Train the whole clinic.
Certification prep for COA, COT, COMT and scribes, onboarding for new hires and the front desk, instrument simulators, your own courses and your compliance records, in one platform that gets better every week.
Screenshot from the platform
A rung for every seat in the clinic
The certification ladder runs from new hire to COMT, and a learner's progress climbs with them. The scribe and front-desk tracks sit alongside it.
Foundations
New hires in their first 90 to 120 days: anatomy, terminology, infection control and the workup.
18 modules · 100-question readiness check About Foundations →COA
Papers dealt by the 22 content areas of the COA outline effective 8/1/2025.
27 areas · 933 questions COA exam guide →COT
Every skill evaluation station, with the instrument simulators to practice them.
28 areas · 1,176 questions COT exam guide →COMT
Motility, imaging, photography and fields, weighted the way the exam leans.
28 areas · 1,027 questions COMT exam guide →OSC
Charting, abbreviations, the history a scribe listens for, and a simulator that runs a real visit.
13 areas · 449 questions OSC exam guide →Patient Access
Scheduling, insurance and when a phone call is an emergency, with practice-management and EHR simulators. An internal readiness check, not a credential.
8 areas · 275 questions About Patient Access →Instruments you actually operate
Every dial turns, every knob clicks to its detent, and the patient answers the way a patient does. Techs practice refraction, lensometry, keratometry and the slit lamp until the motions are automatic, without tying up a lane. Coached practice is recorded separately, so a pass means the learner did it alone.
- Refraction (phoropter)COA · COT · COMT
- RetinoscopyCOA · COT · COMT
- Manual lensometryCOA · COT · COMT
- Manual keratometryCOA · COT · COMT
- Goldmann applanationCOA · COT · COMT
- Strabismus and cover testingCOA · COT · COMT
- Angle checking: 3D slit lamp and pen lightevery clinical track
- Triage and chief complaintevery track
- TranspositionCOA · COT · COMT
- Ophthalmic scribe visitOSC
- Practice management and EHR chartingfront desk
- Astigmatism, EOM and vision-condition toolsevery track
Host your own training next to ours
Fire safety, harassment prevention, your HIPAA refresher, the way your practice rooms a patient. Build it once in the course builder and it is assigned, tracked and reported exactly like the certification tracks.
Build a course
Lessons, quizzes, flashcards and scenarios, with in-lesson checks, your own images and video (uploaded, or linked from YouTube or Vimeo). A content manager in your organization writes it; nobody needs to call us.
Adapt ours
Add your own module to a platform course, replace one with your version, or hide one your staff do not need. Our content underneath stays intact.
Review before it goes live
Turn on submit-and-approve so a second person signs off on changes, and restore any earlier version.
Assign and prove it
Assign to a person or team with a due date, collect a signed attestation, and export completion for an auditor.
- Fire safety and evacuationLesson, 8 questions, signed attestationYour course
- Harassment preventionLesson, scenario, 10 questionsYour course
- HIPAA refresher for the front deskYour module inside Patient AccessYour module
- Bloodborne pathogensLesson, training video, 6 questionsYour course
- Medical ethics, legal and regulatoryFrom the COA trackPlatform
The records an auditor asks for, kept as you go
The same platform keeps the evidence: who was screened, who signed which policy, whose license lapses when, and who is due to be re-verified.
Exclusion screening
Staff are checked against the OIG exclusion list (LEIE) and SAM.gov when added and every month after. Possible matches go to your administrators for a recorded decision, with a printable audit report. State Medicaid lists are not covered yet.
Policies and attestations
Publish a policy to the whole practice, a location or a role. Each signature keeps the typed name, time and address, and a review cycle brings it back due.
Licenses and credentials
COA to CPC, BLS to RN. Expiry and CE reminders start 180 days out and climb to the supervisor and administrator as the date nears.
Competency re-verification
Set how long a sign-off stays current, per competency and level. The technician is warned first, and overdue items climb the ladder.
Which is clearer?
