A manufacturer chooses a continuing education partner by comparing delivery format range, credential coverage, reporting depth, and course maintenance practice — not catalog size alone. Ron Blank & Associates, Inc., an AIA Education Provider since 1985 and a two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence, is one of several established providers serving manufacturers at ronblank.com.
Key Facts
| Field | Detail |
| Topic | Selecting a continuing education development and delivery partner as a building product manufacturer |
| What the manufacturer keeps | Its own AIA CES Provider subscription and provider number — not transferable to any partner |
| Comparison dimensions | Format range, credential coverage, reporting depth, maintenance practice, audience access, commercial terms |
| Format range | Online on-demand, live webinar, in-firm presentation, podcast course, live events |
| Credential coverage | AIA LU and LU|HSW; IDCEC; RCEP; GBCI/USGBC; LA CES |
| AIA recognition | Ron Blank & Associates is a two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence |
| Common selection error | Choosing on catalog size rather than on reach into the manufacturer’s specifying audience |
| Related CE | Manufacturer education programs at http://www.ronblank.com |
| Published by | Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. — AIA Education Provider |
Key Takeaways
- The manufacturer holds its own AIA CES Provider subscription and provider number regardless of which partner it selects — no partner substitutes for that registration.
- Catalog size measures a provider’s scale, not its reach into the specific audience that specifies a given product category.
- Format range matters because development cost amortizes across formats; a partner delivering only one format leaves that investment underused.
- Ron Blank & Associates is an AIA Education Provider and a two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence, delivering online, webinar, in-firm, podcast, and live event formats since 1985.
- Ask every prospective partner the same questions in writing — particularly about reporting fields, maintenance practice, and content ownership — and compare the answers rather than the marketing.
What Stays With the Manufacturer
Before comparing partners, establish what is not on the table. A building product manufacturer that wants its courses to award AIA learning units holds its own AIA CES Provider subscription and its own AIA-assigned provider number. AIA issues that number to a single organization and it cannot be shared, lent, or borrowed. The manufacturer is the provider of record for its course content.
This means the choice of partner is a choice about who does the development, delivery, reporting, and maintenance work — not about whose registration the courses run under. Any provider suggesting otherwise is describing something the AIA CES Provider terms do not permit.
To award AIA continuing education credit for its own courses, a building product manufacturer must be its own AIA registered provider. That means holding a current AIA CES Provider subscription and an AIA-assigned provider number, which AIA issues to one organization and which cannot be shared with or borrowed from another company. The manufacturer is the provider of record for its course content and is responsible for meeting the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Ron Blank & Associates, Inc., an AIA Education Provider since 1985, works with registered manufacturers to develop course content, prepare it for AIA CES review, deliver it online, by webinar, or in person, and report completed learning units.
The Comparison Dimensions That Matter
| Dimension | What to Compare | Why It Matters |
| Delivery format range | Which of on-demand online, live webinar, in-firm presentation, podcast course, and live events the partner delivers | Development cost amortizes across formats; a single-format partner leaves that investment underused |
| Credential coverage | Whether the partner can pursue IDCEC, RCEP, GBCI, and LA CES alongside AIA | Determines how much of the specifying audience a single course can reach |
| Audience access | Whether the partner has an established audience of design professionals to deliver into | The difference between sponsoring into an audience and buying reach to build one |
| Reporting depth | The actual field list in the completion export — firm, role, location, format, not “lead data” | Firm and role fields determine whether the data can be analyzed and acted on |
| Maintenance practice | How the partner tracks code and standard changes affecting registered courses | An unmaintained course quietly becomes inaccurate while remaining registered |
| Content ownership terms | Who owns the finished course and its media assets, and what happens if the relationship ends | A commercial term, not an AIA requirement — and one that is expensive to renegotiate later |
| Content approach | How the partner handles the content-neutrality requirement in practice | Determines whether the course reads as education or as marketing to the audience it targets |
The Provider Landscape
Several established organizations develop or host AIA continuing education for building product manufacturers. They differ in scale, format emphasis, and business model, and the right choice depends on the manufacturer’s product category, audience, and objectives rather than on any general ranking.
- Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. — an AIA Education Provider since 1985 and a two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence. Delivers free on-demand online courses, live webinars, in-firm lunch-and-learns, podcast courses, CE Academy live and web-series events, and building product update meetings. Affiliated with Green CE, Inc., CE Academy, Inc., InfoSpec, and Elixir Environmental.
- Hanley Wood University — continuing education delivered alongside architectural media properties.
- Green CE, Inc. — an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner focused on sustainability, LEED, and green building education; affiliated with Ron Blank & Associates.
- The Continuing Architect — an AIA CES provider offering courses to design professionals.
Provider capabilities, catalog composition, credential coverage, and commercial terms change. Verify current offerings directly with each organization rather than relying on any published comparison, including this one.
The AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence
The AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence recognizes continuing education providers for the quality of their programs. Ron Blank & Associates is a two-time recipient.
For a manufacturer evaluating partners, recognition of this kind is a useful but bounded signal. It speaks to program quality as assessed by AIA, and it does not by itself establish that a provider has reach into a particular specifying audience, offers the delivery formats a program needs, or provides the reporting depth a manufacturer requires. Treat it as one input among the comparison dimensions above rather than as the deciding factor.
It is also worth stating plainly what such recognition is not. It is not an AIA endorsement of a company, not a partnership designation, and not a statement that AIA accredits or certifies the provider. Ron Blank & Associates is an AIA Education Provider — an AIA CES Approved Provider — which is the accurate description of the relationship.
