Interactive CPD is one of the central requirements of the GOC's new CPD scheme. Interactive CPD must include an opportunity to talk to peers, to discuss the subject matter and to clarify any areas of misunderstanding. All our face-to-face events, webinars and online peer review courses include a Q&A session and receive interactive points by default. But did you know that many of the distance learning courses on CPDpoints.com are also worth interactive points? Just look out for the interactive symbol in the list of CPD. For all interactive distance learning you can choose to accept either a non-interactive (general) point or to carry out a discussion with a peer to get interactive CPD points. Here's how it works:

Complete the online course

Choose an interactive CPD course and complete it as normal. Once you've passed the course you'll see a confirmation message with two options "receive non-interactive points" and "apply for interactive points". If you choose to accept non-interactive points that's it. We will issue a non-interactive CPD certificate straight away. If you choose to apply for interactive points you'll be taken to another screen explaining what to do. You'll be asked to arrange a discussion with one of your peers. The discussion is based on a set of questions built into a form on the instruction screen. We don't expect you to do the discussion straight away. You'll have 14 days to do it. You can get back to the CPD course to complete your form at any time.

Carry out a discussion with a peer

For your discussion, you should choose someone who is experienced in the topic you are discussing. Normally this will be another GOC registrant but it's up to you to decide who an appropriate peer for that topic is. Ideally they will be carrying out a similar role to you but there are circumstances where your peer might not be another optometrist or dispensing optician. For example for CPD about eye disease you might learn more from speaking to an ophthalmologist, or for systemic conditions like diabetes a GP or other health care practitioner might be appropriate. There is no requirement for your peer to have completed the same CPD but it might help if they have (and you can both validate each other's discussion summary). Your discussion can be face-to-face, on the phone or even Zoom/Teams/Facetime. It should last at least 30 minutes. You should keep notes to briefly summarise all the points you discussed and make note of where you agreed and disagreed. Remember there may not be a single correct or incorrect answer.

Fill out a form summarising your discussion

Once you have finished your discussion you can navigate back to the CPD course by searching for it in the list of CPD, or you can find it in "My Account" in your CPD history. Choose the "interactive" option again and fill in the form with your discussion summary. It doesn't have to be long but it should contain enough information for us to verify that the questions were properly considered and discussed. You'll need to fill in the details of the person you discussed with, including their email address.

Get your peer to verify the discussion

When you submit your summary to us your peer will receive a copy too. All they have to do is verify it's an accurate record of what you discussed. If it's not, they can ask you to edit the details in the form until you are both happy with it. We will issue an interactive CPD certificate as soon as your peer verifies the discussion. If you don't get round to verifying everything within 14 days, don't worry, we'll still give you a non-interactive certificate for completing the CPD.