2008-2009 Federal Tax Update
Streaming Video Courses

Course Instructions
The 2008-2009 Federal Tax Update Streaming Video is a unique self-study product. Review the following information to help you get the most out of this course. IMPORTANT: Please remember that your subscription will grant you access to these course materials until 9/30/09, so any CPE you wish to complete for credit must be completed before 9/30/09.

Download the Manual:
The course manual in .pdf format is yours to keep. Feel free to save it to your computer, print it out, and generally use it any way you see fit. Active bookmarks and hyperlinks make these an invaluable resource for the tax season. Many clients use the Find function of their Adobe Reader to quickly search out the topics in which they are the most interested.

Before beginning the course, you may wish to print out the course manual. Follow along in the manual, as you watch Vern's course. The course manual is full of information that Vern does not necessarily cover during the seminar, and the Review Questions and Final Exam will draw from information covered in the manual.

Watch Your Course:
After you purchase the streaming video, click "Watch Course" link under the course title to begin watching. The class will play automatically. Enjoy!

You may find that you need to pause the course at different times. This is one of the great assets of online education! Simply push pause, if you plan to return soon. Or push stop, if you plan to return in a day or two. You can always login again; the course is yours for a year, or until you successfully complete the final exam. When you do stop a course, take notes on where you want to begin again: use the chapter titles in the upper middle of the screen to jump ahead to that section. You can also scroll through the course using the rewind and forward buttons, much like you would with a video or DVD.

Another great asset of the online environment is that you can use the attached web browser (the lower half of the screen) like you would any web browser. We have set it up so that the manual will move to the appropriate place at given times during the lecture. However, you may search the internet at any time during the course. Throughout the manual, you may see hyperlinks (say, to the IRS homepage). Feel free to pause the course, and link over to the site to see the details about the topic Vern is discussing. Push play to begin the course again. Either use the back button to return to the manual, or wait for the manual to refresh at the next topic change.

If you have troubles viewing the course, visit our "Troubleshooting" link. If you're still experiencing problems after trying the recommendations in the "Troubleshooting" section, please call our office at (800) 822-4194.

Please note that after 20 minutes of inactivity - whether watching the streaming video course or taking the review test - the presentation will time out, and you will need to restart the presentation. For the final exam, you can save your progress at any time.

Take a Review Test:
For a superior educational experience, the Review Tests have been integrated into the streaming video course: keep your eyes out for the hyperlinks that will appear below Vern, asking you to "Click for Review Test." These hyperlinks are programmed in at different times throughout each course, and will appear for 30 seconds at a time. Once you click the hyperlink a pop-up window will appear with review questions covering both Vern's seminar and the material in the course manual. Click the pause button in the upper left corner of the pop-up window to pause the course, and take the quiz. When you've answered all the questions, your score will be posted at the top of the screen. Because it's a Review Test, each question will show your answer and an explanation of why your answer is correct or incorrect. Further, each question has a hyperlink to the discussion in the manual about the question subject; click "Go to Manual" to revisit this section. Click "Close this Window" when you're done with the Review Test. You will be returned to the course; just push the play button below Vern to resume the seminar.

Please note that after 20 minutes of inactivity the program will time out, and you will lose your answers. We recommend taking the review tests when you have enough time to finish the review in one sitting.

Take the Final Exam:
When you feel ready to take the Final Exam for CPE credit, click the "Take Exam" link under the course title and follow the directions to access the exam. You will have three chances to make a passing score of 70% or higher. After passing the final exam, you can print your certificate of completion immediately, and it will also be emailed to you. Please note: if you wish to view your test results (which answers you got incorrect and their correct answers), you will need to submit the course evaluation and click on the "View Results" link on the following page. This is the only link where results are viewable. You can print these out for your information, but they are not accessible once you proceed past this page.