cpd.so manual — Provider

Step-by-step guide for training institutions, hospitals, NGOs, and individual trainers who use cpd.so to publish accredited CPD courses, issue certificates, and earn revenue.

Looking for a different role? See manual-professional.md (learners), manual-sponsor.md (employers buying seats for staff), or manual-admin.md (cpd super-admin staff).

Before you begin

• A laptop or phone with any modern browser.
• An email address you can receive mail at.
• The legal name of your institution and a brief description (a few sentences).
• Contact details: phone, an institution website if you have one, your accreditation history.
• A logo (square, PNG/SVG, transparent background preferred).
• The name and email of a designated administrator for your account on cpd.so.

You'll also want to think ahead about your first course: title, learning objectives, delivery mode (online vs on-campus), the CPD hours you'll request, and your proposed fee per learner.

Chapter 1 · Apply to become a provider

1.1 · Read the public information first

Open cpd.so/become-a-provider. It explains, in plain English, what cpd.so will do for you (accreditation, certificates, ledger, regulator connect, payments) and what we expect in return (quality content, honest assessment, lawful operation).

You'll also want to read cpd.so/provider-agreement — that's the agreement you sign when your application is approved.

1.2 · Submit the application

1. Sign in or create an account at cpd.so/sign-in (magic link to your email).
2. From the dashboard, click Run training of your own? · Apply to publish accredited courses on cpd.so, or open cpd.so/become-a-provider directly while signed in.
3. Fill the application form:

4. Click Submit application.

cpd.so notifies the super-admin team. Most applications are reviewed within 2 working days. You'll receive an email when the decision is made.

Chapter 2 · The provider portal — first run

Once approved, your account gains the provider role and a sidebar appears in your dashboard. The first time you open cpd.so/provider, cpd.so runs a first-time tour explaining the four sections of the portal:

Click Take the tour to walk through these. You can re-open it from the dashboard help link at any time.

Chapter 3 · Create a course

From /provider/courses click the orange + New course button.

The new-course form looks like this:

3.1 · Course basics

3.2 · Delivery mode

Choose one. You cannot change the mode after the first enrolment.

• Online — every learner takes it remotely. Two sub-modes:
  • cpd-hosted — you build the modules + assessment inside cpd.so. cpd.so handles delivery, attempt-tracking, and certificate issuance.
  • External — the course content lives on your own LMS or Moodle. cpd.so handles enrolment + the certificate but learners are redirected to your URL after enrolment. You confirm completion through cpd.so's API or by manually marking learners complete on the roster page.
• On-campus — the course runs at a specific venue on specific dates. You add one or more sessions, each with start/end time, venue, and max seats.

3.3 · Online modules (cpd-hosted only)

Add modules in order. For each module:

After all modules are added, add an end-of-course assessment:

• 5–20 multiple-choice questions.
• Each question has 1 correct answer and 2–4 distractors.
• Set the pass mark — usually 80%.
• (Optional) Set a retry limit.

3.4 · On-campus sessions

Add at least one session. For each:

You can add more sessions later from the course detail page.

3.5 · Fee and CPD hours

Click Save draft.

Chapter 4 · Submit for accreditation and publish

4.1 · From Draft → In review

On the course detail page, click Submit for accreditation. The course's status flips from Draft to In review. cpd.so notifies the super-admin team.

4.2 · The accreditation decision

A cpd super-admin reviews:

• The modules / on-campus session structure.
• The assessment quality (online) or the trainer's qualifications (on-campus).
• The proposed CPD hours vs the actual content depth.

The super-admin may:

• Accredit the course as-is (status → Accredited).
• Accredit with reduced hours (e.g. you requested 12 hours, accredited at 8). They leave a comment with the rationale.
• Reject with a comment. You can revise the course and re-submit.

You receive an email at every status transition.

4.3 · Publish

Once a course is Accredited, click Publish on the detail page. It appears in the public catalogue at cpd.so/courses immediately. Status flips to Published.

Published courses can be un-published (back to Accredited) but the existing enrolments survive. You can't delete a course once it has enrolments.

Chapter 5 · Run a published course

5.1 · Online (cpd-hosted)

Learners self-enrol, take the modules, and pass the assessment. cpd.so issues certificates automatically. You see the roster on /provider/courses/<id> and download a CSV of completions at any time.

5.2 · Online (external)

Learners self-enrol and are redirected to your URL. They study on your platform. You then either:

• Use cpd.so's API key to POST a completion event from your LMS, or
• Open the course roster and manually mark complete each learner once your LMS has confirmed they finished.

cpd.so then issues the certificate.

5.3 · On-campus

On the morning of each session:

1. Open /provider/roster/<session-id> on a tablet or laptop. The roster shows every enrolled learner.
2. At the door, check learners in by scanning their QR (from their phone) or typing their 6-character check-in code. The row flips to Attended.
3. At the end of the session, click Close session at the bottom of the roster. cpd.so issues certificates to every learner marked Attended.

If a learner enrolled but didn't show up, their row stays Enrolled — no-show. You can issue a refund from the row's action menu, subject to your refund policy.

Chapter 6 · Revenue and payouts

Open /provider/revenue to see:

• This month's revenue (sum of every enrolment fee paid).
• The platform fee cpd.so charges (default 30%; set by the super-admin at provider approval time — see your /provider-agreement).
• Your net payout for the month.
• A line-by-line transaction history with date, learner, course, and amount.

Payouts are made monthly, to the bank or mobile-money account on file. Reach out to info@cpd.so to set or update the payout destination.

Chapter 7 · Edit, archive, and quality

• Edit a course at any time — but if the change is material (CPD hours, assessment, structure), the super-admin may ask you to re-submit for accreditation.
• Archive a course (set status to Archived) when you no longer want it on the catalogue. Existing enrolments and certificates survive; no new enrolments are accepted.
• Quality: cpd super-admins spot-check learner feedback and assessment-pass distributions. Courses with consistently abnormal patterns (e.g. 100% pass rate on a trivial assessment) may have their accreditation re-reviewed.

Troubleshooting

Manual lives at docs/manual-provider.md. Last revised 2026-05-16.