Red · the usual way
- A binder, a shadowing week and a review book bought on the tech's own dime
- Instrument practice only when a lane and a patient are free
- Competency sign-offs and policy signatures on paper, if at all
- No way to tell who is ready until they sit the exam
Green · with Ophthalmic Academy
- Lessons and timed papers weighted to the current exam outline
- Simulators that run on any laptop, with no patient waiting
- Sign-offs, signatures and screenings recorded as they happen
- A readiness score by content area, before the exam fee is paid
See who is ready, not just who logged in
The platform that teaches the technician gives the administrator and the lead tech a working view of the whole team, across every location.
Assignments with due dates
Assign a track, a module or a simulator to a person or a team. Overdue work escalates on its own, from supervisor up, and reminders arrive by email or as a notification on a phone or computer.
Competency sign-off
Supervisors verify skills against your own competency list on a 0 to 4 scale, and nobody signs off their own. Learners see where they stand, practice on the matching simulator, and are told when a request is answered.
Analytics for leadership
An executive summary, a benchmark across locations, a single-location view and a printable board report.
Who to register this quarter
An exam readiness forecast lists every COA, COT and COMT learner with their mastery, best timed practice exam and weakest areas, and an estimated date they reach the ready line when the data supports one. Record real exam results and see how the forecast held up.
Observed at the chair
Sign off a skill while watching it: each step is one tap for Done, Missed or N/A, with a timer and a note. Six workflow steps come built in, and you add the clinical steps from your own protocols.
Your name on it
Your organization's name, tagline and logo in the app and on your own sign-in page, with your labels for each track.
Sign-in your way
Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on, or passwords with two-step codes.
An audit trail
Every administrative action is logged with who did it and from where.
Down to the question
Open any learner and see each question they answered, what they chose and what was right. Administrators get item analysis across the whole organization.
What needs you, first
A Needs attention card puts sign-off requests, overdue re-verifications, overdue work and learners who have gone quiet at the top of the Control Panel, with a reminder or reply one click away.
Practice, and proof
Supervisors see each learner's simulator runs, passes and when they last practiced. Coached runs sit in their own column and do not count toward readiness, so practicing and passing alone are never confused.
Roles and competencies your way
Each department gets its own competency list, and each person sees only the tracks, simulators and tools assigned to their role.
Built in small, tested steps
The platform ships several times a week. Every release runs the full test suite before it goes out, then checks the live server file by file against what was built, and refuses to finish if anything differs.
Sized to the window, phone to 4K
The study app, the Control Panel and this website now scale with the window instead of jumping between a few fixed layouts. Simulators were reworked for laptop windows, and on a large monitor the instruments grow to use the space.
Practice exams open full screen
A timed practice exam now opens full screen and records how many times, and for how long, the learner left the exam window. The result says so, and supervisors see it beside the score.
The study assistant stays off during exams
The AI study assistant in Help is switched off for as long as any timed practice exam is open, even if the learner leaves the exam screen. It also now picks the newest available model on its own.
A new look, in seven themes
Dark glass cards on a charcoal grid, now on the app, the Control Panel, the sign-in page and this website. Learners choose from seven themes, including high-contrast and colorblind versions, and three accent colors.
The open app knows when there is a new release
An app left open for days now notices a new release and offers to reload, after saving progress. It never reloads by itself, so it cannot interrupt a timed exam.
Real exam results beside the forecast
Supervisors can record how a learner did on the real COA, COT or COMT exam. The platform keeps what it was forecasting at that moment, and a Predicted vs actual card shows how each forecast group did.
Chairside checklists and a readiness forecast
Supervisors can sign off a skill step by step while watching it at the chair. An exam readiness tab shows who to register this quarter, and questions that misbehave are flagged for review automatically.
Notifications on phones and computers
Staff can install the app from the browser and turn on notifications for assignments, sign-off requests and their answers, plus a reminder the night before something is due.
Built by a practice manager
I wanted a learning platform that could take clinic staff from their first day to exam ready, and be as trackable, auditable, reportable, customizable and interactive as possible.
In a tight staffing bind, you can sit a new team member in front of Ophthalmic Academy and trust the training content. You can follow their progress all the way down to each question they answer, and shape the content to your clinic's preferences and to the competencies each role needs.
Right, and able to show why
A learner studying for certification needs the content to be right. Here is how we keep it that way.
