To the person who alerted me to the problem (you know who you are), thank you!

We’ve been busy adding features based on feedback from some wonderful training centers, training sites and instructors (thank you!).  One common theme in my discussions with interested customers has been a bit of fear or uncertainty that the system will address their specific needs so I thought I would outline more specifically what you can do today and what is coming in the future.

As a training site myself I can tell you that CPR Sites more than addresses my needs.  What I and everyone else need now are additional features to add even more value.  My instructors will each have an account that allows them to enter their roster information which automatically (and immediately) becomes available for me to approve.  A quick look at the roster and I’m ready to click a button to produce a printable PDF that matches up to my card sheets.  I can reprint as often as needed, most notably for reprints in the case of a lost card.  Once I’ve completed processing the cards a single click notifies the instructor.

If someone calls to verify a card’s legitimacy I can quickly search from my dashboard and find the student, instructor, date, type of course, etc.  And I can explain to the caller that they too can check on their own from the CPR Sites website using the unique serial number we’ve printed on the card.

We’re working on providing more useful reporting tools for TCs and TSs so they can quickly track how many courses are being taught, of which type, the busiest instructors, etc.  This will also make year-end reporting to the AHA a snap (or, a click:)).

If you care to collect the email address of your students the system can also notify them automatically prior to their card’s expiration.  I want to stress automatically; All you do is supply a default message and the amount of time before expiration you want students notified and our system will send out notices to those people when the time is right without further interaction from you.

Although we back up the data every day we also provide you the ability to print, at any time, copies of your rosters.

Remember, because this is a web-based service, you can access the system at any time from any computer.  There is no software for you to install.  The same applies to all instructors you have setup under your account.  Imagine being able to go to a customer location with a little mobile printer, inserting their roster information and printing the cards right there while also sending the data upstream instantaneously.

We’re working on providing simple web sites for instructors to help those without a meaningful web presence improve their visibility and increase their student acquisition.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read this post.  And feel free to contact me at any time.

-tom

For Training Centers and Training Sites:

• First time you login
• Adding Users (Instructors and TC Admins)
• Recording Course Rosters
• Approving Rosters

First Time You Login:

When you first login to your management area you’ll want to check your account settings and profile information to validate correctness and make any changes needed.  There is an “Account Settings” link at the top of all management pages which only shows up for Training Centers or Training Sites; The link does not appear for accounts assigned as “Instructor Only”.

Adding Users:

Users consist of Instructors and TC administrative people.  You’ll want to create an account for each instructor aligned with your TC; At least those who will be using the CPR Sites system (hopefully that includes all instructors).  You’ll also want to create an account for all TC staff who may need to handle course roster submissions, print cards, search for students, etc.

There are three types of users: Instructor, Admin Only and Admin+Instructor.  NOTE: You can change the account type for any user at any time by editing that specific user.

Instructor: This is an instructor aligned with your TC or Training Site. This person will not have access to modify your TC settings or view other instructors’ information.

Admin Only: This is a TC staff member who should have access to manage the TC settings, process course rosters, etc. But this user is not an instructor so will not need to file their own rosters.

Admin+Instructor: This is a TC staff member who also teaches classes and needs to file rosters in his/her own name.  This account type can file his own rosters, process rosters of other instructors, print cards, etc.

Recording Course Rosters:

You’ll find a link to record a new course roster on the Dashboard when you first login or after clicking on the “Courses” link near the top of any page. Some of the form fields are optional and some are required. The “required” fields are noted by a small star or asterisk to the right of the form field.

First you’ll indicate the course details such as class type, date and time of the class, who decontaminated the equipment, etc.  There is a “notes” field where you can indicate anything that needs to be recorded about that specific class such as noting an unruly student, indicating a co-instructor or explaining why a class took less or more time than usual.

Next you’ll begin adding your student information.  When all of the students have been entered you can proceed to printing cards.  Instructors who cannot print their own cards will submit their roster for the TC to review.  Once cards are printed you should mark the roster as “completed”.  This will send the instructor an email letting him/her know that cards are on the way.  If you are an Admin+Instructor, marking as completed let’s you know that everything is done and you no longer need to worry about that roster.

You can always go back and edit roster information and you can print and reprint cards as often as you need, at any time.

Approving Course Rosters:

As noted above a TC admin user should review and approve all course rosters that have been submitted for review.  When you’ve reviewed a roster and printed the cards, mark as “processed”.  This will remove it from your queue and notify the instructor that it has been approved and processed properly.  You can also make changes to the roster on behalf of the instructor such as indicating a different issue date, adding a student, removing a student, etc.

It does NOT mean that you’ll need to re-enter data.  This is a “LIVE” system that is intended to work.  We just want you to know that we’re in active development to improve the system so it stays out of your way.

We took the approach of keeping information very tight up front; It is much easier to expand a service without impact to customers than it is to contract or remove services.  You input during this Beta period will help shape the future of cprsites.com.

We run a Training Site — We are instructors and we have a particular workflow.  Your workflow may differ and this is where you can help make sure your needs are addressed just as efficiently as everyone else’s.  So why not help us make your life easier and sign-up for a Beta account today?!?

We should be making a Beta program available this week which demonstrates a well functioning system but is flexible enough to change based on your feedback.

Although I tend to be the “face” of the company you might be interested in the other guys working on cprsites.com.  We’ve been together for more than a decade developing all kinds of software solutions and it is such a joy to be working together again on something that is so sorely needed.  The team:

Paul Sisson — Brad Hilton — Tom McDonald (that’s me!).

When you have ideas for new functionality or suggestions for workflow improvements you can bet that one of the three of us will respond quickly and do what we can to accommodate.   Here’s our contact information:

Phone: 805.242.1358 — Email: info@cprsites.com

Thanks for reading.  Come back soon!

-tom