Find answers to common questions about Open Scholarship Training for Individual Researchers.
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General Questions Enrollment & Access Payment & Refunds Badges & Certificates
We are releasing courses throughout 2026. The course cost covers the delivery of the course on our LMS (Canvas) and the badging associated with completion of each course)
Additional courses covering data management, reproducible methods, and other open scholarship practices will be released through the end of 2026. See the full schedule on the Canvas catalog.
Online, self-paced modules delivered through Canvas LMS. Courses include instructional content, practical exercises, and assessments. No scheduled sessions are required. Access is available 24/7 after enrollment.
COS has historically offered group training sessions for research teams and institutions. Self-paced courses cover the same content in a format you can complete on your own schedule. Group training is typically arranged and paid for by an institution or grant; self-paced courses are available for individual purchase anytime.
Course materials are also always freely available on OSF. The self-paced *paid* courses on our catalog add structured assessment and a digital badge upon completion.
Courses are available through our Canvas Catalog.
You will be enrolled in the course immediately after payment is confirmed. The login you create is your login for Canvas (if you already have a Canvas account, you can use that to enroll). You can find more Canvas resources here.
Yes. When you enroll in a COS training course via our course catalog, you can login with your existing Canvas credentials.
When you pay for the course, you will be automatically enrolled in the Canvas course and should see it on your Canvas dashboard.
No. Canvas and OSF are separate platforms with separate accounts. We ask you upon enrollment if you’d like to share your public OSF profile with us, but that is so we can understand the kind of researchers who are interested in our training.
You can review the course materials for as long as you would like, there are no restrictions on access after enrollment, unless you request a refund. In this case we would manually unenroll you from the course and you would no longer have access to the materials on Canvas.
You have 6 months from enrollment to complete the course and earn a badge.
Reach out to us at training@cos.io with a quick explanation, and we can provide an extension. Your feedback helps us adjust access for others if it’s a consistent issue.
Canvas supports current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Courses are accessible on mobile devices. You can find more information in this Canvas guide for students.
We use Stripe to process payments. You can pay by credit or debit card.
Promotion codes are available periodically. Discount codes are provided if you attend some of our OSF Essentials webinars (sign up at https://www.cos.io/events).
If you are enrolling a group of 10 or more individuals for your organization, contact training@cos.io to discuss options for discounts.
Refund requests can only be made when payment has been made in error, and must be received the same day as the accidental payment.
To request a refund, please contact training@cos.io with your name, email address, and enrollment date. Refunds are processed through Stripe and typically take 5–10 business days.
Upon completing all required modules and a 80% on assessments within 6 months of enrollment, you will receive an email from Parchment with instructions to claim your digital badge. Badges are issued through the Open Badge standard and are yours to keep.
Badges can be shared on LinkedIn, added to your CV, or displayed on any platform that supports Open Badges. For instructions on claiming and sharing your badge, see Parchment's learner guides.
COS badges indicate completion of specific open scholarship training and can be used to document professional development on CVs and grant applications. Recognition depends on your institution and field; we do not maintain a list of organizations that formally accept them.
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