Earn Free PDUs!

September 13, 2009
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Yes - As of March 1st, 2011 you can now earn up to 30 Free Professional Development Units (PDUs) per Continuing Certification Requirements cycle throughwww.pmi.org by simply subscribing and listening to the pm411.org podcast.  For every 1 hour that you listen to the pm411.org podcast, you qualify for 1 PDU through PMI.  More information on earning Category C Self-directed Learning PDUs can be found on the PMI Maintain Your Credential page.  Best of all…  It’s Free!

Podcasts have emerged as a valuable tool for project management related education. They are a simple method of delivering pm-based thought and education to the project management community at-large. This is especially true for those practitioners among us to whom geography or scheduling is a roadblock.

This is why it has been possible for you as a PMP® to claim Category C Self-Directed Learning PDUs for listening to project management related podcasts. This has been in effect since 2006 and has recently been increased to 30 PDUs per cycle as of March, 2011. Please refer to the PMI’s official list of Professional Development Unit (PDU) Qualifying Activities for all the details about PDUs.

There are a few basic rules to remember:

  • You can only submit 30 Category C Self-Directed Learning PDUs for each PMP certification cycle (= every 3 years).
  • You can claim 1 Cat C Self-Directed Learning PDU for each hour of listening to podcasts on topics that relate to the Knowledge Areas in the PMBOK Guide.
  • If a podcast is not 60 minutes in duration (usually the case on The pm411.org Project Management Podcast), then you have to listen to several podcasts that discuss the same topic and add them up. For instance: 2 x 30 minutes on risk management = 1 Cat C Self-Directed Learning PDU.

Please note that every PMP is subject to audit during the PDU submission process and that you may have to show in exactly what way you have earned all of your PDUs. The PMI reserves the right to reject some or all of the PDUs that you submit.

My suggestion:

  • Subscribe to the The pm411.org Project Management Podcast – it’s completely free!
  • Claim a total of 30 Category C Self-Directed Learning PDUs.
  • Recommend us to your colleagues so that they can earn PDUs while learning project management best practices.

Here are the actual steps in order to claim the PDUs at PMI:

  1. First, Subscribe to pm411 in iTunes or here.
  2. Go to http://www.pmi.org/
  3. Log in to the PMI page.
  4. Hover over ”Certification” menu at the top of the page.
  5. Select “Maintain your certification:  Earn and Report PDUs”
  6. Click on “Report PDUs” button (Underneath the bold title “Maintain Your Credential”
  7. Click the “Report professional development units (PDUs)” link on the left.
  8. Select “Cat C: Self-Directed Learning…” and click the Next button
  9. Input the following information:
  • Program Title:  Enter the episode name/number
  • Date Started: When you began listening
  • Date Completed:When you finished listening
  • Hours Completed: Number of actual hours of listening (Remember:  listening to multiple podcast episodes is usually required to equal 1 actual hour of training based on the audio length of each episode)
  • Process:Select the appropriate Process Group(s) (depends on the particular episode(s) you listened to)
  • Knowledge Area:Select the appropriate Knowledge Area(s) (depends on the particular episode(s) you listened to)
  • Industry: Select the industry that apply
  • Provider name: The pm411.org Project Management Podcast
  • Address: 937 Kilburn Court
  • City:Grayslake
  • State: IL
  • ZIP/Postal code:60030
  • Country: United States
  • Phone Number: can leave blank
  • URL:www.pm411.org
  • E-mail address: show@pm411.org

10. Then click the Next button.

  • PDUs claimed: The number of PDUs you are claiming based on the number of hours you listened/watched.

11. Read the Confirmation and Submission statement and click the checkbox to agree that the claim is accurate.

12. Click the Submit button.

You should receive a confirmation email from PMI for the submittal momentarily indicating that PMI is reviewing your claim.  Congratulations – your PDUs have been submitted!

 

22 Responses to Earn Free PDUs!

  1. rickfanning on November 26, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    What is the address for PM411 that I use to enter on the PDU request form thru PMI?

    Thanks.

    • Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on December 2, 2009 at 2:00 pm

      Hi Rick,

      You can get all the details on how to enter PDUs through PMI for The pm411.org Project Management Podcast at the link below:

      http://pm411.org/earn-free-pdus/

      • spicetrader on February 3, 2010 at 9:21 pm

        Thanks Ron, but the PMI online form asks for the address of provider (pm411.org), city, state, postal/zip code, country, which I couldn’t find on http://pm411.org/earn-free-pdus . These are required fields. How would you advise filling in the form?

        • Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on February 3, 2010 at 10:49 pm

          Hi Dan,

          I have updated the information above with the additional contact information that you apparently need in order to claim PDUs for listening to The pm411.org Project Management Podcast. I apologize for not including this information before. Let me know if you need any other info. And congratulations to both of you for claiming your PDUs!

          Thanks and keep on listening!

          Ron

      • Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on February 3, 2010 at 10:48 pm

        Hi Rick and Dan,

        I have updated the information above with the additional contact information that you apparently need in order to claim PDUs for listening to The pm411.org Project Management Podcast. I apologize for not including this information before. Let me know if you need any other info. And congratulations to both of you for claiming your PDUs!

