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Information and Help


Getting started


To use the online CPD reporting facility, you must be a Fellow of the Geological Society.  To access it, login from anywhere on this site and navigate to the Online CPD Reporting page.  If you do not already have one open, you will be able to set up a reporting period at this point.  You must select the initial year of the reporting period, which will consist of three calendar years.

You can view any of the three years of an open reporting period at any point, or a three-year summary, by clicking the links at the top of the page.


What's new?


The online CPD reporting facility was relaunched on the Society's new website in March 2008.  Two improvements have been introduced:

  • You can set annual CPD objectives at the start of each year, and review your progress against these objectives at the end of the year
  • Under certain circumstances it is possible to reopen and edit a reporting period which you have previously closed, and to delete open reporting periods you have opened by mistake

Both these features are described in more detail below.


Viewing and adding CPD activity

  
On the annual view pages, you will see a table summarising the CPD you have recorded for that year.  The table also shows the points weighting and maximum points allowed for each activity type.

You can describe your CPD objectives for the year by clicking the link provided at the top of the page.  At the end of the year, you can review progress against these objectives - just follow the link provided at the bottom of the page.

A status message appears under the annual summary table.  If you have reached the requirements for that year, it will say so, and indicate how many points are available to be carried over to the following year, if applicable.  If you have not yet met the requirements, it will remind you of those requirements.  See a full explanation of the requirements.

Below this, details of your CPD activity are listed.  You can add to this list by clicking 'Add new CPD activity'.  You can also edit or delete existing entries.  When adding or editing an entry, you must select the most appropriate Activity Type (guidance), and enter a description and the number of hours spent on the activity.  You should also enter start and end dates, indicate the organiser, and say what evidence there is of your participation, if applicable.  By default, the year will be the one you were viewing immediately before adding or editing the item, but you can select another year.  The number of points for this activity will be calculated automatically, and incorporated in the summary table when you click 'Submit'.

There is no limit on the number of hours that can be recorded for any given activity type, but once the maximum number of points indicated on the table has been reached, no more points will be included in the total for this activity type.  You should still record the activity, however, so that the record of your CPD is as complete as possible.

The 3 year summary page shows the annual summary table for all three years, and at the bottom of the page it tells you your cumulative points total for the whole reporting period.


Closing a reporting period

If you have finished entering CPD activities for now, but you think you might want to add further activities for any of the years within the current 3-year reporting period, you should not close the period.  Just navigate to another part of the site, or close the website, or click the 'Logout' link  right at the top of the page.  You will be able to continue to add activities to the current reporting period next time you log in.

When you are sure that you have finished entering your CPD activity for all three years, click the Close link on any of the annual view pages, or on the 3-year summary page.  Note that the reporting system will allow you to close a period, even if you have not met the scheme requirements for all three years.  (This is so that you can start a new reporting period, irrespective of whether you have fulfilled all the requirements of the previous one.)  The system will tell you whether or not you have fulfilled the requirements before you confirm that you wish to close the reporting period.

Once you have closed a reporting period, you can open a new one.  You cannot open a reporting period which overlaps with an existing one, so the first year available for you to select for the start of a reporting period will be that following the last year of the previous one.

You will not be able to edit, delete or add to activity in a closed reporting period.  However, you can reopen a closed reporting period, as long as it is your most recent, and you do not have a current open reporting period.  You will then be able to make changes to your reopened reporting period, which you must close again before starting a new one.  (No more than one reporting period is allowed to be open at any time.)  If you have already opened a new reporting period before realising that you want to make changes to your previous one, you will have to delete the activities you have added to your current reporting period, and then delete the reporting period itself by clicking the link at the bottom of the page, before the system will let you reopen the previous closed reporting period.

You can view in full any previous closed reporting periods, although you will not be able to edit or add to them, by clicking the 'View previous 3-year reporting periods' link in the top right-hand corner of annual and 3-year summary pages.

Geological Society staff will be notified automatically when you close a CPD reporting period.  You do not need to notify us that you have met the requirements.  If you have succeeded in meeting the requirements over all three years, and are required to do so, you will be issued with a certificate shortly thereafter.