Online education for real estate agents, which has been taking baby steps around the country for the past few years, made a relative leap this week with the announcement that Real Estate University.com had won courseware approval from the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO).

The approval means that the real estate regulators, who control both types of courses and delivery methods in their individual states, have adopted the concept of Web-based education.

It does not mean, however, that specific courses have been approved - or are even available yet in an online format.

Nevertheless, REU Director Mark Wilkes in Minneapolis said the regulator approval was a significant step forward for distance education.

"It means our online courseware meets the standards ARELLO has developed. These standards assure state regulators that the course content and the delivery method are both high quality. Certification also ensures that real estate professionals who take the classes online are receiving the information required to maintain their licenses."

Wilkes says that programs like REU are still in their introductory phase and that wide-spread acceptance is still in the future. Currently, he said, about 1,000 people around the country are taking courses from REU.

"Most of them are professional development-type courses," he said. "Some are for CE credit. And more are coming."

The concept of Web-based education has been around for three or four years but there has not been a lot of momentum behind it, primarily because of uncertainty about whether real estate agents really want it.

Although hard numbers are difficult to come by, most educators believe agents vastly prefer live seminars for their continuing education course work, followed at a distance by satellite television, which is followed further by Web-based education.

Wilkes believes that ranking is probably true today, but may not be within the next two years.

"It depends on a couple of factors," Wilks says. "There needs to be a change in behavior for agents to accept Web-training. But I think you can say that the Internet is changing behavior patterns everywhere."

Wilkes also believes that Web based learning actually creates a better educated students than other information delivery methods.

"In a live seminar, the information you get is only as good as the instructor is on that day," he points out. "And you move at the pace of the instructor, irregardless of whether you understand the material.

"With computer education, we have frequent quizzes before you move on. If there is something you don't understand, you can go back and review the material. You move at your own pace."

Wilkes concedes that course-for-course prices are about the same as those in live seminars, but adds there is substantial savings for the students in that they do not have to travel or stay in hotels. Also, they may not even have to take time off work if they elect to take the class late in the evening, rather than during the work day.

Despite favorable reviews from the likes of ARELLO, Wilkes said pre-license online education may still be well into the future.

"ARELLO is still worried around things like security (such as making sure the person sitting in front of the computer is the same one trying to get the license)," he said.

"There is a lot to be worked out yet."

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Published: November 10, 1999

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