(1) To help ensure that practitioners receive quality continuing professional education, appropriate standards are needed. With appropriate standards, programs are less likely to vary in quality of development and presentation and in measurement and reporting of credits.

(2) Moreover, the large number of programs available throughout the United States, the varying backgrounds of credentials of sponsoring organizations, and the mobility of participants in these programs create measuring and reporting problems that suggest the need for nationally uniform standards. The purpose of this statement is to provide such uniform criteria.

(3) Throughout these rules the term "programs" refers to both formal group and formal self-study programs. A group program is an educational process designed to permit a participant to learn a given subject through interaction with an instructor and other participants. When a group program complies with the standards in these rules it becomes a "formal" group program. All other group programs are informal. A self-study program is an educational process designed to permit a participant to learn a given subject without major interaction with an instructor. For a self-study program to be "formal":

(a) the sponsor of it must provide a certificate upon evidence of satisfactory completion, such as a completed workbook or examination, and

(b) it must comply with the standards in these rules. "Sponsors" are the organizations responsible for presenting programs and are not necessarily program developers. However, it is their responsibility to see that their programs comply with all the standards of these rules. (ARM 24.201.2121 through 24.201.2124)