After I mentioned that I had completed my First Aid/CPR course online, a lot of bloggers mentioned they needed to renew theirs. Here’s a short review of my experience.
I’m linking up with My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Runs with Pugs, Zenaida and Run Laugh Eat Pie for Fit Five Friday. Wondering if online First Aid/CPR are for you? Read on!
1: A Self Paced Course
The course is a series of video lessons and “missions” (I’ll explain that next). You can start, pause, repeat, and stop — and come back to it at any time.
2: What’s a mission?
So glad you asked! After the video lesson you will be sent on a “mission” to practice what you learned. It’s essentially a video game, which was interesting. You can click on the injured person, or a bystander, and then choose actions to take. You can move the scene to the right and the left to make sure nothing dangerous is in the way — if there is, you simply click on it to make it go away.
Missions involving bandaging will have a small box with a variety of bandages. You will drag and drop the appropriate bandage into the appropriate location.
Missions involving CPR will have a graphic of your hands which you’ll place in the appropriate location and then you’ll use your hand (or mouse — I took mine on the my Ipad, so just used my fingers) to press the appropriate number of times. There is also a way for you to tilt the head back to open the airway on screen in your missions, too.
My course also covered AED (automatic external defibrillator), so you had to position the pads in the correct locations and then take the appropriate actions in the appropriate order.
It was an interesting way to learn!
3: Is there a test?
No! You must pass all the missions. You can retake missions as many times as necessary, although I only had one that I had to repeat. Every once in a while you were asked to practice a skill that hadn’t actually been explained yet — but that was the exception, not the rule. It would be extremely difficult not to pass this course, but you will be learning!
4: How long will the course take?
According to the description a little over 2 hours. I didn’t really time mine; I think it took a bit longer than that, but it’s definitely doable in much less than a day.
5: How quickly will I get my certificate?
I needed mine in about a month, and we had been warned that some courses can take a while to process and send you your certificate. I got mine as soon as I had completed the course.
Final Thoughts
The cost of this course was $35. I found some online that were only $15, but the reviews seemed a bit iffy so I just went with it. You can’t take the course on your phone, apparently, or using Internet Explorer. You do have access to the course after you’ve completed it — I don’t remember for how long (and couldn’t find the answer quickly on the site. Since I haven’t been certified before, I like the fact that I can go back & review information. Will I? I should but I’m not sure — that is one of the beauties of online learning though!
To sign up for the course I took click here (not an Affiliate link)
Do you think you would renew your certification online after reading more about it?
Chocolaterunsjudy 
It amazes me how everything is online.
I hope doctors don’t learn surgery that way. Lol
I teach online courses but I don’t think they are an effective way to learn or assess learning esp with open book tests. IMO.
Would you now feel confident to CPR on someone??
but I do agree that they are convenient. And necessary during COVID.
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Well, I’ve done defensive driving online too (to save on insurance) and in person. I think online was better for that — although it was long before COVID.
The one thing I really like about online courses is that many you have forever, so you can go back and view it as often as you’d like. And I do that a lot with some of the courses I’ve taken!
Am I better trained than an in person class? I don’t know. I figure anything is better than nothing, always, though.
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I agree about access. I just wonder if some skills need to have in person hands on instruction. Like CPR.
And what’s the point of a test if you look up all the answers? That’s the teacher in me.
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There’s no test for the First Aid course — you have to do the “missions” correctly. But no test at the end (and no book).
As to the RRCA test, even though some questions you can look up, there are many that you can’t simply look up the answer. It’s always been open book, btw, even before it was online.
They said people are actually scoring better with the online classes. Same materials. Same open book test. Not sure why that would be but apparently it is so. However with that you don’t have access afterwards at all.
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As I was reading this, it came to me that maybe this is something my kids could learn. Have actually never thought of that before as they are only 7 and 9 and always with adults! But thinking if something happened to their grandparents and they were the only ones there, this would be such useful information for them to have or at least be aware of.
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I don’t know if there’s any age requirement — or if there’s a class aimed at children. But yes, this knowledge would be great for them!
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I’ve taken CPR training but haven’t had a refresher in quite a while. The online component does sound interesting. For $35 I think I’d consider it.
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I think if you’ve already had in person training this would be a good refresher course. Normally they require in person, but due to COVID they are accepting online now.
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I have taken this same course online a few years back. I thought it was easy and efficient to fit into your schedule. The in person classes can get tedious w lots of questions and repititons
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Well repetition is good for leaning. 🙂 There was still quite a bit of repetition in the online course, too!
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i have the same question as Darlene- would you feel confident performing CPR on an actual person? Although come to think of it… I took a live CPR class (years ago) and I still wouldn’t necessarily feel “confident”- I would be terrified if it came up in real life. I can see how this would be an excellent refresher for me. This sounds like a great option- lots of people wouldn’t feel comfortable in a live CPR class right now!
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I don’t think any non medical person would really feel confident performing CPR on someone even with training.
But wouldn’t it be worse if you had no training at all? And no, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable in a live CPR class now either!
I think there’s only 2 things that could really go wrong with CPR: breaking someone’s ribs (which often happens anyway) or doing nothing.
I can remember once a dr coming in once and really literally haranguing my Dad into signing a DNR at the hospital, saying he’s seen too many elderly get CPR, have their ribs broken, and be miserable.
Then again once my Dad fell and cracked about 5 ribs . . .
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I made the First Aid Course 3 times (in person one month each) when I was in the Coast Guard.
It was interesting and this also thanks to the teachers.
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I can definitely see how First Aid would be super important in the Coast Guard!
I’m not sure how much I’ll really retain, but still, I don’t think anything like that could ever really be a bad thing.
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I’m due for a refresher on my CPR certification. I don’t know that I would have considered taking an online course for my initial certification, but this sounds like a good option for a refresh.
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Since I’m not actually planning to coach, I have no troubles taking it online. I needed the convenience!
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I also renewed my first aid/CPR with an online course. I wasn’t a big fan and would have much rather had it in-person even knowing the latter takes more time and someone else is setting the schedule instead of me. Still, it’s better than nothing and wasn’t a total waste of time.
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Oh, that’s really cool! As a Scout volunteer, this would be great to have.
I had a CPR certification when A came home from the hospital. Since he had an atrial septal defect, we had to be prepared in case he stopped breathing or his heart stopped. Obviously, there was some trauma with all that, and he is healed, but knowledge is never a bad thing. Thank you for sharing.
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That’ had to have been so stressful! Glad that A has grown up into a fine, strapping youngster.
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