- CD training means the CAOHC Course Director workshop (eight hours) plus an online open-book exam, not a self-paced bundle.
- You need 1,000 relevant hours within five years and supervised adjunct-faculty experience before ordinary registration opens.
- The exam requires 80% to pass, allows two attempts, and failing both means repeating the workshop and exam.
- Initial exam costs $200; adding the $500 workshop brings the calculated total to $700.
What "CD Training" Actually Covers
Searching for "CD training" returns a muddle of results, so let's pin down the meaning. Here, CD refers to the Course Director credential issued by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC). A Course Director is the qualified instructor who directs CAOHC-approved occupational hearing conservation (OHC) courses, the ones that train technicians who run hearing conservation programs in workplaces.
That distinction shapes everything about the training. You are not learning to administer audiometric tests as a first-time technician. You are learning to run the course that teaches technicians: building curricula, managing the procedures around a course, teaching effectively, and keeping instruction aligned with regulatory and scientific change. If you want the broader definition first, see our explainer on what CD certification is and the companion piece on the CD certification itself.
Qualifying Before You Can Train
Unlike many professional exams where you simply register and sit, CD training sits behind an approval gate. Ordinary registration opens only after CAOHC approves your documentation. The requirements, in plain terms:
- A qualifying current professional license or certification. Current web eligibility includes physician assistants, while the November 2025 policy manual's list differs. If you hold a credential near the edge of the list, confirm approval with CAOHC directly rather than assuming.
- 1,000 relevant hours within five years, spread across at least three specified activities.
- A complete supervised in-person or hybrid OHC course completed as adjunct faculty or practicum assistant.
- Credential documentation and verification letters from your supervisor or a Course Director, approved before you register.
Most candidates underestimate the supervised-course requirement. It is a hands-on apprenticeship, and it takes calendar time to arrange. Start by identifying a CAOHC-approved course near you whose director will take you on as adjunct faculty or practicum assistant. Our full breakdown is in the CD requirements guide.
Key Takeaway
Treat eligibility as the first phase of training, not paperwork. The supervised course and verification letters can take longer to arrange than the workshop itself, so begin gathering documentation before you think about exam dates.
The CD Workshop and Online Exam Format
CD training has two components that candidates often blur together: the workshop and the exam.
The Eight-Hour Workshop
The CD workshop is eight hours of training time. It is a workshop, not an exam, and not a continuous testing session. A virtual workshop is scheduled for October 16, 2026. The workshop is where the five curriculum areas below are taught, so it deserves your full attention rather than passive listening.
The Online Open-Book Exam
The exam is delivered online through the CAOHC Learning Center. It is open-book, with saved progress and a ten-day completion window. That structure matters for how you prepare:
- It is not an eight-hour or 240-hour continuous sitting. The ten-day window lets you work in sessions.
- Open-book does not mean easy. You still need to know where to find answers and how to apply them to instructional scenarios, and time spent hunting wastes your window.
- The passing score is 80%, with two attempts within the window. If both attempts fail, you must repeat the workshop and the exam.
Some details are not publicly verified: the question count, the scored/unscored split, the exact item types, whether calculators are permitted, and CD-specific remote-proctoring rules. Rather than guessing, confirm these with CAOHC when you register. For difficulty context, read how hard the CD exam is, and for the score threshold, see the CD passing score breakdown. CAOHC does not publicly disclose a pass rate; our pass rate article explains what can and cannot be said.
| Component | What It Is | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility approval | Documentation review before registration | 1,000 hours, supervised course, verification letters |
| Workshop | Eight hours of instruction | Virtual session scheduled October 16, 2026 |
| Exam | Online, open-book, saved progress | Ten-day window, 80% to pass, two attempts |
| Credential | Course Director designation | Valid five years |
The Five Curriculum Areas to Master
CD preparation follows the five published CAOHC Course Director workshop curriculum areas. An important caveat: these are unweighted preparation topics from the issuer's course description, not an official weighted or exhaustive exam blueprint. No verified weighted blueprint exists, so give each area serious attention rather than hunting for a "high-yield" shortcut. They also describe the Course Director workshop, not the separate OHC student examination blueprint. For a deeper walk-through, see the CD exam domains guide.
Domain 1: Developing OHC certification and recertification course curricula
This area is about designing the course itself, for both initial certification and recertification audiences.