Weighted to the outline in force
COA practice papers follow IJCAHPO's COA Examination Content Areas effective 8/1/2025, all 22 areas, summing to 100. When a blueprint question comes up, we check the effective date first, because older outlines differ.
Sourced, and choosy about it
Every practice question records the source that supports its answer. When all of them were checked against their sources in September 2026, 119 were corrected. We use only sources whose terms allow it.
Protected like a clinical system
Single sign-on or two-step sign-in, sign-out after 30 idle minutes, least-access roles, an audit log, and organizations walled off from each other. No patient information is asked for, anywhere.
How accounts and data are protected →Frequently asked
Is Ophthalmic Academy affiliated with IJCAHPO?
No. It is an independent platform that prepares staff for IJCAHPO's examinations. IJCAHPO sets eligibility, publishes the content outlines and administers the exams.
Which certifications does it prepare for?
COA, COT and COMT, plus the Ophthalmic Scribe (OSC). Foundations covers new hires before they start a certification track, and Patient Access trains front-desk staff with an internal readiness check.
Do the simulators need special hardware?
No. They run in a web browser. They are built for a laptop or desktop and also work on a phone, where the picture stays in view while you use its controls and the refraction simulator shows one eye at a time.
Can supervisors sign off competencies in the platform?
Yes. Supervisors rate each competency from 0 to 4, work a queue of sign-off requests, and keep a re-verification roster. A supervisor can sign off while watching at the chair, ticking each step of a checklist. Learners see their own levels and what to work on next, and are told when a request is signed off or closed. Competencies can be set per department.
Does practicing with the coach count as a pass?
No. Coached and guided runs are saved, and supervisors see them in their own column, but only a run the learner completes alone counts toward readiness, pass rates or finishing an assignment.
Are the practice exams timed like the real ones?
Yes, for COA, COT and COMT: full-length papers dealt by the exam's content weights, on the exam's clock. They open full screen, and the result records how many times and for how long the learner left the exam window, which supervisors see beside the score. A web page cannot stop someone opening another browser, so it records rather than blocks.
Is there an AI study assistant?
Yes. Learners can ask it questions about the material from the Help panel. Its answers are generated by AI and can be wrong, so check them against the lessons. It is switched off for as long as a timed practice exam is open.
Is there an app?
Staff can install the platform from the browser on a phone or computer, with its own icon, and turn on notifications for assignments, due dates and sign-off requests. There is no app store download, and an app left open says when a new release is out.
Can we control what each person sees?
Yes. Learners see only the tracks, simulators and tools assigned to them, so a front-desk hire is not dropped into COMT content.
Can we put our own training on it, including compliance courses?
Yes. A content manager in your organization can build your own courses, with lessons, quizzes, flashcards and scenarios, and assign them with due dates. Practices use this for their own compliance training, such as fire safety, harassment prevention or a HIPAA refresher. The platform does not ship those courses; it hosts yours next to ours, with the same tracking and reports.
Does it screen staff against the federal exclusion lists?
Yes, once it is switched on for your organization. Staff are checked against the OIG exclusion list (LEIE) and SAM.gov when they are added and every month after that. A possible match goes to your administrators for a documented decision, with a printable audit report of every screening; nothing is decided automatically. State Medicaid lists are not covered yet.
How often does the platform change?
Every week, usually several times. More than 450+ releases have shipped since August 2026. Every one runs more than 210 automated test files first and is checked file by file on the live server after upload.
How do staff sign in?
With a password, plus a code from an authenticator app if they turn on two-step sign-in or your organization requires it, or through single sign-on with Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID. Type a work email address on the sign-in page and it offers your organization's own sign-in.
How is our staff's information protected?
Passwords are stored only as hashes, two-step sign-in is available and can be required, idle sessions end after 30 minutes, supervisors see only their own teams, and every organization is walled off from the others. The Security page has the detail.
How much does it cost?
Pricing depends on how many staff you train and which tracks they need. Request pricing and we will send a quote for your practice.
Pricing built around your practice
Pricing depends on how many staff you train and which tracks they need. Tell us about your practice and we will send a quote, and walk you through the platform if you would like a demo.