5.3 Time Requirements
Every course is to be designed such that it contains enough content and/or activities to meet the minimum time requirement of 50 seat minutes for each clock hour the course is approved.
- 5.3.1 Mandatory Log-out for Inactivity
- A course must log students completely out of the course after six (6) minutes of inactivity. The timer must be a background function that is set to time out at six (6) minutes when the student is not actively engaged in the course. Active engagement is defined as progressing through the course by reading text, watching streaming content (note that steaming content is not to extend for longer than five (5) minutes), and completing activities. The course is to be configured such that the student is not presented with a time-out warning. If the student is logged out for lack of interactivity, the student is to be returned to the start of the unit of instruction where the inactivity was detected. No time is to be awarded for any time that accrued in the unit of instruction prior to the course logout.
- 5.3.2 Prevention of blow through
- The course provider is responsible for designing and delivering the course in such a way that the student is prevented from “blowing through” or being able to “game” the course or any of its components by any means that will thwart the regulatory intention of pre-licensing education or continuing education.
- 5.3.3 Locking of Course Modules
- To further prevent a student from “blowing through” the course, the Learning Management System (LMS) is to be configured such that course modules are “locked.” This means the student is required to advance through the course in a linear fashion, starting with the first module, and cannot advance to any subsequent module until the previous module (and all associated activities) has been completed.
- 5.3.4 Minimum Course Time
- A course must meet the topical time requirements as specified in the
SAFE Act. In order to ensure that the minimum time is met
for all units of instruction, any information presented to the student,
either via text, video, or audio, is to be of sufficient length to ensure it
meets time requirements. The minimum time of each unit of instruction must,
when combined with other units of instruction, meet the minimum time for
which the course has been approved.
The timer must be utilized to ensure that the student does not blow through course material and spend dead time at the end of a module or the course. The timer is to ensure that the student is engaged in the course material at all times. The timer is not to be set so that audio and/or slides used in the course are read/delivered at an exceptionally slow pace; such course delivery demonstrates a lack of content and creates an unfriendly user experience for the student.
As part of the approval process, NMLS will employ various measures in an attempt to ensure there is enough content and activities to support the number of hours approval is being sought.
- 5.3.5 Course Scheduling
- Unlike other NMLS approved course format, online-self-paced courses do not have a fixed start date or end date. Course providers must pay close attention to their course completion reports since beginning in 2010 many mortgage loan originators must complete continuing education by the last day of the calendar year. Accordingly, a CE course should not extend beyond December 31 of any year or the student will be unable to complete the course within the required calendar year as required by state law. Course providers should also take into consideration the administrative time required to perform credit banking. All course providers are required to report course completions to NMLS within seven (7) calendar days of the course completion date.