How to Add a Course Certificate to Your Moodle Course
Allows learners to celebrate achievements by obtaining certificates.
The Course Certificate Plugin (mod_coursecertificate) works together with the Certificate Manager plugin (tool_certificate - which allows certificate templates to be designed and issued at system and category level).
Moodle Site Administrators can refer to the guide ‘How to Add a New Certificate Template to the Certificate Manager in Moodle'.
The Course Certificate Plugin is an activity module in Moodle that will automatically issue certificates when the student satisfies the access restrictions. The plugin will send the course name and completion information to the tool_certificate plugin, so if these fields are included in the template, they will be displayed on the certificate.
The plugin allows the Tutor to choose from different certificate templates which will automatically display user data such as full name, course, etc.
Users will be able to download a PDF copy of the certificate themselves by accessing this activity.
If the template used on this activity contains a QR code, users will be able to scan it to validate their certificates.
How to add a new course certificate activity
Turn editing on in the course and click on ‘Add an activity or resource’. Select the ‘Course certificate’ activity.
Fill in the typical activity settings as "Name", "Description" and other fields, if needed.
Select a certificate template which was previously created using the Certificates tool.
NOTE: TEL would have created the certificate template in liaison with the Tutor running the course. If you have a certificate prepared, please share it with TEL who will upload it to Moodle and make it available as a template in your Moodle category.
You can choose and edit a certificate background image from Canva or Adobe / Adobe Express and share the image file with TEL (.gif .jpe .jpeg .jpg .png .svg .svgz are acceptable file types).
Let TEL know what fields you will need automatically adding to the certificate e.g. Name; Date (course completion) etc.
Notice that once the activity issues at least one certificate, this field will be locked and will no longer be editable.
4. While configuring the activity, pay attention to the activity restriction in the "Restrict access" section. Setting it correctly will avoid issuing the certificate by mistake to existing users.
5. Click on ‘Save and return to course’.
Students will need to click on the activity link displayed on the course page to receive the certificate once they meet the activity's access restrictions.
However, if you wanted to enable students to automatically receive a PDF copy of the certificate once they meet this activity’s access restrictions (they don’t have to click on the certificate activity), you can configure this using the ‘Enable’ button.
Students will then receive a notification in Moodle to inform them that their certificate is ready.
Once they click on this notification icon, they will be redirected to the Notifications area and will be able to click on their ‘My Certificates’ (to download / print).
Students who have already accessed this certificate activity will not receive the certificate again.
The Certificate will also be emailed to the students.
This is how the certificate appears to the student:
You will note that the students name (Aleks TestStudent) has been automatically inserted into the certificate.
From the Moodle page, click on the Certificate activity you have just created.
As a Tutor, when you click on the name of the certificate, you will see a list of certified users:
If you are intending to issue the certificate upon a successful submission (a grade is required) to a Moodle assignment, please read the following:
You will need to set up 'Activity Completion' (which states that the activity 'must be complete with pass grade') in the Moodle Assignment, and a 'Restrict Access' setting within the Certificate setting (so that only those students who have received a pass grade can access the Certificate).
Please note that when setting up the Grade type within the Moodle Assignment setting, it seems it is not possible to use a 'Scale' as part of the assignment grading. You would need to use a 'Point' so that a numerical value determines a pass or fail. 1 could be a pass whereas 0 a fail.