessary, a scholarship mechanism will be instituted for students in hardship situations.

It is hoped that professionals who benefit from PEOI training will actively support PEOI course development efforts with donations when their salaries permit, and urge their employers to join in this effort.

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