How to use the Academy

Sign in, open Foundations, take a lesson

The academy runs on a simple loop: read a lesson, mark it complete, move to the next one, and when you've finished all four lessons in a course, take the course exam. Pass it at 75% and the next course unlocks.

Every student starts with Camera Foundations — it's free, four lessons long, and it exists so you and I are speaking the same language before we get into ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, and the capstone.

1. Sign in at /login (or create an account at /signup if signups are open).
2. Your Dashboard is the home screen — it shows courses in progress, certifications earned, and recent exam history.
3. Open a course. Read Lesson 1. Do the practice exercise at the bottom. Click Mark Complete.
4. Repeat for the remaining lessons. The Take Course Exam button appears at the bottom of the course page once all lessons are marked complete.

Add the academy to your home screen

The site is a Progressive Web App. Installing it puts an icon on your phone or laptop that opens the academy full-screen — no browser tabs, no address bar — and lets the app cache lessons for offline reading.

You don't have to install — the site works fine in a browser. But installed clients get faster launches, a real app icon, and reliable offline access.

Lessons cache automatically as you read them

Any lesson you've opened while online is saved locally and readable without an internet connection — on a plane, on set, in a basement. When a lesson has been cached, a small gold pill reading 📥 Offline ready appears next to it on the course page.

What works offline:

• Reading any lesson you've opened before
• Marking a lesson complete (queued locally, syncs when you reconnect)
• Browsing your dashboard, courses list, glossary, resources, cheat sheets, checklists

What needs an internet connection:

• Taking any exam (integrity requirement — no offline exams)
• Opening a lesson you've never viewed before
• Submitting the capstone project
• Course feedback (beta cohort)

15 questions, 60 seconds each, 75% to pass

Every course exam pulls 15 random questions from that course's question pool. The clock starts the moment the exam loads. When time runs out on a question, it auto-advances — so answer decisively and don't get stuck.

1. Complete all four lessons in the course.
2. Click Take Course Exam at the bottom of the course page.
3. Answer the 15 questions. You'll see a running clock on each one.
4. At the end, you get your score, question-by-question review with explanations, and either a pass or a "come back and retake" screen.

Passing (75%+): Your certification for that topic advances to the highest level you've passed. The next course in the sequence unlocks. If you're in a paid course, you also get a course-specific certificate you can download and share.

Not passing: The exam doesn't auto-retake. Review your incorrect answers and their explanations, then ask me for a re-assignment at Rothstein@pvme.org. I don't gatekeep — retakes are free — but I want you to have actually looked at what you missed before you retry.

If you're a beta tester, review the course before moving on

Beta testers are flagged in the system with a special status. After you pass a course exam, the next course won't unlock until you've submitted a short review of the one you just finished. This is not busywork — I use these reviews to tune lessons, add examples where clarity broke down, and rewrite anything that didn't land.

The review asks for three 1–5 ratings (overall, clarity, pacing), what worked, what didn't, and any suggestions. Minimum 40 characters in the "what worked / didn't work" fields so you have to say something real. Takes about three minutes.

If you got booted from the exam-pass screen before submitting feedback, you can always come back via the dashboard — the locked next-course card will link you straight to the feedback form.

Not a beta tester? This section doesn't apply to you. Courses unlock the moment you pass the exam.

Eight photos across four scenario categories — graded by me

The final lesson of the Exposure Triangle Capstone is the graded project. It's the only piece of the entire program that a computer doesn't score. I look at your eight submitted images against a five-criterion rubric and decide: pass, revise-and-resubmit, or full retake.

What you submit: eight photos organized into four scenario categories (specifics are in the capstone lesson itself so I don't spoil the shoot for you here). RAW files preferred but not required.

What I score against:

• Exposure decisions you made and why
• Sharpness / focus / camera-shake handling
• Composition and framing
• White balance and color accuracy
• Handling of the hard-mode moments in each scenario

Turnaround is 5–10 business days. You'll get written feedback either way — even on a pass, I'll flag two or three things I'd tighten if I were shooting it. If you get revise-and-resubmit, you get exactly what to change.

Signed by a CPP, publicly verifiable

Every course you pass earns a course-level certificate. Passing all six courses AND the graded capstone earns the master certificate: Pro Vision Photography Academy Graduate, signed by Rothstein N. Campbell Jr, CPP.

Each certificate has:

• Your name and the date you passed
• A unique verify URL that anyone (a client, a school, a publication) can visit to confirm the certificate is real, still valid, and hasn't been revoked
• A downloadable / printable version for framing or PDF sharing

On revocation: Certificates can be revoked if the underlying exam is later flagged for integrity issues that pass admin review. A revoked certificate's verify URL will show a red banner instead of the pass. This is protection for everyone else who earned theirs honestly — including you.

Yes, your email is on every lesson page. Here's why.

When you're signed in, every lesson displays a small gold strip reading 🔒 LICENSED TO your@email.com · DO NOT SHARE at the top, bottom, and (as a fixed footer) while you scroll. If you print or save a lesson as PDF, the strip prints in gold on white.

This isn't distrust. It's the practical answer to a real problem: lessons cost money and time to write, and the fastest way for the whole system to die is for one screenshot to end up on a photography forum. The watermark makes the source of any leak identifiable.

The watermark doesn't affect how the lessons work — you can read, print, save, and study normally. Just don't share the files. If you want a friend to try the course, send them to the course catalog and let them sign up for the free Camera Foundations course.

How to get help — and how to get your money back if it's not for you

Refunds: The full policy is at /legal/refunds. Short version — if a paid course isn't what you expected within the refund window, email me and we'll sort it out. I'd rather you have your money back than sit on a course you're not using.

Stuck on a lesson? The Glossary is searchable across every term used in every course, and links back to the lesson that defines it. The Resource Library has cheat sheets and pre-shoot checklists you can print and take to a shoot.

Lost your password? Use the password reset link on the login page. You'll get an email with a one-hour reset link.

Need to talk to me directly?

I answer email within one business day. If you're mid-cohort or mid-capstone and need me faster, say so in the subject line and I'll prioritize.