This page is a guide for navigating the program and course content and outlining student responsibilities for completing their doula certification. Included in this page are the following topics:

• Course Navigation
• Student Responsibilities
• Assignments
• Quizzes
• Other Course Navigation
• Certification Completion

We’ve received lots of feedback that our website and coursework are easy to navigate. However, people sometimes have difficulty finding what they’re looking for, and we feel it’s important to provide as much information as possible. We also want to be clear about what our students are expected to do in order to complete their training.

Screenshots are included to show how and where to access the required steps for completing your training. All screenshots are taken on a laptop. It’s possible to complete training on a mobile phone or tablet, however we recommend using a larger screen such as a Chromebook, laptop, or computer because the course navigation is much easier on a larger screen. On a phone or tablet, pages and progress percentages may need to be accessed by tapping on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top corner of the screen.

Tap or click on a screenshot to enlarge it or for a full view as needed.

All screenshots on this page are from the Birth Doula program, but they represent how all of the programs work and how to navigate them.

Course Navigation

When you use the top menu to tap or click on the program you want to work on, you’ll be taken to the Program Overview page. There is a progress bar and program progress percentage below the page title, and also on the right side of the page. The overview page will automatically show each section of the coursework and all units in that section. For instance: in the course shown in the screenshots, the Introduction is the first section and Doula Foundations is the second section. The Introduction contains one unit, and Doula Foundations contains five units. Each unit has a circular progress indicator to the left of the unit title. The progress will be gray if nothing in the unit has been marked complete. As pages are marked complete, that progress circle will gradually fill in with green until the unit is complete. Once the unit is complete, the circle becomes a filled green circle with a checkmark to indicate that unit is complete.

The progress bar and percentage in the right menu is on every page in the coursework, so you can always see your progress as you work through the course.

You may tap or click on “Expand” to see each content page in that unit, or you may tap or click on the unit title to load a page with just that unit and its content. If you want to see every step of that program, you can tap or click on “Expand All”. You can also access each individual unit by using the top menu to select Programs – [Program Name, such as Birth Doula] – {Section Name, such as Introduction} – {Unit]. When you access a unit page, it will look very much like the program overview page, but will only show the steps in that unit.

You may access any part of the coursework at any time, and you can skip parts and come back to them later if you want to. We recommend working through the coursework sequentially, one page at a time, rather than skipping around.

Student Responsibilities

Students are required to mark every instruction page complete as they progress in their training. Certificates will not be issued until the percentage shows as 100% complete. This includes every step in the program, including instruction pages, assignments, and quizzes.

You must mark each page complete after you finish reading, listening to, or watching all the material on the page. The only pages that students cannot mark complete are quizzes and assignments. Quizzes are automatically marked complete when you finish them, and only trainers can mark assignments complete.

To mark an instruction page complete, tap or click on the green “Mark Complete” before proceeding to the next page. When you do this, the page will reload, and the green elongated circle will now say “Mark Incomplete”. Do not mark it incomplete unless you plan to revisit that page and complete it later. At this point, you can tap or click on “Next Content” to go to the next page in the coursework.

Quizzes

Quizzes are assignments that are automatically marked complete when you receive a full score. Quizzes show up on the program overview page or unit page with a rectangular icon to the left of the quiz name, Instruction and assignment pages show up with a gray or green circle, depending on whether they’re incomplete or complete. Quiz icons turn green after the quiz is complete. Each assignment and unit will show your progress within that unit, just below the page title.

Quizzes are accessed on the page before each quiz. The score is automatically calculated when you finish the quiz, and it will be complete when you receive all points for that quiz. Many quizzes cannot be started until the quiz prior to it has been completed. All quizzes must receive a score of 100% to be marked complete. Your quiz responses are saved and you can retake a quiz as many times as you want or need to. You do not need to retake a quiz if you have received full points for it, unless you want to change any of your responses. Your trainer cannot see your quizzes, but an administrator will verify completion of all quizzes before issuing your certificate.

Assignments

Assignments can only be marked complete by a trainer. You can work on an assignment and save it as a draft until you are ready to submit it for trainer review.

Important Note: The assignment editor does not automatically save anything, so you must save it as a draft if you want to save your work.

The status listed at the assignment editor will say “draft”, “submitted”, “incomplete”, or “complete”. Draft means the student needs to work on it and turn it in. Submitted means it’s been turned in for the trainer to review. Incomplete indicates the trainer has marked it incomplete with a comment about what needs to be added or changed to complete the assignment. Completed indicates the assignment is complete and nothing else is needed.

Additional note: Trainers do not grade assignments that are currently marked as incomplete. You must review your incomplete assignments and make the requested updates, and then resubmit it for trainer review by tapping or clicking on “Submit”. It will again show a “submitted” status for the trainer to grade.

At the bottom of each assignment, it will say either “Incomplete” or “Complete”. Assignments showing here as incomplete can include any of the above assignment statuses other than complete. This will change to say “Complete” when the trainer has marked the assignment complete and the status above also says “complete”.

Other Course Navigation

Students may access their Progress Report in the menu on the right side of the screen by tapping or clicking on “View Progress Report”. This will bring you to a page that lists all programs and their assignments, starting with Birth Doula at the top. Quizzes and instruction pages are not shown on the Progress Report, as this only shows your assignments and their statuses.

Note: Your progress report is created as soon as a step is marked complete or an assignment is submitted. Before that happens, the page will not show any programs or assignments.

This page can be a helpful tool if you are looking for a specific assignment that you want to look at or work on. You can view the assignment by tapping or clicking on it from the progress report page.

Certification Completion

When all steps in a program are complete, your progress bars will be filled in green and say “100% Complete”. Keep in mind that the last step for certification is the last page of the coursework in which you will need to fill out a verification form with the information we need so we can issue your certificate. This last step will be marked complete by an administrator once they have received the verification form and have reviewed your progress and verified that all other steps have been completed. The last step will remind you to check that all previous steps have been marked complete. It also provides information about certificate renewal.

Certificates are issued manually by an administrator, and can be expected to be sent via email within two to three business days, depending on our workload.

We hope this is helpful!

If you have any trouble accessing the coursework or your information, please contact us.