Manage Course Certificates

Manage Course Certificates#

Tags: educator how-to

Before you can create certificates, you must ensure web certificates are enabled for your course. Web certificates are enabled by default for new courses, however older courses may need to have them enabled.

  1. From the Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.

  2. Click Show Deprecated Settings.

  3. In the Certificate Web/HTML View Enabled field, enter true.

  4. At the bottom of the page, select Save Changes.

In addition to enabling web certificates for your course, you have to add a course mode for the course you wish to create a certificate for.

  1. Access the LMS Django Administration website for your instance of Open edX. To do this, go to https://<host name of your Open edX instance>/admin. For example, this might be https://courses.YourOrganization.com/admin.

  2. Under Course Modes > Course modes, add a new course mode for course you want to create a certificate for.

Note

Different certificate types are available with the different course modes.

See Enrollment Track for more information about different course modes or certificate types.

Create a Certificate#

To create a certificate for your course, follow these steps.

  1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

  2. On the Certificates page, select Add your first certificate or Add a new certificate.

  3. Add a signatory for each person associated with the course or organization whose name and title you want to appear on the certificate. You must specify at least one signatory. You can add as many signatories as needed.

  4. Optionally, upload an image file showing the signature of each signatory.

    The image file must be a transparent .png file, 450px by 150px.

  5. When you have finished creating your certificate, select Create.

    You can preview the certificate to see how it will appear to a learner taking the course in the selected mode.

    Your course certificate is not available for issuing to learners until it is activated.

Preview Certificates#

After you have finished editing your certificate, you can preview a certificate for verification purposes. You select from the available course modes (such as “verified”) to see how a certificate will appear to a learner taking the course in the selected mode.

  1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

  2. On the Certificates page, select the course mode of the certificate you want to preview, then click Preview Certificate.

    You see the web view for the certificate, as a learner in the selected course mode would see it.

After previewing the certificate, you can edit the certificate further or activate your certificate.

Activate a Certificate#

When you have verified your certificate, a course team member with the Admin or Staff role can activate the certificate.

Note

Course team members without the Admin or Staff role cannot activate a certificate.

To activate a certificate, follow these steps.

  1. Make sure that you have the Admin or Staff role for the course. For more information, see Guide to Course Team Roles.

  2. In Studio, on the Settings menu, select Certificates.

  3. On the Certificates page, select Activate.

After certificates are activated, learners in your course who attain a passing grade or otherwise qualify receive certificates.

Deactivate a Certificate#

In some situations, after you have activated a certificate, you might need to deactivate the certificate to make changes.

As a best practice, do not make changes to certificates in a running course if the course has already issued certificates to learners.

To deactivate a certificate, follow these steps.

Note

Only course team members that have the Admin or Staff role can deactivate a certificate.

  1. Make sure that you have the Admin or Staff role for the course. For more information, see Guide to Course Team Roles.

  2. In Studio, on the Settings menu, select Certificates.

  3. On the Certificates page, select Deactivate.

The certificate is no longer active and the course team can edit it. No new certificates can be issued to learners while it is deactivated. Learners who have already been issued certificates can continue to access them.

Manage Certificate Images#

When you add signatory image files to a certificate, the uploaded files are listed in Studio on the Files & Uploads page.

When you delete a certificate, images that you uploaded for use with that certificate are also deleted. However, if you edit a certificate and replace images, the unused image files remain on the Files & Uploads page. You can manually remove unused images. For information, see Delete a File.

See also

About Certificates (concept)

Edit Course Certificates (how-to)

Configure Certificate Availability and Timing (how-to)

Manage Course Badges (how-to)

Maintenance chart

Review Date

Working Group Reviewer

Release

Test situation
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