Quality Assurance FAQ

While registration renewal and the Professional Portfolio have the same due date, they are not tied together. You are able to renew your registration prior to your Professional Portfolio being complete however, both must be completed by December 31st. 

*It is important to note that approval of your renewal does not indicate that your Professional Portfolio requirements have been met.

Please click here to be directed to the page where you can view the full list of activities accredited by the COO.

Please click here to be directed to the page where you view a list Continuing Education providers.

No. You are still required to complete all components (Competency Self-Assessment, Professional Development, Jurisprudence) of the Professional Portfolio.

Depending on the date you were registered, you may not have to complete all 16 CE hours in your first year of registration. Please refer to the prorated CE requirements below to determine how many CE hours you are required to complete in your first year of registration. 

This schedule applies to the first calendar year of registration only. Starting in your second year of registration, you will be required to complete all 16 hours of continuing education.

In addition, newly registered opticians are required to complete Jurisprudence Chapter One: Professional Boundaries and Sexual Abuse Prevention within 12 months of registration and then once every 3 years. 

No. You are still required to complete your Professional Portfolio within your first calendar year of reinstatement, regardless of when in the year you reinstated.

No. Without exception, all opticians must comply with the QA Program. The College must be able to assure the public that all registered opticians are competent and engage in ongoing learning and professional development. 

No. All opticians who are registered with the College, practicing or not, must complete the full Professional Portfolio.

No. All opticians who are registered with the College, practicing or not, must complete the full Professional Portfolio.

A deficiency fee is associated with a professional portfolio which is imcomplete and/or deficient accredited hours.  This fee must be paid in full within 30 days of billing.

Registrants who have not completed all components of their Professional Portfolio by December 31, will be charged a late fee of $50.00 +HST.

The QA Committee reviews incomplete portfolios. If you have not completed all the required components of your Professional Portfolio, the QA Committee will determine what remediation you will need to complete. In addition, if you submit a Professional Portfolio which is incomplete and/or deficient in accredited hours, there will be a deficiency fee of $100 +HST applied. 

Yes. All registered opticians (those who have paid their registration fee and hold a certificate of registration with the College) must complete a Professional Portfolio annually

Yes. You can access the Registrant Portal at any time.  You can complete any/all components of your Professional Portfolio throughout the year including adding Continuing Education hours and uploading completion certificates.  All components must be complete by December 31.

Yes. The self-assessment is an annual requirement of the professional portfolio and must be completed through the Quality Assurance section of your Registrant Portal. 

The annual continuing education requirements are:
•    4 accredited Eyeglass (EG) hours
•    4 accredited Contact Lens (CL) hours
•    4 accredited Professional Growth (PG) hours
•    4 non-accredited, self-directed hours

Expired accredited CE activities are those that are beyond the accreditation period and cannot be used to fulfill your accredited hour categories; however, you can use the time spend on each activity towards your self-directed hours.

Accredited continuing education activities are those that have been reviewed by the QA Committee to ensure that the content is optician-specific and containing an acceptable amount of eyeglass, contact lens, refracting, or professional growth content. PG is one of the 3 accredited categories (the others being EG and CL), whereas self-directed hours are non-accredited. You can use excess accredited hours towards your self-directed category, but cannot use excess self-directed hours towards the accredited PG category.

Self-directed hours are unaccredited CE activities that can be described as any activity that supports learning, reinforces current practice, and/or provides new knowledge and/or skill. Wehn reporting your non-accredited, self-directed hours, you must indicate the resource used.

For examples, please review page 5-6 in the Professional Portfolio Guide.

No, accredited hours can only be used in the category in which they are accredited. 

Yes. Any of your excess accredited hours in EG, CL or RF may be used towards deficient non-accredited/self-directed hours.  You must complete all the required information under the “Non-Accredited, Self-Directed" tab.

Yes. To do so, record the activity and upload the completion certficate to one category. Email QA@collegeofopticians.ca; provide your name, registration number, the activity number and how you would like the hours allocated.  Staff will adjust this manually. 

No, CE hours can only be claimed in the year in which they are completed.  

Your user ID is unique to you. If you have forgotten your unique ID, please click on the “forgot username” link. Please do not try to guess your login information as the system will lock you out after several failed attempts.

Yes, registrants must complete all components (including uploading completion certificates for accredited acitivities) of their Professional Portfolio online thorugh the Registrant Portal by December 31st.

Complete instructions on how to report your accredited hours and upload your Certificates of Completion are available here. You will need to first report your accredited courses (“Add New Course”) before uploading/attaching the certificate as proof.

PDF, JPEG, .DOC, .DOCX are all acceptable file types; however, picture files may be too large to attach (max file size is 980kbs). If you receive an error message about your file being too large to upload, we recommend obtaining the PDF copy of the certificate from the CE Provider.

No. Your completion certificates must be uploaded to the Quality Assurance section of your Registrant Portal. If you are having difficulty completing this, there are tutorials and instructions here on our website. If you continue to have difficulty, please contact the Professional Practice department at 416-368-3616 or 1-800-990-9793 ext. 204/205 or email qa@collegeofopticians.ca. 

There are tutorials and instructions here on our website. If you continue to have difficulty, please e-mail or call the Professional Practice and Quality Assurance department at 416-368-3616 or 1-800-990-9793 ext. 204/205 or email qa@collegeofopticians.ca. 

No. This is a self-initiated study that enhances the optician’s learning. You are required to describe how this learning activity has improved your skills and/or knowledge and the quality of care in your practice when you complete your Professional Portfolio in the Registrant Portfolio.

You must record the activity and/or resource material used for each activity.

Accredited CE activities can be searched by name or accreditation number. There is a complete list of accredited activities located on our website here.

Often the reason you are not seeing the activity is that it may be expired (beyond the accreditation period) or not accredited. Please contact the provider of the activity.

Yes. If an activity has been accredited in multiple categories (e.g., EG/CL/RF) then you may choose any of these categories from the category drop-down menu (select the “Upload Certificate/Update Category” button to change the category of a course you’ve already reported). If you have an issue changing the CE category or,  have made an error when entering information, please contact the QA department by phone 416-368-3616 ext 204 or by email to qa@collegeofopticians.ca.   

Please email qa@collegeofopticians.ca with a brief descripton of the issue you are experiencing. 

Jurisprudence Chapter One: Professional Boundaries and Sexual Abuse Prevention must be completed within 12 months of registration and then once every 3 years. The remaining chapters are optional and can be completed once every 3 years. All jurisprudence chapters are accredited as Professional Growth activities.

You access the jurisprudence tool directly from the Registrant Portal.  Click on the "Jurisprudence" tab and then select "Go to Jurisprudence Tool".