Make my quizzes count towards a certificate
If your course ends in a certificate, the knowledge checks are what stands between a learner and earning it. Which checks count is your decision, and it’s one sentence to change.
The prompt
“On my [course name] course, make the [lesson name] quiz required for finishing the course, and leave [the other one] optional.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
Required or optional
Every check on a course is one or the other.
- Required - the learner has to clear it. This is the default for a new check, and it’s what an accredited course usually wants.
- Optional - practice. It’s marked and the learner sees how they did, but it doesn’t hold anything up.
“Make the module 3 check optional” is all it takes. Nobody’s existing record changes; you’re setting the rule for what finishing means from here.
Clearing a check means passing it, or - for a check that’s really a “did you take part” step - submitting it (Set the pass mark and how many retakes).
What finishing means
Every course starts with this: a learner has finished when every required check is cleared and every lesson is marked as done. Both halves matter: passing all the quizzes without working through the lessons isn’t finishing, and neither is the other way round.
If your course carries optional extras, such as a recorded webinar or a podcast version of a lesson, you can make it finish on the required checks alone, so the extras never hold anyone back (Let learners finish my course without the optional lessons).
A lesson is marked as done on its own: a video or audio lesson when the learner plays it to the end, a text lesson when they reach the end of it, and a quiz lesson when they pass the quiz.
When both are true, bernard records the completion against that learner with the date. What happens to their certificate then is a setting on each course: issued automatically, held for you to approve, or not given at all. A certificate carries their name as recorded, your course title, the date and a certificate number unique to your site. It’s written once and never rewritten - which is the point, because a certificate is evidence. Certificates have their own guides, from that setting to the design and to giving one for something that isn’t a course.
How learners get their certificate
Each certificate is printed as a PDF the moment it is issued, and you can see any of them. Your learners download theirs from their My courses page, and bernard emails it to them with the PDF attached. A design with a transcript page sends the certificate and the transcript as two separate PDFs.
A note on accredited courses
If an awarding body sets your rules, two things are worth checking with them before you launch: the pass mark you use, and whether learners are allowed to see which answers were wrong after marking. bernard can do it either way and doesn’t decide for you (Set the pass mark and how many retakes).
Courses moved across from another platform bring their existing structure with them (Move my courses off LearnDash or WordPress). Certificates your learners earned on the old platform are not copied across, but you can give any of those learners a certificate by hand.
Questions people ask
- What decides that a learner has finished a course?
- Your choice, course by course. Every course starts with two things together: every knowledge check you marked as required has been cleared, and every lesson has been marked as done. A course with optional extras, such as webinars or podcast versions, can instead finish on the required knowledge checks alone. Either way, bernard then records the completion against that learner with the date.
- When does a lesson count as done?
- It depends on the lesson. A video or audio lesson is done when the learner plays it to the end, or most of it and then leaves the page. A text lesson is done when the learner reaches the end of it. A quiz lesson is done when the learner passes the quiz (or, for a quiz with no pass mark, submits it). Nobody has to press a button.
- Does every quiz have to be passed?
- No. Each check is either required or optional. A required one stands between the learner and finishing the course; an optional one is practice. New checks are required unless you say otherwise, and you can change it any time - it takes effect when you approve the change.
- What happens the moment someone finishes?
- bernard records the completion. What happens next is your choice for each course: the certificate is issued straight away, it waits for you to approve it, or the course gives no certificate at all.
- Can a learner download a printed certificate?
- Yes. Each certificate is printed as a PDF the moment it is issued, and the learner downloads it from their My courses page. bernard also emails it to them with the PDF attached (two PDFs when the design has a transcript page).