---
title: 'Continuing education software: create a certification program on your own site — MemberPress.ai'
description: 'Create a certification or continuing-education program on your own WordPress site: courses, a quiz with a passing score, certificates that expire for recertification, and an initial fee with an annual renewal. Opal sets it up and tells you whose renewal lapsed.'
image: https://memberpress.ai/og/continuing-education-software.png
url: https://memberpress.ai/continuing-education-software/
---

Continuing education software

# Your course, your exam and your renewal, in one _place_.

You know your subject better than anyone. The hard part is everything around it: the quiz people must pass, the certificate they earn, the date it runs out, and the renewal fee that should arrive before it does. Here’s how MemberPress.ai puts those together on your own WordPress site.

## From the first fee to the first renewal

A learner signs up, learns, passes, gets the certificate and renews. Here’s how each step works.

1.  ### Courses
    
    On the paid plan, describe your curriculum the way you’d teach it and Opal drafts the course: the outline, its sections in order, then the lessons. They arrive as drafts, and no learner sees them until you publish. On the free plan, setup creates an empty course for you to fill.
    
2.  ### A quiz after each module
    
    In MemberPress Courses, a quiz can require a passing score, in percent or points, before the learner moves on. You build the quizzes in MemberPress Courses’ own quiz settings; asking Opal in the chat doesn’t write one. Quizzes come with MemberPress’s Growth and Scale plans.
    
3.  ### Certificates
    
    MemberPress Courses can issue a certificate when a learner completes the course, with the completion date on it if you want one. Because the quiz holds them back until they pass with the score you set, the certificate means they passed.
    
4.  ### Recertification on a schedule
    
    Set the certificate to expire after the number of days, months or years you choose, with the learner’s progress reset when it does. To recertify, they take the course again.
    
5.  ### Renewal billing
    
    The first certification fee and the annual renewal are separate memberships, each with its own price and its own sign-up page. Opal sets them up, and can suggest a price structure before you commit. Connect your Stripe or PayPal account in MemberPress’s settings and both take payment.
    

## What Opal does, and what you set once

### Opal does

-   Drafts the course, on the paid plan.
-   Sets up the first fee and the annual renewal as memberships. They stay drafts until you publish them.
-   Tells you whose renewal lapsed or failed, from your own site’s records. On the paid plan, she compares this renewal cycle with the last.
-   Checks which of your renewal reminders are switched off.

### You set once, in MemberPress Courses

-   The quizzes and the passing score.
-   The certificate, and when it expires.
-   The lessons in your own voice: edit any lesson the way you’d teach it.

## What it doesn’t do

There’s no credit-hour ledger. MemberPress.ai doesn’t keep continuing-education hours for an accrediting body.

If you report credit hours to an accrediting body in its own format, or proctor exams under formal conditions, a platform built around that reporting may be the right fit, and MemberPress.ai doesn’t claim to replace it. Where it fits is a program that wants its course, its certificate and its billing on a site it owns, under its own name.

Want the whole picture for certification programs? Read [MemberPress.ai for certification programs](https://memberpress.ai/for/certification-programs/). If your program is part of a professional association, see [how MemberPress.ai compares with association software](https://memberpress.ai/compare/#association-systems).

## Before you build your program

Can the first certification cost more than the renewal?

Yes. The first certification and the annual renewal are separate memberships, so each has its own price and its own sign-up page.

Can I start from the slides and handouts I already have?

Yes, as your starting point. Opal doesn’t import files, videos or recordings. Describe what your material covers and, on the paid plan, she drafts the course structure on your site. Your slides and handouts go into the lessons from there.

What do I need to start?

A WordPress site with MemberPress on it, free or paid, and MemberPress Courses for the course. Install the free MemberPress.ai Plugin, approve once, and tell Opal about your program. No WordPress site yet? Get started walks you through getting one live.

The free plan reads your site and tells you what’s happening on it. The paid plan does the work: $79 a month, with your first site included.

## You say it once. Opal handles the rest.

Connect your program’s site and tell Opal about the course, the exam and the renewal cycle, once.

[Connect your program’s site→](https://memberpress.ai/connect/)