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Certifications are very similar to programs, with both facilitating the creation of adaptive learning paths, where completion dependencies can be defined and the order and flow of the courses learners complete can be controlled.

However, unlike programs, certifications are only valid for a certain period of time, after which the system will prompt the learner to re-certify. This is useful for skills that need to be updated, or where a learner may need to demonstrate compliance with changing policies, practices, or regulations. 

A certification includes completion dates and time frames for enrolled learners to complete each stage of the certification. Personalised and customised messages and reminders can also be configured to be automatically sent to enrolled learners and their managers.

Learners can be enrolled on certifications based on their organisation, position, management hierarchy, individually or via an audience, with different completion criteria may be set for each group if required.

Creating a certification 

1. From the Site administration menu navigate to Courses > Manage certifications.
   
2. Select Add a new certification.
3. Complete the Details section.
4. Add certification Content.
5. Add certification Assignments.
6. Create certification Messages as required.
7. Set the Certification period.
8. Select Save changes.

Editing a certification

Once a certification has been created it is still possible to make changes by editing the certification, although be aware that if a certification is live, any changes made will impact on the assigned learners.

1. From the Site administration menu navigate to Courses > Manage certifications.

2. Select the name of the category (or sub category) in which the certification sits

3. Select the corresponding Settings icon () for the required certification, or select the certification name to open it, then select Edit certification details.
4. Edit the certification Details, Content, Assignments and Messages as required, as described below.
5. Select Save changes on each page to save any edits or Cancel to disregard.

A certification can also be deleted, moved up or down the certification listing page, or moved to another category within the category certification listing using the corresponding Edit icons.

Adding certification details 

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The details section includes basic information about the certification and core settings for display and availability.

Adding certification content

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The Content tab defines the courses that learners will be required to complete to gain and maintain the certification.

Certification content can include any set of courses within a Totara Learn site.

Once multiple sets have been added, set dividers are employed to create of sequences or dependencies between each set.

Original certification path

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When adding Original certification content to a certification, open the Content tab in the relevant certification and follow the below steps:

1. Select Set of courses from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add.
2. Browse through the course categories or Search for a specific course.

   Note
   Note that if completion tracking is not enabled for a course, that course will not be available to add to a certification.

3. Click on the name of each course to be added.
4. Selected course(s) appear in the Items to add area.
5. Click Ok to complete the course selection or Cancel to exit.
6. Complete the course set settings as described below.
7. Repeat steps 1-7 to add another Set of courses.
8. Select Save changes.
   
   

Course sets

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Set dividers

When adding multiple sets of courses or more than one competency to a certification, conditional dividers or access rules can be added between sets. 

Choose from:

• Or: Learners can either complete the learning in the first course/competency set or the second course/competency set, the learning of both course/competency sets is available at the same time
• Then: Learners must complete the first course/competency set before being given access to the second course/competency set
• And: If both course/competency sets need to be completed

Recertification path

When adding Recertification certification content to a certification, open the Content tab in the relevant certification.

To use the same content as the Original certification path, select Use the existing certification content checkbox. This will copy everything from the Original certification path into the Recertification path.

To use different content to the Original certification path, follow the below steps:

1. Select Set of courses from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add.
2. Browse through the course categories or Search for a specific course.
3. Click on the name of each course to be added.
4. Selected course(s) appear in the Items to add area.
5. Click Ok to complete the course selection or Cancel to exit.
6. Complete the course set settings.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 to add another Set of courses.
8. Select Save changes.
9. A warning message containing the number of learners who are currently assigned to the certification that would be affected by changes is displayed. Click Save all changes.
   
   

Assigning learners

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The Assignments section is used to select those learners who should complete the certification. Users can be assigned by organisation, position, audience, management hierarchy, and/or individually.

Once learners are assigned to a certification, they will be provided access to enrol in each selected course.

When adding learners to a certification, open the Assignments tab in the relevant certification and follow the below steps:

If	Then	Notes
Adding learners by organisation	Select Organisations from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. Click the Add organisations to program button. Select the required organisational framework from the dropdown box. Browse through the organisations or Search for a specific organisation. Click on the name of each organisation to be added The selected organisations(s) appear under the Items to add area. Click Ok to complete the organisation selection or Cancel to exit. Select All below to include all users in the hierarchy structure below the selected organisation Enter an Assignment due date as described below. Repeat steps 1-9 to add another organisation(s). Select Save changes.	A delete icon to remove an organisation from the selection will appear on hover over. Organisations from different frameworks can be selected.
Adding learners by position	Select Positions from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. Click the Add position to program button. Select the required positional framework from the dropdown box. Browse through the positions or Search for a specific position. Click on the name of each organisation to be added The selected position(s) appear under the Items to add area. Click Ok to complete the position selection or Cancel to exit. Select All below to include all users in the hierarchy structure below the selected position Enter an Assignment due date as described below. Repeat steps 1-9 to add another position(s). Select Save changes.	A delete icon to remove a position from the selection will appear on hover over. Positions from different frameworks can be selected.
Adding learners by audience	Select Audiences from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. Click the Add audiences to program button. Browse through the audiences or Search for a specific audience. Click on the name of each audience to be added The selected audience(s) appear under the Items to add area. Click Ok to complete the audience selection or Cancel to exit. Enter an Assignment due date as described below. Repeat steps 1-7 to add another position(s). Select Save changes.	To learn more about creating audiences, please see Audiences. A delete icon to remove an audience from the selection will appear on hover over.
Adding learners by management hierarchy	Select Management hierarchy from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. Click the Add managers to program button. Browse through the user list or Search for a specific manager. Click on the manager name(s) then choose the appropriate job assignment(s) applicable to the certification assignment. The selected manager(s) and their job assignment(s) will appear in the Items to add area. Click Ok to complete the manager selection or Cancel to exit. Under the For column, select direct team to add the manager’s direct reports or all below to add both thier direct and indirect reports. Enter an Assignment due date as described below. Repeat steps 1-8 to add another position(s). Select Save changes.	Please see Job Assignments for more information. A delete icon to remove a manager from the selection will appear on hover over.
Adding individual learners	Select Individuals from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. Click the Add individuals to program button. Browse through the user list or Search for a specific individual. Click on the name of each individual to be added. The selected individuals(s) appear under the Items to add area. Click Ok to complete the selection of individuals or Cancel to exit. Enter an Assignment due date as described below. Repeat steps 1-7 to add another position(s). Select Save changes.	A delete icon to remove an individual from the selection will appear on hover over.