- How initial and recertification courses differ in scope and structure
- Building a curriculum that meets CAOHC course expectations
- Aligning content, timing, and practicum components
Domain 2: Course Director procedures before, during and after OHC courses
The administrative backbone of directing a course. Candidates should expect scenario-style questions about responsibilities across the course lifecycle.
- Pre-course planning and approvals
- Conduct and oversight during the course
- Post-course documentation and reporting duties
Domain 3: Effective teaching techniques and hearing-conservation training resources
Because the Course Director is an instructor, pedagogy counts. This area connects teaching method to the materials available for hearing-conservation training.
- Instructional techniques suited to adult technical learners
- Selecting and using training resources effectively
- Matching delivery to the course format
Domain 4: Federal regulatory changes affecting OHC courses
Regulation shifts, and Course Directors must teach current requirements. Expect to reason about how regulatory change flows into course content.
- Recognizing which regulatory updates affect course material
- Updating curricula in response to change
- Knowing where to verify current requirements
Domain 5: Scientific and technical advances in hearing-conservation instruction
The science and technology of hearing conservation evolve, and instruction must keep pace.
- Incorporating new scientific findings into teaching
- Evaluating technical advances for relevance to courses
- Keeping instruction current without losing foundational coverage
Fees and Route Math
CAOHC publishes the individual line items, and the totals below are our calculations from them. The member versus non-member distinction is not published, so we make no claim about it.
| Route | Components | Total (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Initial certification | $200 exam + $500 workshop | $700 (calculated) |
| Renewal via workshop plus exam | $150 exam + $500 workshop | $650 (calculated) |
| Eligible exam-only renewal | $150 exam | $150 |
Remember that these are fees for the credential itself. They do not include any costs tied to arranging your supervised adjunct-faculty course or time away from work. For the full picture, see the CD certification cost breakdown, and for whether it pays off, the ROI analysis.
Sequencing Your Preparation
Because the exam is open-book with a ten-day window, your preparation is less about cramming and more about building a navigable reference and rehearsing application. One short, CD-specific sequence works well. It is our editorial suggestion, not an official schedule.
Domain 4 and Domain 5 reading
- Regulatory and scientific change is the most perishable content, so gather current sources first
- Note exactly where each reference lives for quick lookup
Domain 1 and Domain 2
- Walk a sample course from curriculum design through post-course documentation
- Draft your own before/during/after checklist, drawing on your supervised-course experience
Domain 3 plus workshop attendance
- Attend the eight-hour workshop and annotate your materials against all five areas
- Take scenario-style practice questions and log what you had to look up
Exam window
- Work in focused sessions across the ten-day window; progress saves
- Reserve your second attempt as a safety margin, not a plan
For a consolidated plan, the CD study guide goes further, and the CD cheat sheet condenses the must-know facts. To rehearse scenario-style reasoning, use the practice questions on our main practice test site. Note that practice-question allocations across domains are editorial, not an official weighting.
Renewal and Staying Current
The Course Director credential is valid for five years. Renewal has two paths:
- Workshop plus exam, the full route.
- Eligible exam-only renewal at $150, available if you meet at least two of these four criteria: directed ten qualifying OHC courses; served two years on a CAOHC committee or task force; completed ten relevant CE contact hours; or taught one approved CD workshop.
Extensions of up to six months are discretionary, and you must request one at least 30 days before expiration. Failed exams do not qualify for an extension. Because the policy manual was revised in November 2025, confirm current terms with CAOHC before relying on any renewal assumption. Dates and deadlines are covered in the CD exam dates guide.
As for where the credential leads, Course Directors typically work in settings that run or support CAOHC-approved courses. Our CD jobs overview and salary guide discuss this qualitatively, since we do not publish unverified figures.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You must first qualify through documented experience and CAOHC approval, including a supervised OHC course and verification letters. Only after approval does ordinary registration for the workshop and exam open.
The workshop is eight hours of training time and is separate from the exam. The exam is an online, open-book test with saved progress and a ten-day completion window, not a continuous multi-hour sitting.
You get two attempts within the exam window. The passing score is 80%. If you fail both attempts, you must repeat both the workshop and the exam.
The initial exam is $200 and the workshop is $500, which totals $700 by calculation. Renewal through workshop plus exam totals $650, and eligible exam-only renewal is $150.
Not a verified one. Preparation follows five published workshop curriculum areas, which are unweighted topics rather than an official or exhaustive blueprint. Study all five rather than prioritizing by assumed weight.