Frequently Asked Questions
What is a webinar?
A webinar is an educational course or class that is taught entirely online. TMCEC webinars are designed to be single-issue courses that are generally one hour long.
What makes TMCEC webinars a unique learning experience?
TMCEC webinars are designed to cater especially to municipal court personnel by covering specific issues pertinent to courts. Additionally, TMCEC has been producing and offering webinars since 2006, giving us lots of experience in developing compelling educational content through webinars. The combination of these specially cultivated topics and being able to pull from a large pool of excellent faculty members results in a truly unique experience.
Who can watch a webinar?
Any TMCEC constituent can watch a webinar. This includes judges, clerks, court administrators, prosecutors, and juvenile case managers. Bailiffs and warrant officers can also watch webinars, but online training is not offered for TCOLE credit.
To watch a TMCEC webinar, what do I have to do?
The easiest way to find webinars is to go to tmcec.com and click on the OLC link as pictured below:
Once you are in the OLC, click on the webinars icon as pictured below:
How many webinars are available on the OLC?
TMCEC offers both live and on demand webinars. Live webinars are typically offered twice a month at 10:00am on Thursday. If you cannot make a live webinar, the webinar becomes available on demand within 24 hours. TMCEC maintains an on demand webinar bank that currently offers approximately 250 webinars. This number can fluctuate as new webinars are added and older offerings are removed if they become dated or obsolete.
How is a webinar different than a virtual seminar?
A virtual seminar is a collection of classes tied together by a topic or theme that are presented sequentially. Webinars are single, self-contained offerings designed to address a focused issue or concern.
Why would someone want to earn some or all their hours via TMCEC webinars rather than a virtual seminar?
Webinars are the best chance at educational freedom within the prescribed rules of judicial education and the clerk certification program requirements. This is an opportunity for court personnel to choose the topics they want to hear and when they want to hear them. They also have the freedom to watch webinars for judicial education credit, CLE credit, clerk certification credit, or any combination.
Webinars are perfect for those that only need a few hours. Perhaps they received 8-12 hours of credit at a virtual or in-person seminar. Webinars can help fill the gap towards meeting minimum hours. Of course, satisfying educational requirements is not the only reason why someone would want to watch webinars. Many people find webinars to be useful to brush up on specific topics or to stay up-to-date with current developments and it is not unusual for viewers to far exceed the minimum hours required by the Rules of Judicial Education, the State Bar of Texas, or the Clerk Certification Program.
Why is the 2021 Academic Year different than other academic years when it comes to webinars?
On March 30, 2020, The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued an Emergency Order Regarding the Rules of Judicial Education. The order suspends all sections of the Rules of Judicial Education that require live, continuous hours authorizing judges to obtain required judicial education hours by electronic means. Under the Rules of Judicial Education, municipal judges are typically required to complete a certain number of continuous hours at a live TMCEC seminar, depending on how long they have been a judge. With this suspension, judges can now satisfy all 16 hours through webinars, should they choose to do so. As written, this order is in effect throughout the state of disaster and for 30 days thereafter.
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