Assignment due date

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The due date for users enrolled in the certification via any of the assignment types, must be set using a fixed completion date or using a time relative to one of the following events:

• First login: Relative to the users first log in to the system.

• Position assigned date: Relative to the time a position was assigned to any of the users job assignments with the specified position

• Job assignment start date: Relative to the start date field of any of the users job assignments with the specified position

• Program completion: Relative to the time another specified program or certification was completed by the user

• Course completion: Relative to the time a specified course was completed by the user

• Profile field date: Relative to the value of a date/time custom field in the users profile

• Program enrolment date: Relative to the time a user was enrolled in this certification

An Assignment due date will be assigned to other users as they join the group. The actual due date cannot be changed if the user has already completed the certification. 

Users' actual due dates may differ from the assignment due date for various reasons, including:

• If another assignment type includes the same user, the other assignment due date may override this one
• If this assignment has a relative due date, which is not yet applicable to the user
• A user may have been granted an extension by a manager
• If an exception occurred and the Set realistic time allowance action was used to resolve it
• This assignment due date may have changed, but the user still has the due date that was originally given to them
• This is a certification, and the due date has automatically been set to the expiration date

Note that assignment due dates are recorded when after the Save changes button is selected, but are not applied until the user assignments are updated. If a message indicating that user assignments have been deferred is displayed, then any user due date changes will not yet be applied.

Once saved, a confirmation message appears at the top of the screen.

Actual due date

After using the Assignment due date option to assign a due date to the group of users and saving all changes, the Actual due date column will display a link to view the specific due date for all users enrolled in the certification using the corresponding assignment type. 

Creating certification messages

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Customised, automated messages can be created and emailed to all users assigned to a certification. An optional message for the managers of each assigned learner can also be added, depending on the message type selected.

When adding messages to a certification, open the Messages tab in the relevant certification and follow the below steps:

1. Select the required message type from the Add a new drop down menu and choose Add.
2. If relevant, set a time based Trigger for the message being sent
3. Add a Subject line and Message body, using variables as required.
4. Select Send notice to manager to send a message to the manager of a learner at the same time the learner message is sent. If a learner has multiple job assignments with more than one manager, the message will be sent to all managers.
5. Add a Subject line and Message body for the manager notice, using variables as required
6. Select Save changes to save the message(s).
   
   

Message types

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Variable substitution

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Variables can be inserted into the Subject and/or body of a Message so that they will be replaced with personalised or the relevant values when the message is sent. Variables should be inserted exactly as shown.

Setting recertification details 

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The Certification section defines how long a certification is considered active and when a learner must complete their recertification.

Recertification date

This setting determines how the expiry date is calculated when a user completes the certification or recertifies.  Choose from:

Active Period

Determines how long a certification, once complete, will be active or valid before it expires.

Recertification Window

Specifies the period before the certification expires that a learner can start recertifying. When the window opens, all course and activity completion data will be reset, including courses and activities completed by RPL.

Set the Period window opens before expiration by entering a value in the field and selecting either Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s) from the dropdown.

Click Save changes before navigating away from the page.

Tracking and editing certification completion

The Program Completion Editor must be enabled via Advanced Features via the Site administration menu for the Completion tab to appear within a certification.

Please see the dedicated Certification Completion Editor help documentation page for more information.

Assigning users to multiple certifications which contain some matching course content

This scenario is not recommended when managing certifications due to the potential this creates for users needing to re-complete the course that is contained in both certifications.

Where two or more certifications contain some matching course content, assigning a user to one certification and then adding the same user to another different certification will result in an Exception being created for this user.  For more information please see Exception Reports.

These exceptions shouldn't be ignored/dismissed as they are a warning that user's with these exceptions may have course progress reset and may need to repeat the courses contained within more than one certification they are assigned to.

Assigning a user to multiple certifications which all have the same courses creates a likelihood for the overlapping of window opening dates and the archiving of course completions on certifications which are already in progress.

Certification editing capabilities

It is possible to assign a variety of editing permissions within the certification functionality. Any user with one or more of the following capabilities will see an Edit certifications details button whenever they view a certification.

By clicking on this they will then see the Overview tab, followed by additional tabs based on the capabilities they have assigned to them as follows:

• totara/certification:configuredetails: For the Details
• totara/certification:configurecontent: For the Content tab.
• totara/certification:configuremessages: For the Messages tab.
• totara/certification:configureassignments: For the Assignments tab.
• totara/program:handleexceptions: For the Exceptions tab (this applies even if there are no exceptions currently).
• totara/program:editcompletion: For the Completion tab
• totara/certification:configurecertification: For the Certification tab.