Certificates
- Matthew Harrington
Feature Summary
The certificates feature allows learners to claim certificates that state that they completed courses and are endorsed by the issuing body who created the course. Via their progress page, learners receive a link to a page with details of their certificate on it explaining what it is and what it’s for. There is no option to download a PDF version directly from the certificates page, but the certificates page provides a link to open a print dialogue, where most modern browsers can “print to PDF”.
Certificates are issued on a per-track basis, and are issued when a learner achieves a passing grade. Certificates can be generated at a variety of times, by default 48 hours after an instructor-paced course ends. Automatic certificate generation can be enabled at the platform level, and there are other configuration options at the course level to allow or prevent learners from claiming certificates early.
The following information appears on an Open edX certificate:
Learner name
Course name
Course code
Institution name
Issuing signatories/signatory name
Custom text
In addition, these fields and others on the certificate claim page (such as “we hereby” text) can be customised on a per-course basis using the Advanced Settings.
Open edX’s badging support is non-standard and requires a lot of custom effort. I’ve noted this here as it is credential-related, but will focus primarily on the certificates feature specifically in this review, as it’s a large enough feature without bringing badging into the picture.
Generally, certificates are included on every platform, but are generally sidelined and victims of under-investment, with greater focus on both modern credentialing features like badging, and integrations with formal institution systems to issue full-credit diplomas and credentials. Certificates seem to be considered “good enough” when they can simply spit out a PDF or webpage with a picture and an integration with LinkedIn. Where almost all platforms surpass Open edX is their ability to customise certificates on a per-course basis in a simple interface.
Associated Documents
Pedagogical Assessment
Is there research to support the need of this feature in delivering pedagogical value and impact?
Low-stakes certification essentially rose to prominence due to the extremely competitive US technology job market. With many jobs becoming open to semi-skilled workers, and the perceived value of traditional degrees waning, certificates became a way of differentiating learners to potential employers. At the same time, the availability of online certificates gave rise to a large wave of leisure learners, who in essence simply collect certificates for the sake of learning a variety of subjects.
In recent years there has been a dramatic proliferation of certificates of participation that are easy to acquire and are not always marked purely as participation certificates, which has decreased the perception of their inherent value to institutions and employers, and some see this as a risk to genuine accredited certifications.
On the other hand, in the corporate and technology world, certificates are typically seen as having value from the identity of the issuer alone. If, for example, a learner has a certificate in using a piece of software from the software’s developers themselves, this often carries more weight with technical employers than a higher-stakes certification from an unknown source. This is a large part of why platforms like Redis University, Microsoft Learn, and Grow With Google have grown in prominence in the tech industry, despite not having any connection to or endorsement from traditional learning institutions. For these companies, certificates and badges are essentially the highest-stakes form of credential they can offer, and they are taken by millions of learners worldwide, and trusted as valued certifications.
Despite their relative lack of formal importance unless accredited, learners are motivated to enrol in and complete courses by earning certificates of completion, as can be clearly seen from UPValenciaX’s enrollment numbers dropping significantly, and course completion rates halving when http://edX.org discontinued free certificates in 2016. Certificates in low-stakes courses essentially be used as a gamification technique to drive engagement, as learners will push through to reach their reward at the end. Virtually all online course platforms use certificates as an income stream and a way to motivate learners to enrol in courses, regardless of the actual value of those certificates.
Certificates have significant overlap with badging and other microcredentials, which have in many contexts taken over certificates, and their status as separate entities is disputable, for example Microsoft now use badges ahead of certificates, but still certify learners, and optionally offer paper certificates with the badge displayed on the certificate alongside the badge.
It appears to me as though in the modern use-case, the merging of badging and certificates may be somewhat inevitable, as the two are repeatedly used interchangeably and in a linked way, particularly by technology companies. Theoretically, this could be due to employers not actually caring enough to check the status of most low-stakes certificates; they are not taken as proof of actual skill by employers, but are instead taken as evidence of interest and commitment in the subject area. This means there is almost no value in physical copies of certificates, except to older learners, and digital-only “e-certificates” of participation are essentially another form of badge without the inherent benefits of open badging standards.
Meanwhile certification exams are still seen as having far greater value, despite the certificates themselves not being inherently tied to this (and, indeed, many certifications exams issue a certificate and/or a badge upon completion). Time-bound certifications that require reissuing after specific time periods are sought-after and form a significant revenue stream for certifying organisations with high-stakes exams, due to repeated payments from learners maintaining their qualifications.
Links
Offering Certificates of Completion in an Online Course: The Pros and Cons
Electronic badges, heraldry, e-certificates and the balkanization of credentials
When to Use Digital Badges vs Digital Certificates in Higher Education
The Pros and Cons of Getting a Coursera Certificate | Education Speaks
Effect of Free Certificate Discontinuation in Completion Rates of MOOC
Subject-Matter Alignment
What types of courses/subjects does this feature support?
All courses can benefit from the presence of certificates, but tech companies form a huge outlier in terms of the usefulness and acceptability of low-stakes certifications like certificates. Due to the nature of technology products and the assumption that most learners with access to an online course about a software product will have a way of testing their skills with that software product, technology certification through non-traditional courses is significantly more trusted than more academic subjects.
To put it another way, if a learner has a free certification from Microsoft, their qualification will typically be more trusted in that industry than another learner whose certificate is from a free online course in psychology would be in that field.
Are Certificates a Necessary Feature?
Certificates, while slowly merging with badges, are still a necessary feature. They are desired by learners who still value them higher than employers and academic institutions. They form one of the few available income streams for free online course platforms, and give learners the perception of value from their course, as well as an “end” goal to aim for, which motivates them to continue learning.