Award certificates and badges

Each course can hand out a certificate for finishing and up to four badges along the way. By default they are awarded automatically as the student does the work, with nobody waiting on you. You can also issue one by hand, for example to a student who sat an assessment in person.

Before you start

• A course. See Build an online course.
• Designs, if you want your own rather than the plain ones. See Design certificates and badges.

Steps: choose what the course awards

1. Open Products › Courses and click the course.
2. Find the Certificate and badges card.
3. Under Certificate, choose a Design. "This course's own settings" uses the course's default certificate.
4. Leave Issue it automatically when they finish ticked to award it the moment the last lesson is marked done. Untick it if you want to check the work first; then nobody gets one until you issue it.
5. Under Badges, choose a design for each moment you want to award, or leave "Plain badge": Started (opened their first lesson), Halfway (past the halfway mark), Finished (every lesson complete) and Full marks (every quiz passed first time).
6. Leave Award badges as the work is done ticked to award them automatically, or untick it to award them only by hand. The certificate is not affected.

Each change saves as you make it.

Steps: issue one by hand

1. On the Certificate and badges card, press Issue a certificate, or Issue this badge under one of the four badges.
2. The window lists everybody enrolled on the course with their progress, for example "5 of 8 lessons". Type in Search by name or email to find somebody.
3. Press Issue beside the student. They do not have to have finished; it is your call.
4. You see "Issued" with the award's reference. Somebody who already holds it shows a tick instead of the button.

You can also issue from Products › Certificates: press the send icon on a design's card.

What happens next

• The student is emailed: Certificate awarded for a certificate, Badge awarded for a badge. Several badges earned at once arrive as one email.
• In their customer account, the certificate appears at the top of the course, and badges are shown as labels beside it.
• Every award is listed under Products › Certificates on the Issued certificates or Issued badges tab.
• The certificate carries your business name and logo, the student's name, the course, the date and a reference.

For agencies

Awards belong to each client's course. Work inside the client with Sub-accounts › Open.

Troubleshooting

The issue window says "Nobody has bought this course yet, so there is nobody to award." Only people who bought the course can be awarded. Wait until somebody has bought it.

"They haven't bought this course, so there is nothing to award." The person is a contact but not a buyer of this course. Check which course they bought.

A student finished but got no certificate. Issue it automatically when they finish may be unticked. Issue it by hand, and tick the box for the future. Also check they marked every lesson finished; a lesson added after they finished counts too.

The badge shown is plain, not my design. No design is chosen for that moment. Pick one under Badges. If the list is empty, you have not made a badge design yet; make one in Products › Certificates.

"Already had one" when I press Issue. The student already holds it. The message shows its reference.

Related

• Design certificates and badges
• Add a quiz to a lesson
• What your customers see in their account