Introduction to the NPA eLearning platform


The Learning Academy is hosted by Canvas, a global learning management platform used by over 5,000 customers in over 70 countries around the world, which delivers learning to 30 million users. The Canvas platform is used by many of the UK’s top companies, schools and universities, as the eLearning it provides is intuitive, engaging and effective.

Since 2020 using the Canvas LMS platform we launched the NPA’s eLearning platform, the Learning Academy, offering students and their supervisors a user-friendly, engaging learning experience that is easily accessible via multiple devices 24/7.The Learning Academy supersedes our previous platform, the Learning Zone. It features improved interactivity and provides a more wholesome eLearning journey.

The NPA’s own eLearning content developers have created easy-to-navigate, interactive courses with attractively designed training modules that present the learning in the form of engaging comprehensive content.

NPA courses on the Learning Academy

Currently there are over 2,600 students actively using the platform for their NPA training with more than 1,400 SVPs/supervisors also accessing the Learning Academy to monitor the progress of their students – this number is growing constantly.

The following training programmes are available via the platform and more will come online later in 2022:

As a supervisor of a student studying one of the NPA’s eLearning programmes, you will also receive a login to the platform to access your Supervisor’s Guide and relevant course forms. It will also enable you to track your student’s learning.

Online Training Progress Report

Another important tool to enable supervisors to monitor students progress is the Online Training Progress report. This report helps to monitor students’ learning activities on both eLearning and paper courses. It is designed for all those who support students from SVPs to Head Office teams – you can find out more information and download the user guide here, this will help to illustrate, how you access and interpret the report.

Key features of the Learning Academy

The NPA’s Learning Academy supports students by offering the following features:

  • Compatibility and ease of accessibility (login) with mobiles, tablets and laptops via Google Chrome
  • Interactive elements, including hot-spots, turn cards, multiple choice question assessments and slideshows
  • Comprehensive interactive guidance videos to help aid the student and supervisor journey through the platform
  • Different styles of questions and quizzes to embed the learning
  • Instant results from most quizzes and feedback to the student, so there is no delay awaiting results and ensures course completion in a time-friendly manner
  • An “inbox” functionality that enables students to directly get in touch with our Learning and Development pharmacists or the Member Services team, if they need support or have a question
  • In the same way supervisors can get in direct contact with the Learning and Development or Member Services teams if they have questions
  • A support tool for students with learning difficulties (immersive reader) which facilitates:
      • a voice-to-text option
      • changing the translation to other spoken languages
      • swapping the background colour to suit the learner’s needs
  •  Students of the Learning Academy can also access all the resources on the NPA Learn (formerly CPD Hub) at the click of a button (coming very soon)

What students say about the platform

Below are just a few comments we have received in recent months from students who have completed a course on the Learning Academy:

“The eLearning platform, the NPA Learning Academy, is really easy to navigate. The content (Medicines counter assistant course) is useful and relevant and the multiple-choice questions help to consolidate my learning.”

Caroline Antonios, Ixworth Pharmacy
“I completed the Dispensary assistant course during the COVID-19 pandemic and the eLearning platform from the NPA updated while I was on the course as well. The course content was clear and informative throughout.”

Ben Jones, Ashtons Hospital Pharmacy

See all our training courses

If you wish to go back to the main Learning & Development home page to filter on our courses, click here.

Download our FAQs for the Learning Academy

If you are starting to use the NPA Learning Academy as a student or supervisor, you may wish to download our FAQs that cover the questions we receive regularly.