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Certificates of Completion

Certificates of completion are a way to recognize students who finish all lessons in your course. They can also serve as documentation for schools with accreditation.

Updated this week

Overview

  • You can add certificates to any course in your school.

  • Certificates can be automatically or manually issued to students.

  • Only one active certificate per course can be live at a time.

  • If a new certificate needs to be issued, the previous certificate must be revoked and replaced.

  • Students may still keep previously downloaded copies of older certificates.

Note: Teachable is not an accrediting body. Please contact the school owner directly for inquiries regarding certification or credits.

Creating a Certificate

  1. Navigate to your course and select Certificates in the course sidebar.

  2. Click Create New Certificate, or New Certificate in the top corner to create additional certificates.

  3. Choose from three default certificate templates, or create a custom certificate using Liquid/HTML.

create a new certificate.png

Certificate Templates

You can edit the following elements in the certificate editor:

Content Tab

  • Logo

  • Title

  • Subtitle

  • "Graduating From" (defaults to the course name)

  • Date Label (automatically generated)

  • Signature

  • Serial Number Title

Design Tab

  • Background Color

  • Primary Text Color

  • Secondary Text Color

Settings (Gear Icon)

  • Certificate Name (file name for the certificate)

edit certificate template.gif

Use the Preview button to see how your certificate will appear to students.


Click Finish to save changes. You will be prompted to Activate the certificate immediately or at a later time.

Important: Once a certificate is activated, students who complete the course after activation will see and be able to download it.

Custom certificates

Custom certificates use Liquid and/or HTML.

  • Preview your changes using the Preview button in the editor.

  • Recommended size: 800px width × 600px height

Supported HTML Tags

<a>, <b>, <br>, <code>, <div>, <em>, <h1>–<h6>, <hr>, <i>, <iframe>, <img>, <li>, <ol>, <p>, <pre>, <samp>, <span>, <strong>, <style>, <table>, <td>, <th>, <tr>, <u>, <ul>

Supported HTML Attributes

allow, allowfullscreen, alt, class, data, frameborder, height, href, id, name, src, style, target, type, value, width

Available Liquid Variables

  • course.name

  • current_school.name

  • block.student_name or current_user.name

  • course.report_card.certificate_issued_at | date: "%d - %m - %y"

  • course.report_card.certificate_serial_number

Caution: Custom code is advanced and may not function with future Teachable updates.

certificate-preview.gif

Managing Certificates

  • Only one certificate can be active per course at a time.

Active Certificates

You can:

  • Preview the student's view

  • Edit

  • Deactivate

  • Delete (must deactivate first)

Inactive Certificates

You can:

  • Activate

  • Edit

  • Preview

  • Delete

Note: Certificates that have already been issued cannot be deleted until they are revoked from students.

Editing a Certificate

You can edit both active and inactive certificates at any time.

Edit an Active Certificate

  1. Navigate to the course.

  2. Open the Certificates section.

  3. Locate the active certificate.

  4. Click the More Options (three dot) icon.

  5. Select Edit.

  6. Make your changes in the editor.

  7. Click Finish to save.

Note: If you need to delete an active certificate, it must be deactivated first.

Edit an Inactive Certificate

  1. Navigate to the course where the certificate is located.

  2. Open the Certificates section from the course sidebar.

  3. Locate the inactive certificate.

  4. Click the Edit icon.

  5. Make your changes in the certificate editor.

  6. Click Finish to save.

Manually Issuing Certificates

For Individual Students

  1. Deactivate all course certificates.

  2. Go to Users > [Student Profile] > Enrollments.

  3. Click More Options (three dots) → Issue Certificate.

  4. Choose the certificate.

  5. Click Issue.

manually issue a certificate.gif

Bulk Issuing

  1. Filter students and select the checkbox at the top.

  2. Click Bulk Action → Issue Certificate.

  3. Choose the certificate.

  4. Click Issue.

Students receive an email with a link to the Certificate tab to view and download the certificate.

manually bulk issue certificates.png

Downloading Certificates

For School Owners and Course Authors

  1. Go to Users > [Student Profile] > Enrollments.

  2. Click More Options next to the course.

  3. Select Download Certificate (PDF).

admin view - download a certificate.png

For Students

Students automatically unlock their certificate once they have marked all lectures in the course as complete.

How Students Access Their Certificate

  • The certificate appears immediately after completing the final lesson in the course.

  • Students can click Download to save the certificate as a PDF file to their device.

  • If the student has opted in to receive school emails, they will also receive an email notification with a link to the Certificate tab in the course curriculum.

student view - download certificate.png

Access Rules

  • Students can download their certificate any time after it has been issued.

  • If a student is unenrolled from the course or the certificate is revoked, they will no longer be able to view or download it.

  • If the student previously downloaded the certificate, they will still retain the PDF in their local files.

Revoking Certificates

  1. Go to Users > [Student Profile] > Enrollments.

  2. In the Certificates section, click Revoke.

  3. Confirm in the popup.

revoke-certificate.gif

Important:

  • Once revoked, the certificate is no longer downloadable.

  • If the student already downloaded the PDF, they retain that copy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can a student have more than one active certificate at a time?
No. A student can only have one active certificate in the system at a time for a course.

What happens if a student already downloaded a certificate and a new one is issued?
If the student previously downloaded a certificate, they will still keep that PDF file. However, only one certificate can be active in the system at any time.

How do I issue a new certificate to a student?
To issue a new certificate, you must:

  1. Revoke the existing certificate.

  2. Issue a new certificate (manually or via activation).

Can I delete a certificate that has already been issued?
No. Certificates that have already been issued cannot be deleted until they are revoked from all students.

If a certificate is revoked, can the student still access it?
No. Once revoked, the certificate is no longer available for download in the system.
However, if the student already downloaded the PDF, they will still have access to their local copy.

Is there automated certificate notifications for administrators?

Teachable currently does not provide a built-in feature to automatically forward certificates to school administrators. If needed, administrators can manually download copies of certificates as required.

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Student Receipts and Invoices
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