Possible ways to award and reissue a certificate to a user

Learn365 enables the certificates to be awarded to users when they complete a certain course or training plan. The standard flow means that a certificate is configured in the training settings before users start engaging with the training. However, use cases may differ from the standard flow.

There may be occasions when a catalog or course admin needs to update a user's certificate or issue a certificate for a course or training plan without asking the user to take the training again. There might also be a situation where a certificate for successful completion of a course or training plan wasn't originally configured for the training in question, but you want to award one retrospectively.

A certificate can be awarded and reissued in several ways: via the standard Learn365 flow, via the training or user progress dashboard, the Import External Training option, the Learn365 API endpoints, and the Import Tool (for certified partners only).

In this article, we provide an overview of how a certificate can be awarded and reissued.

 

In this article

• Award a certificate via a standard Learn365 flow
• Award or reissue a certificate via the training or user progress dashboard
• Award or reissue a certificate via the Import External Training option
• Award or reissue a certificate via Learn365 API endpoints

 

Award a certificate via a standard Learn365 flow

Required role: catalog admin or course admin.

In the training settings, an admin configures a certificate that will be awarded to enrolled users when they complete training. The flow is the same for e-learning and instructor-led training courses, and training plans.

The only discrepancy is in the certificates available in the drop-down menu as they differ for courses and training plans. This is because certificate templates are initially created for use in a specific type of training - either courses or training plans. For more information about certificate templates, see this article.

 

Award or reissue a certificate via the training or user progress dashboard

Required role: catalog admin or course admin.

From the training progress dashboard or the user progress dashboard, there are several ways in which a catalog or course admin can award or reissue a certificate to a user:

• Award by manually marking their training as complete. An admin needs to manually mark the training as complete for the user in question. This will trigger the certificate to be awarded to the user, and all the relevant notifications related to training completion, and certificates and skills awarded, to be sent to the relevant recipients. If you don't want these notifications to be sent, you can disable them before performing the described actions.
  
  
• Reissue by deleting a user's training progress and manually marking their training as complete.
  Deleting a user's training progress involves deleting a user’s current certificates, granted skills, and attendance for the training. The status of the training will be set to Not Started. After training progress is deleted, an admin needs to manually mark their training as complete.
  This will trigger the certificate to be awarded to the user, and all the relevant notifications related to training completion, and certificates and skills awarded, to be sent to the relevant recipients. If you don't want these notifications to be sent, you can disable them before performing the described actions.
  
  
• Reissue by manually changing the training progress to Not Started and then to Completed. 
  When editing a user's training progress, move the Completed toggle to the Off position and save the changes. The status of the training will be set to Not Started. An admin then needs to manually complete the training for the user by moving the Completed toggle to the On position.
  This will trigger the certificate to be awarded to the user, and all the relevant notifications related to training completion, and certificates and skills awarded, to be sent to the relevant recipients. If you don't want these notifications to be sent, you can disable them before performing the described actions.
  
  
• Reissue by manually forcing a training retake and completing the training for a user.
  When forcing a retake, you can reset the user's progress of a completed course or training plan and then manually complete the training for the user by moving the Completed toggle to the On position. 
  This will trigger the certificate to be awarded to the user, and all the relevant notifications related to training completion, and certificates and skills awarded, to be sent to the relevant recipients. If you don't want these notifications to be sent, you can disable them before performing the described actions.
  

 

Award or reissue a certificate via the Import External Training option

Required role: catalog admin.

The Import External Training option can be used to import training records that are stored in a third-party system into Learn365, which updates users' training completion dates, and awards and reissues certificates. In this section, we describe how this option can be used to award and reissue certificates for courses. Import External Training works only for e-learning and instructor-led training.

This option can be used:

• When a user completed a course that had no certification enabled at the time they completed it.
• When a user's certificate needs to be updated for any reason.
• When a user needs to be awarded a certificate, regardless of whether they've completed the course.
• When a user needs to be awarded a certificate for external training.

When importing training records into an existing course or an imported one, you can upload or generate a certificate for the course. Here, a catalog admin can use an already created certificate that's stored on their computer or use the relevant certificate template in Learn365. The completion date set during import will be the date the certificate is awarded and setting the expiry date is optional. Saving the changes will trigger the certificate to be awarded to the user.

Awarding a certificate via Import External Training won't trigger notifications to be sent to the user. If an expiry date for the certificate is set, the user will receive the Certificate Expiry Reminder and Certificate Expiry notifications. 

The awarded certificate will be displayed on My Training Dashboard and in the user's Transcript. However, if the certificate is awarded for an existing course in which the user is enrolled (with the Enrolled or Cancelled statuses), and the enrollment date is earlier than the completion date set when importing training records, the user won't see this certificate on My Training Dashboard.

 

Award or reissue a certificate via Learn365 API endpoints

Required role: user with the relevant API key.

A certificate can be awarded to a user using an Learn365 API endpoint. For more information, see this article. The same Learn365 API call can be used in your Power Automate flow to award a certificate to multiple users. 

However, for a certificate that's already been awarded, a certificate's image, template, or expiry date can be updated using a different Learn365 API endpoint. For more information, see this article.