PDHonline

PDHonline is an online continuing education provider for licensed professionals who renew on professional development hours. The home page describes it as "a Board-Approved Continuing Education Provider for Professional Engineers, Architects, Geologists, and Land Surveyors", and it serves two kinds of user: the licensee buying courses to meet a renewal requirement, and the engineer or educator who writes courses for the library and shares in the revenue. The current home page heads its library with "Over 4,100 Courses & Growing!" (a second landing page on the site, with a footer dated 1999-2011, still shows the older figure of over 1,600). That footer gives an address in Fairfax, Virginia.

What the library covers

The course library is organized by subject, and the list is broad. It runs from ethics, board laws and rules, and legal issues and risk management, through civil and environmental engineering; water, wastewater and stormwater; flood, hydrology and hydraulics; bridge, roadway and transportation; geotechnical and structural engineering; electrical and computer engineering; power systems and nuclear engineering; mechanical and industrial engineering; HVAC, plumbing and fire protection; pumps, valves and piping systems; control systems and instrumentation; chemical and petroleum engineering; pharmaceutical and biotech engineering; and material science. It also covers renewable energy and sustainability, green building and construction technology, life safety and building codes, ADA, EPA, FEMA and OSHA regulations, computer and software applications, project, cost and business management, human resources and leadership, engineering and environmental geology, historical architecture and engineering, architectural engineering, landscape architecture, and surveying and mapping. A separate shelf groups courses by PDH value, and a search box takes a keyword, a phrase or a course number.

State-specific shelves sit beside the subjects: approved courses for engineers in Florida, Indiana and New Jersey, approved courses for engineers and land surveyors in Maryland, New York and Ohio, and New York approved courses for architects. The home page features a few by course number, among them R226 Florida Laws and Rules for Engineers and R182 Florida Engineers: Professional Ethics (both for the 2025-2027 biennium), R503 Sexual Harassment Prevention Training for Illinois, R902 Indiana Laws and Rules for Professional Engineers, and F100 Life Safety Code 101 for Louisiana. State-specific courses for land surveyors are listed under surveying and mapping. There is also a shelf of ABIH approved courses for CM points.

Formats

Most of the library is self-paced. The site says a learner can preview the course content before buying and print the course material and quiz for offline study, and a step-by-step guide explains the process. The learner benefits are listed as available 24/7, "Unlimited Open Book Exams", an instant certificate of completion, and free PDH tracking and reporting. On-demand video courses form their own category.

For boards that cap self-study, PDHonline runs two other formats. Live webinars are scheduled on weekdays and weekends, including evenings, and a "Webinars Accepted by All States" shelf collects them. Timed and monitored online courses are the second route. The home page explains why both exist: the Ohio board accepts only 6 PDHs from self-paced online courses in each renewal cycle, and the remaining 24 must come from tracked or monitored courses, so Ohio engineers and surveyors need live webinars or timed and monitored courses for at least 24 hours. The site adds that engineers in Iowa and Wisconsin must complete 20 and 13 hours respectively through live interactive courses in each renewal cycle, and that New York engineers and land surveyors must complete 18 and 16 hours through live interactive courses, from approved providers only.

Board approvals and where courses count

The home page lists its approvals with numbers where it has them: Florida PE Board Approved CE Provider #0003413 and Florida PLS Board Approved CE Provider #0002496; Maryland PE and PLS Board Approved CPC Provider; New Jersey PE and PLS Board Approved CPC Provider #24GP00001100; North Carolina PE and PLS Board Approved CPC Sponsor #S-0281; New York PE, PLS, PG and RA Board Approved CE Sponsor; Indiana PE Board Approved Provider; and approved CE provider for land surveyors in Missouri, Texas and Vermont. It notes that engineers in Indiana, and engineers and surveyors in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, must take courses through approved providers only. The second landing page adds an AIA/CES Registered Provider listing for architects (AIA Registered Provider #J681) and says AIA/CES registered courses are acceptable to the American Institute of Architects and to all state boards for registered architects.

The site says its courses have been accepted in AK, AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV and WY "and ... more states", and a table of state licensing boards marks a few, such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Kentucky, as accepting them for the architects' board only.

Buying, discounts and the free extras

The site's front pages publish no course prices. What they do list is a set of ways to pay less: a special referral discount of 15% off all PDH online courses through a coupon code, a corporate discount, PDH course package deals, and a free course and special offers shelf. A money-back guarantee is listed among the help links, as are state PDH requirements, a PDH record form for logging hours, an explainer on CEU versus PDH and LU, and a help center.

PDHonline also runs a technical resource side that a renewing engineer may use beyond the courses: an engineering jobs board where employers can advertise positions, a free resume builder, engineering forums, and free technical manuals, publications, engineering software and business forms.

Feedback from licensees runs down the home page, short and signed with initials and a state, for example "Love the format." from B. Guenther, PE, Oklahoma, and "I will use your program for all my future PDH needs." from W. Beard, Jr., PE, North Carolina.

Teaching and affiliating

The second audience is instructors. Under "Benefits of Teaching for PDHonline.com" the site lists prestige, worldwide exposure, recognition from peers and "Up to 30% Revenue Sharing", with an invitation to become a PDHonline provider. This is the marketplace side of the business: instructors write courses for the library and share in the revenue they bring in. An affiliate program sits beside it, listing increased web traffic, more value to membership, a discount for employees and "Up to 10% Revenue Sharing". The pages do not set out how an instructor submits a course or how payouts work.

Who it suits

PDHonline suits a licensed engineer or land surveyor who wants a very large library in one account, especially one licensed in several states or in a state with a live-hours rule, since self-paced courses, live webinars and timed and monitored courses are all sold side by side. It suits Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio licensees in particular, who get dedicated approved-course shelves. Architects and geologists have shelves of their own, and an ABIH shelf serves those collecting CM points. For an engineer who has written training material, the provider program offers a way to publish to an established audience with a stated share of up to 30%. The main caveat is cost: with no prices on the front pages, a renewal's total only becomes clear course by course once a learner starts shopping.