Creating and Awarding Certifications

August 15, 2023
Certifications
How to create Certifications

  1. Click the  Add a new Certification  button
  2. Enter a  Certification Name  and  Description
  3. You can enter a number into the  Days Until Expiration  field to specify how many days that the certification remains active before expiring.
  4. If you're creating an image-based certificate, enable the  Create Downloadable Certification Image  checkbox.
    • If you've enabled this option, press  Save and Continue  to continue to the next page and you will be prompted to upload your certificate image. This image file (JPG or PNG) should be a certificate template with empty spaces for any member-specific information that you want to include. The tool will allow you to superimpose that information on top of the empty spaces, and will automatically update with the information from the members who are awarded the certificate.

      After you've uploaded your certificate image, the page will show a number of options on the left-hand side for superimposing member information on top of the template. You can set the  Font Used  and  Font Color  fields to choose your font and font color which will apply to all of the fields that you display. You can then choose to add these following fields to your certificate:
       
      1. Display name on image
        When enabled, you will be able to position the member's name on the certification image
      2. Display completion date on image
        When enabled, you will be able to position the date the certification was awarded to the member on the certification image
      3. Display expiration date on image (only enable if this certificate expires!)
        When enabled, you will be able to position the date the certification expires on the certification image
      4. Display member plan
        When enabled, you will be able to position the member plan on the certification image
      5. Display member number
        When enabled, you will be able to position the member number on the certification image
      6. Display member employer/organization
        When enabled, you will be able to position the member's employer/organization on the certification image
      7. Display member address
        When enabled, you will be able to position the member's address on the certification image
         
    • When you enable any of the options above, new options will appear to position the superimposed text on top of the blank space of your certificate image.

      NOTE: The superimposed text starts centered at the very top of your image and may not be visible at first, so you must adjust the following values until it is visible . It's best to add a font size and then increase the Y Offset value until you can see the superimposed text, and then you can click and hold the up/down arrows on each option to change their values and see the text move within the preview on the right.
       
      • Font Size  - this is used to control the size of the text, enter a number that's high enough for the text to be visible on your certificate
      • X Offset (left of center)  - Increasing this value will shift your superimposed text to the right, and decreasing this value will shift the text to the left.
      • Y Offset (from top)  - Increasing this value will shift your superimposed text downwards from the top of the image, and decreasing this value will shift it back upwards.
      • Left Align (instead of centering)  - Enabling this checkbox will move the superimposed text's starting point to the left side of the image, rather than being centered.
         
    • Once you've finished adding member information to display over the Certificate Image, this page will automatically save any changes that you've made. You can use the navigation links at the top to return to the Main Menu or Certifications pages.

How to award Certifications to members:

  1. Admins can manually award certifications to members from the main  Certifications  page. There is a Members icon underneath the "Actions" column on that page which will allow you to see the list of members who have been awarded the certification. This page will also have an "Add Member to Cert" button - clicking this will let you add individual members from a drop-down menu and optionally specify their certification's Assignment and Expiration dates. 
     
  2. Certifications can also be automatically awarded to members who complete an Online Learning Course. If you enter the Online Learning module and select the  Courses  link, you can edit your created courses and use the  Certification   option to enable any of your certifications to be awarded automatically to members who successfully pass the Course. 
     
  3. Certifications can also be automatically awarded to Event Registration attendees who are marked as "attended" via the checkbox on the Attendee List page (attendees:  edit). This can be configured by editing your Event Registration and searching under  Advanced Event Options  for the option called Award Certification(s) when Attendees are Marked as Attended . This will show a list of checkboxes for all of your certifications, and you can enable the one(s) you want to be awarded by the event. 

    Afterwards, you can go to the Attendee List page and click the checkboxes next to each Attendee to mark them as attended. Doing so will automatically award the certification to them as soon as their attendance is marked. Please note that the Attendees must be matched to their member records to be able to do this, and you can track and manually match attendees using the  Attendee Member Match Tool  found in the event's reporting section.