For Administrators
Offering a Certificate of Completion is a great way to help motivate and encourage your learners. Certificates of Completion are often used to provide learners with:
Recognition of Achievement: Certificates serve as tangible recognition of one's efforts and accomplishments, and this type of validation can be very motivating.
Proof of Knowledge and Skills: Certificates can act as proof that the holder has attained a certain level of knowledge or skill in a particular area.
Professional Requirements: In some professions, continuing education and certification are required to maintain licensure or accreditation. Certificates of Completion are often used to claim the CEU or other type of professional credits from an organization.
Social Proof: Certificates can also serve as social proof, validating an individual's competency and expertise to peers, superiors, and clients.
Motivation for Continuous Learning: Certificates often encourage lifelong learning. Completing a Path and receiving a certificate can motivate individuals to pursue further education and development opportunities.
Pathwright's built-in certificate creator is available starting with the Complete Plan.
How it works
When a learner finishes the last step of a Path, they will see a congratulatory completion screen pop up with a link to download their personalized Certificate of Completion.
The Certificate of Completion will automatically populate with the learner's name, date of completion, points earned, and other variables that you add to your certificate template. The learner can choose to download, print, or save the pdf of their Certificate of Completion.
Create the template for your Certificate of Completion
Administrators can create and customize their own certificate to be used in their account. Here's how to do that:
Step 1: Create your Certificate Background
First, decide on the certificate background you'd like to use for your account-wide certificate.
You can design your own certificate background in any program that can save in a PDF format (like Canva), or even use a predesigned PDF template.
Tips for your template:
Add a border
Add your logo
Add one or two signatures
Add your permanent text (such as "is presented to" or "for completion of"). You'll also have the option to add permanent text in the generator later, if you prefer.
Do not add the learners' name, training Path name, or other variables that will change from one Path to another.
Save your certificate background as a PDF.
Below is an example of a Certificate Background that includes the permanent text that will not change from one Path to another:
Step 2: Add your background to the Certificate Template Creator
You can create and edit the Certificate Template that is shared with all Paths under Dashboard > Account Settings > Configure features & integrations > Configure certificates > Design Completion Certificate.
To get started, choose "Select a PDF" to add your certificate background to the Certificate Creator:
Step 3: Add the text boxes for your Variables or additional non-variable text.
Click "Add new text box" to add text to your certificate template. In the text box you will be able to include both permanent text as well as variables that will change for each learner and Path.
For example, maybe you'd like to include something like the following:
@user.first_name has completed @path.name on @path.completion_date
This is to certify that @user.full_name has successfully completed the requirements for @path.name
Typing "@" will provide a list of variables for you to choose from, and you can even create your own custom variables as well, which is covered below. Custom Variables are helpful if you'd like to include professional development credits, a teacher's name, or any other variable.
The pre-set variables shown below will automatically populate with the correct information for each learner and Path that you add the certificate.
In the below example, we're using 3 text boxes for the areas that will vary for each person and Path, and the rest is permanent text that was included on the certificate background that we uploaded. Later, we'll also add a Custom Variable for CEUs to fill the blank in "Approved for ____ Credit Hours" on the certificate.
If you'd like to see what your Certificate Template looks like as you're designing, you can select "Live preview" on the Design panel.
Customize the template for a particular Path
If you'd like to include professional development credits like CEUs, you can create a Custom Variable to add the unique number of credits to each course Path certificate.
Custom Variables can be created to include CEU credits, contact hours, the course teacher's name, or other types of custom information you'd like to include.
To create a Custom Variable, type "@" followed by your custom variable title:
Once you are satisfied with your Certificate Template, select "Save Changes." You've now created your template that will be used for all of the Paths in your account. 🎉
Add the Certificate to all of the Paths quickly
Now that you've saved your template, you can add it to all of the Paths that you'd like by clicking the back arrow:
You can then select all of the Paths that you'd like to include a certificate of completion for.
✨ Pro tip: You can select multiple Paths at a time.
Once you choose a Path or multiple Paths, you'll be able to add in the data for your Custom Variable:
Add the Certificate to an individual Path
An administrator, library editor, or path editor can also enable the template certificate on an individual Path and customize its variables by configuring that Path's settings
Once the certificate is enabled, you can edit that individual certificate. If you go under the Variables screen, you can add in that Path's information for the Custom Variable. For example, you could add in the number of credit hours that the Path has been approved for.
Below is the learner view of the above Certificate of Completion:
FAQs
Q. Who can edit the certificate?
A. Administrators will be able to create and edit the Certificate Template that is used for all Paths in the account.
If you assign someone the role of Path Editor or Library Editor, they will be able to customize the variables for the certificate for the Paths that they have access to edit.
Q. Can I include a Custom Variable on some certificates but not on others?
A. Yes, if you do not add information or a value for the Custom Variable for an individual path then that Custom Variable will simply be removed from that certificate when it is generated.
Q. How do learners access the certificate?
A. Once enabled on a Path, the certificate is immediately available to learners to download as a PDF or print when the following conditions are met:
100% of required steps on the path are completed.
100% of optional steps on the path are completed or skipped.
All minimum passing scores have been met on auto-graded steps.
Here are learner-facing instructions for downloading the certificate from a completed Path.
Q. Can I require learners to pass minimum required scores on manually graded steps before unlocking the certificate of completion?
A. Completed steps that require manual review and have not yet received a grade will be considered completed, and learners will be able to download the certificate before the manual grading is completed.
If you don't want to award the certificate until all outstanding manual grading is completed, you can do this:
Add a password-locked step at the end of the Path.
Have your grader provide each learner with the password when all manual grading for that learner is completed.
Once the learner unlocks the final step and marks it complete, the completion message will pop up and they can download the PDF certificate.
Q. Can I offer a different customized certificate for each Path?
A. We currently support one certificate template at a time per account. This means that the branding colors, logo, and signatures are the same on all certificates across the account. You can, however, change or update your certificate whenever you'd like.