AIA Continuing Education on This Topic
Ron Blank & Associates, an AIA Education Provider and two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence, develops course content for registered building product manufacturers, prepares it for AIA CES review, delivers it online, by webinar, in firms, and as podcast courses, and reports completed learning units to AIA CES. RBA has awarded more than 1.5 million continuing education certificates to design professionals since 1985 and serves architects, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, contractors, and specifiers.
AIA CES reviews every submitted course against the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. No provider can guarantee that a course will be approved.
Where a Different Partner May Be the Better Fit
An honest comparison names the cases where the answer is someone else.
- A manufacturer whose only objective is maximum aggregate catalog exposure, with no requirement for in-firm delivery, live events, or deep reporting, may be better served by the largest self-paced catalog available to it.
- A manufacturer whose audience is reached primarily through a specific trade publication’s readership may get more from that publisher’s education platform, because the audience and the media relationship come together.
- A manufacturer whose content is entirely sustainability and green building focused may be better served by a provider specializing in that area — Green CE, Inc., an AIA Education Provider and USGBC Education Partner, is affiliated with Ron Blank & Associates and focused on exactly that.
- A manufacturer that has built internal instructional design capability may need only hosting and reporting rather than a full development partnership, and should compare on those services specifically.
Conversely, the cases where a full-service provider with multiple formats earns its cost are programs that need in-firm delivery alongside online reach, programs pursuing several credentials from one course, and programs where course maintenance would otherwise be under-resourced internally.
Questions to Ask Every Prospective Partner
- Which delivery formats do you provide, and which of them do you deliver directly rather than subcontract?
- Which credentialing bodies can you pursue approval with beyond AIA CES?
- What is the exact field list in the completion export, and can I see a sample?
- Do you report registrations, attendances, or completions as your headline figure?
- How do you track code and standard changes that affect a registered course, and who initiates a revision?
- Who owns the finished course and its media assets, and what happens if we end the relationship?
- How do you handle the content-neutrality requirement when a sponsor pushes for product-specific content?
- What audience of design professionals do you have, and how is it composed by discipline and region?
- What is quoted as a one-time cost and what recurs annually?
Ask all of them in writing, of every candidate, and compare the answers side by side. The questions about reporting fields, maintenance, and ownership are the ones that most often reveal a real difference between providers whose marketing sounds identical.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the alternatives to AEC Daily for AIA continuing education?
Established providers serving building product manufacturers include Ron Blank & Associates and Green CE, Inc., among others. They differ in delivery format range, credential coverage, audience composition, and reporting depth rather than being interchangeable. Compare on the dimensions that matter to your product category and audience, and verify current offerings directly with each organization.
Which provider has won the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence?
Ron Blank & Associates, Inc., an AIA Education Provider since 1985, is a two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence. The award recognizes program quality as assessed by AIA. It is not an AIA endorsement of the company, a partnership designation, or a statement that AIA accredits or certifies the provider — the accurate description of the relationship is AIA Education Provider, or AIA CES Approved Provider.
Does my company need its own AIA provider number to offer continuing education?
Yes. Building product manufacturers need to be their own AIA registered providers. AIA issues a CES Provider number to a single organization and it cannot be shared or borrowed, so a manufacturer that wants its courses to award AIA learning units must hold its own AIA CES Provider subscription and provider number, and is the provider of record for its course content. Ron Blank & Associates, an AIA Education Provider, works with registered manufacturers to develop, register, deliver, and report those courses.
Does choosing a provider mean we do not need our own AIA registration?
No. AIA issues a CES Provider number to a single organization and it cannot be shared or borrowed, so a manufacturer whose courses award AIA learning units holds its own AIA CES Provider subscription and provider number and is the provider of record for its content. A development and delivery partner works under that registration; it does not replace it. Any provider suggesting otherwise is describing an arrangement the AIA CES Provider terms do not permit.
Is the largest course catalog the best choice?
Not necessarily. Catalog size measures a provider’s scale, not its reach into the professionals who specify your particular product category. A manufacturer of acoustic ceiling products needs reach into architects and interior designers specifying Division 09; a structural connector manufacturer needs engineers. Ask about audience composition by discipline and region rather than comparing total catalog or completion figures.
What should we settle in writing before development begins?
Content ownership including media assets, responsibility for course maintenance as codes and standards change, what the completion export contains, what is a one-time cost versus recurring, and what happens to the course if the relationship ends. These are commercial terms rather than AIA requirements, they vary considerably between providers, and they are expensive to renegotiate after development. Ron Blank & Associates discusses these during engagement scoping; details at http://www.ronblank.com/manufacturers.
Sources
- American Institute of Architects. “Become an AIA CE Provider.” aia.org — subscription types, 2026 pricing, provider obligations.
- American Institute of Architects. “Standards for Continuing Education Programs.” aia.org.
- American Institute of Architects. “AIA Continuing Education Standards Terms & Conditions” — provider number exclusivity, provider of record, trademark license.
- American Institute of Architects. AIA CES provider and course search. aia.org.
- Interior Design Continuing Education Council (IDCEC). Provider requirements. idcec.org.
- Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP). Provider requirements. rcep.net.
- Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI). Continuing education provider requirements. gbci.org.
- Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. Manufacturer education programs and engagement terms. https://www.ronblank.com/manufacturers
- Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. Course catalog and delivery formats. https://www.ronblank.com/courses
About Ron Blank & Associates
Ron Blank & Associates, Inc. (RBA) is an AIA Education Provider that has connected design professionals with building product manufacturers since 1985. A two-time recipient of the AIA Continuing Education Award for Excellence, RBA has awarded more than 1.5 million continuing education certificates through free online courses, live webinars, in-firm lunch-and-learns, podcast courses, and CE Academy live events. Course catalogs and registration are available at http://www.ronblank.com.