May 6, 2020 by matray

Last week, more than 100 PLUS members participated in PLUS’s virtual Cyber University.  While the PLUS Cyber University has traditionally been conducted in-person, this year’s virtual education was part of a planned 2020 strategic initiative to provide distance education to a broader audience. Attendance at the event more than doubled this year, proving the demand for PLUS to continue to provide quality education in a virtual space, and especially in light of the current circumstances.

This is the third year of PLUS Cyber University, and registrants attended six live sessions over three days. 

“The program content is incredibly strong, so the focus was on how to take an in-person event and continue to make it meaningful as a virtual one,” said Megan Moore, director of education and professional development at PLUS. Topics included: legal foundations, evolution of cyber coverage, interplay among lines, underwriting, breach responses, 1^st and 3^rd party claims, risk management, and breech scenarios.

“As we transfer this program to virtual, we made sure to include opportunities for attendees to reflect on what they’ve learned and apply it to their own experience as well as connect with each other outside of the session,” Moore said.

PLUS plans to continue to expand on its distance education offerings.

“Over the last few years, we have been ramping up our ability to provide online and virtual education” said Robbie Thompson, CEO of PLUS. “While PLUS will always offer outstanding in-person networking and education events, we knew that focusing on other ways members can also get professional development was critical to PLUS continuing to serve the professional liability industry.”

PLUS also recently converted most of the sessions for the Healthcare and Medical Professional Liability Symposium to a virtual platform. The in-person Symposium was cancelled due to COVID-19, yet the content has still been successfully viewed by hundreds of individuals. Additionally, PLUS continues to convert its paper based PLUS curriculum modules to Online eLearning modules. With this format, students can work through the module content, complete the exam, and work towards their RPLU Designation all online. The quality content and rigor of the coursework remains, and this format enables people to learn at their own pace.

“The PLUS RPLU Online eLearning modules have been in high demand this year. We can’t get them converted fast enough to keep up with where people are in the curriculum process. The users love them!” said Thompson.