Maintaining a professional certification and meeting Continuing Education (CE) requirements shouldn’t be a chore or a challenge. Instead, it’s an opportunity for professionals to sharpen their skills, stay ahead of industry trends, and grow their expertise. Certification maintenance can take many forms, and credentialing organizations use a variety of approaches to manage tracking CE credits effectively.
This post explores these approaches, with a focus on flexibility and how your organization can make CEs both meaningful for your candidates and manageable for your administrators. We will look at the common models for tracking CEs and see how a certification management platform like Clarus can adapt to fit your specific needs.
While each model has its own unique approach to managing continuing education, they all share a common goal: upholding the integrity of the credential.
In this model, the credentialing body establishes a network of approved education providers. These trusted partners offer courses, workshops, and other learning opportunities, submitting verified CE credits directly into the management system on behalf of the candidate. This approach is ideal for organizations looking for best practices for certification renewal while maintaining high standards.
The primary goal of the provider network model is to ensure the authenticity of credits and maintain a high level of trust in the certification process. By pre-vetting providers and courses, organizations can be confident that the education meets their standards. This minimizes the risk of fraudulent reporting and makes the verification process a breeze for administrators.
However, this model requires a significant administrative lift to set up and maintain. It involves creating and managing partnerships, developing a course approval process, and providing ongoing oversight. For smaller organizations or those with limited resources, building and sustaining a provider network can be a substantial challenge.
Another common approach is to use a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and track CE credits. Candidates earn credits by completing courses, watching webinars, or passing quizzes hosted on an LMS platform that integrates with the organization’s certification program. This centralizes the learning experience while giving organizations the flexibility to use external LMS solutions or their own systems.
An LMS-based model ensures that all educational content aligns with the certification's standards and learning objectives. It also simplifies tracking, as completion data is automatically recorded within the system. This creates a seamless experience for both candidates and administrators.
The main consideration here is the need for consistent content creation and maintenance. To keep the program engaging and relevant, organizations or their LMS providers must regularly develop new courses and update existing materials. While this requires an investment of time and resources, it provides a direct and controlled path for candidates to earn their CEs.
For organizations looking to streamline this process, modern credentialing platforms can help. Clarus, for example, integrates smoothly with existing LMS platforms, whether they are in-house or third-party solutions. Clarus even offers a Mini LMS option for organizations that want a simple, built-in solution for course delivery and tracking without the complexity of a full-scale system.
The most adaptable approach is the self-reported model. This method empowers candidates to report their own learning activities, giving them the flexibility to pursue a wide variety of educational experiences that align with their career goals and professional roles.
Acceptable self-reported activities can include anything that contributes to a professional's expertise. Some common examples are:
To verify these activities, candidates simply upload corresponding evidence.
|
Activity |
Example of Evidence |
|
Conference |
Digital badge or registration confirmation |
|
External Course |
Certificate of completion |
|
Journal Article/Research Paper |
Citation, link, or uploaded file |
|
Presentation |
Slide deck or event program |
|
Volunteer or Outreach |
Verification from hosting organization or event photos |
|
Workshop or Webinar |
Attendance confirmation email, registration receipt, or completion certificate |
This model recognizes that valuable learning happens everywhere. It allows professionals to take ownership of their development while providing a straightforward way to document their accomplishments. For staff, a platform like Clarus makes it easy to review submissions, check evidence, and approve credits efficiently.
Clarus supports every Continuing Education (CE) path above through a powerful combination of configurable tools that manage, verify, and automate CE processes across a wide range of learning and renewal models. No matter which approach an organization takes—self-reported, provider-reported, integrated with external systems, or a blend—Clarus delivers end-to-end support within a single, unified ecosystem.
Here’s how Clarus enables comprehensive, flexible CE management:
Clarus captures and manages continuing education activities through integrated workflows. Every CE record, whether completed via an outside provider, an internal course, or a self-directed activity, can be tied directly to candidate credentials. This ensures complete, accurate tracking of hours, completions, and compliance with renewal requirements.
CE documentation in Clarus uses Dynamic Forms which are highly customizable forms that credentialing organizations can design to capture exactly the information required (such as course titles, dates, hours, certificates, and more). Dynamic Forms can enforce validation rules, include conditional questions (branching logic), and support uploads of supporting documents. This ensures all relevant data is collected accurately before entries are added to a candidate’s record.
Using Dynamic Review, Clarus can automate the audit and approval of CE submissions. The system can randomly select submissions for review (or use risk-based logic), allowing administrators to verify documentation, confirm eligibility, and approve renewals efficiently from a single dashboard. This balances compliance assurance with a manageable workload for staff.
Credential renewal criteria can be tied directly to completed CE activities. Once a candidate fulfills their CE requirements, Clarus can automatically trigger renewal workflows by updating credential statuses, issuing renewal communications, and ensuring a smooth candidate experience.
Clarus offers advanced insight through tools like Perspectives (real-time, customizable data views in Clarus) and Scout (an intelligent AI data analyst for your program data). Administrators can quickly explore their data, identify trends, export filtered credentialing records, and automate reporting for audits or strategic planning.
Rosie, the intelligent AI assistant integrated into Clarus, takes the heavy lifting out of CE reviews. Rosie can automatically review CE activities submitted by candidates, flagging any entries that appear incomplete, inconsistent, or potentially fraudulent. This proactive approach ensures compliance and maintains the integrity of your certification program while saving administrators valuable time.
Clarus combines these technologies—Dynamic Forms for data collection, Dynamic Review for efficient verification, customizable workflows for automation, and robust analytics for insight—to create a seamless, auditable CE management system. The result is a solution that adapts to any certification program, no matter how complex or unique.
Whether your program operates with a provider network, uses LMS-delivered courses, enables self-reporting, or employs a blend of these methods, Clarus ensures the process is flexible, credible, and easy to manage for both administrators and candidates.