Self-Assessment

Important: Part One must be completed in one sitting. You will only have one attempt to complete it.

The self-assessment is completed once per three-year CE cycle. The current CE cycle runs from January 1, 2024 until December 31, 2026.

As set out in the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA), 1991, Section 80.1, the Quality Assurance (QA) Program for all colleges shall include self, peer, and practice assessments. The QA Program shall also include a mechanism for the College to monitor optometrists’ participation in, and compliance with, the QA program.

In 2022, subject matter experts developed the self-assessment based on relevant, real-life situations in eyecare. They were drawn from key risks identified by College data.

In 2023, the College completed a pilot program of the self-assessment and received positive feedback. On September 15, 2023, Council approved the self-assessment component of the College’s QA program.

All optometrists, both practising and non-practising, are required to engage in the QA Program’s self-assessment component.* The objective of self-assessment is to assist optometrists to identify areas for improvement, develop concrete and structured goals, participate in meaningful CE activities, and self-reflect on the impact of the activities on their practice. These are powerful skills that help optometrists grow and engage in lifelong learning that is critical to providing quality care to patients.
*While completion of the QA Program self-assessment is mandatory, the results and feedback are solely for the registrant. The results will remain confidential and will not be used by the College for evaluation purposes.

The self-assessment is completed once per three-year CE cycle. The current CE cycle runs from January 1, 2024 until December 31, 2026. The requirements that must be met by optometrists in the current cycle are detailed in the College’s Self-Assessment Policy below:

2024-2026 Self-Assessment Policy

Completing your self-assessment

The self-assessment is a two-part online exercise:

PART ONE – SCENARIOS AND MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Part One of the self-assessment must be completed in one sitting. You have one attempt to complete it. Please set aside at least one (1) hour to complete it. You will review seven scenarios and answer related multiple-choice questions. There are five multiple-choice questions per scenario.

  1. Click here to log into your member portal. Use the same login credentials you use to complete your membership renewal.
  2. On the home page, click “eLearning Module”.
  3. On the eLearning home page, click “Quality Assurance Self-Assessment”
  4. Carefully read and follow the instructions on-screen to complete Part One.

At the conclusion of the self-assessment, you will receive feedback based on the questions you answered incorrectly. The feedback will help identify your learning opportunities and needs and provide resources to find information. This part is not scored (i.e., there is no pass or fail).

PART TWO – LEARNING PLAN

After completing Part One of the self-assessment, you will use the feedback and resources from Part One to create a Learning Plan. The Learning Plan encourages optometrists to set specific goals, select appropriate CE activities, and reflect on the impact of their learning.

  1. Click here to log into your member portal. Use the same login credentials you use to complete your membership renewal.
  2. On the home page, click “eLearning Module”.
  3. On the top right, click “Learning Plan”.
  4. You will see two types of learning plans:
    a. The feedback from Part One is automatically generated in the Training Generated Learning Plan (Figure 1). This plan is locked and cannot be edited or deleted.

Figure 1. Example of a Training Generated Learning Plan

b. You are required to complete a User Generated Learning Plan (Figure 2) by following the steps below:

  1. On the top left, click “Add New Plan”.
  2. Fill in the “Plan Name”, “Learning Plan”, and “Learning Activities” sections. You do not have to complete the plan in one sitting. You can return anytime during the current three-year CE cycle to edit/add/delete your entries.
  3. To save your changes, click “Save” at the bottom right of the window. To cancel your changes, click “Close”.
  4. To edit your plan, click “Edit”. You can now also make entries to the “Reflection” section.

Figure 2. Example of a User Generated Learning Plan

COMPLIANCE AND SELF-ASSESSMENT AUDIT

The College will perform an audit at the conclusion of the current three-year cycle. The audit identifies those who fail to complete the self-assessment (both Part One and Part Two).

Optometrists who fail to complete the self-assessment may be referred to the Quality Assurance Committee and given an opportunity to complete a practice assessment at their own cost according to the College’s Schedule of Fees and Penalties. Optometrists who fail to complete the self-assessment and decline to complete the practice assessment may be referred to the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC) under Section 80.2 (1) of the RHPA for professional misconduct.     

Related FAQs

  • Yes, all optometrists, both practising and non-practising, in Ontario must complete the self-assessment.

  • The self-assessment is completed once per three-year CE cycle, starting with the current CE cycle (2024-2026).

  • No, you do not need to study for it. The best approach to assist optometrists in identifying their learning needs is through objective feedback on their understanding of and response to common scenarios that are derived from actual risks that the profession encounters.

    Of course, you may use any resources available to you to complete the self-assessment (e.g., Optometric Practice Reference (OPR) and Competencies for Optometry).

  • The self-assessment is not scored (i.e., there is no pass or fail). The exercise is truly a self-assessment designed to assist optometrists in identifying learning opportunities and needs and provide resources to find information. This means you cannot pass or fail the self-assessment.

  • Yes, all Part One results are confidential. The College would not have access to scores. The College would only have completion information (who and when Part One was completed).

  • No, the recommendations from Part One are optional. For example, if Part One recommends that you review OPR sections 6.2, 6.8, 4.8, 6.4, 6.3, and 7.11, you may choose to review all or only a few sections as part of your Learning Plan—it is up to you.

  • No, the recommendations from Part One are optional. For example, Part One may recommend that you pursue COPE-accredited activities ending in (NO) (i.e., related to neuro-optometry), Glaucoma (GL), Functional Vision (FV), and Treatment & Management of Ocular Disease (TD). You may choose to complete COPE-accredited activities in all recommended categories or only a few as part of your Learning Plan—it is up to you.

  • It is up to you. It could be brief or detailed, whichever fits your learning needs.

  • Correct answers are not shown for the following reasons:

    1. The self-assessment is not a test. The focus is not on the optometrist’s score or which specific question they answered incorrectly. Instead, the intention of the self-assessment is to assist optometrists in identifying gaps in their knowledge and selecting meaningful CE activities that meet their individual learning needs.

      As such, the focus should be on the feedback, which provides general direction to the optometrist to pursue CE in the areas they answered incorrectly. The feedback also refers optometrists to appropriate COPE categories and resources like standards in the OPR.  This feedback list will be automatically entered into the optometrist’s Training Generated Learning Plan so that they may revisit it throughout the year. Using this feedback, optometrists will create a User Generated Learning Plan to:
      a. set specific learning goals;
      b. pursue relevant CE activities; and
      c. reflect on the effect of those activities on their practice.
    1. Providing correct answers can compromise the integrity of the assessment process. It may enable optometrists to share answers with others who have not taken the assessment yet.  This would defeat the purpose of the assessment and lead to unfair advantages and undermine the validity of the results.

  • Even if you answered all Part One questions correctly, you are still required to complete a User Generated Learning Plan. You are encouraged to review the recommended learning resources and continue building your clinical knowledge and competencies.

  • No, you are not required to submit your Learning Plan to the College.

  • No, the College will not review the contents of optometrists’ Learning Plans. Instead, the College would only have completion information (who and when the Learning Plan was completed). 

  • Yes, CE activities that you complete as part of the Learning Plan could be used to meet CE requirements as long as those activities meet the requirements of the 2024-2026 CE Policy.

    If you are using these CE activities to meet the requirements of the CE policy, then you must upload them to your OE TRACKER account by the end of the current CE cycle. Click here for more information on the 2024-2026 CE Policy and OE TRACKER.