        Thanks and keep on listening!

        Ron

  2. sz6d4c on February 10, 2010 at 8:42 am

    Hello,
    I recently joined pm411.org and listened to a podcast awarded with 1 PDU. I succesfully reported it in PMI.

    But when asking in PMI portal for another PDU (a different podcast) I received a ‘duplicate entry’ message. I used the same information for both podcasts (info in the yellow chart).

    Can you please tell me how can I submit more PDU’s without getting this message ?

    Thanks,
    Javier.

  3. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on February 10, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    Hi Javier,

    First off, thanks for listening to The pm411.org Project Management Podcast. Secondly, please be sure to note, as described above, that you can only claim 1 PDU for every 1 hour of Cat 2SDL: Self-Directed Learning. Most of my podcast episodes are less than 1 hour in duration, so the yellow chart above describes how to submit for the total 15 PDUs based on listening to multiple episodes that in total equal 15 hours. However, not to worry! You should be able to change the “Program Title:” description on your next submittal to refer to whichever additional episodes you listened to. For instance, if you wanted to claim 1 PDU for listening to episode 004 and episode 052 – which add up to 60 minutes and 23 seconds (just over 1 hour), you could enter something like “Podcast Episode 004 – WBS and Episode 052 – RACI” as the program title. You can check the length of each episode either in iTunes or under the title of each podcast on the pm411.org site.

    Please be aware that PMI does reserve the right to audit any claimed PDUs, so please only claim PDUs for those podcasts you have actually listened to.

    Let me know if this doesn’t answer your question or work for you, Javier! And thanks for listening!

    Ron

    • Vedangi on June 15, 2010 at 3:40 am

      How to find which episodes to add to get 1 pdu?

  4. Mandar on May 16, 2010 at 3:43 am

    Hi Ron,
    I came upto this screen but I dont see any option where I can click & listen to Podcast can you kindly help?

    Thanks.
    Mandar

    • Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on May 17, 2010 at 7:46 am

      Hi Mandar,

      You can listen to the various episodes in either iTunes or by clicking the PM Podcasts link at the top of the http://www.pm411.org screen. You can also get to the list at this URL:

      http://pm411.org/category/podcasts/

      Simply click the title of any of the podcast episodes to get more information on it. At the top of the screen should be a little mp3 player that you can click to stream the podcast or you can right click the “Download” link to save the file locally on your computer.

      Let me know if you need more information.

      Thanks and keep on listening!

      Ron

  6. Andi Wahbi, PMP on May 19, 2010 at 3:00 am

    Hi Ron, I have a question,

    How many maximum free online webinar for PDU provided by Non PMI REP (Registered Education Provider) we can claim ? And if we claim the webinars provided by Non PMI REP, it is included in what category ?

    Thanks & Best Regards,
    Andi Wahbi, PMP

  7. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on May 19, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Hi Andi,

    I believe you are limited to a total of 15 SDL-Cat2 PDUs per cycle, which is the category for non PMI Registered Education Providers. You would claim webinar PDUs in a similar way (under SDL-Cat2 PDUs) as you would for listening to the pm411.org podcasts. Simply follow the process outlined in the yellow box above with the pertinent info from the non PMI REP. However, remember, you can only claim 15 total PDUs from non-PMI REPs. So if you already claimed 10 PDUs here, you would be limited to just 5 more from any other Cat-2 SDL provider.

    Hope this helps!

    Ron

  8. Anand on June 10, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    Hi Ron,

    If I understood correctly, we can earn 15 PDUs through the 1500 hrs effort spent on Project Management in a cycle of 3 years and 15 PDUs allowed to earn through Self Directed Learnings. Is there any possibility of earning remaining 30 PDUs through web seminars or is it mandatory that we take trainings, create white papers, attend seminars

    Request your inputs

    Regards
    Anand
    PMP

    • Ron Holohan, MBA PMP on June 11, 2010 at 8:46 am

      Hi Anand,

      Category 2 (CAT-2) Self-directed learning activities (like The pm411.org Project Management Podcast)are limited to 15 PDUs per learning cycle. These may include reading / using articles, books, podcasts (like pm411), instructional manuals, videos, CD-ROMs, or other material resources. This would also include webinars from non-PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s).

      As mentioned, you are limited to only 15 Category-2 PDUs per cycle.

      However, I believe that if you attend web seminars from a Category-3 PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) you can earn as many additional PDUs per cycle as you need.

      You can search for various R.E.P.s and activities at the link below:

      https://www.pmi.org/CCRS/Search.aspx

      Hope this helps!

      Ron

  9. Anand on June 12, 2010 at 6:58 pm

    Thanks Ron for the information

    regards
    Ananad

  10. Siva on June 16, 2010 at 1:34 am

    Hi Ron,
    How many PDU we can claim for reading article or book. Is it one to one?

    Thanks
    Siva

  11. Siva on June 17, 2010 at 1:39 am

    Ron,
    Listening to prodcast is similar to reading artile So how does the Prodcast is qualified for PDUs.

    Thanks
    Siva

  13. Now Earn 30 Free PDUs at pm411.org | the pm411.org project management podcast on April 7, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    [...] Earn Free PDUs! [...]

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