New feature: Create course completion certificates with Teachable

As an online course instructor, you want to engage your students and provide an incentive for them to complete your course. Many instructors also need to provide a way for their students to verify that they did in fact finish the course—e.g. for a license, governmental agency, or as part of internal training. And we all want that extra “edge” in our course or product: the factor that convinces students that we’re better than the competition.

That’s why we are so thrilled to announce the release of native course completion certificates on Teachable.

There were workarounds for creating certificates on Teachable in the past. In fact, many Teachable school owners have discovered and shared their own strategies using a range of third-party services and tools. However, these options were not ideal, as they could be time-consuming to set up, incur additional costs, or be unreliable. Native certificates make these workarounds a thing of the past.

Why certificates of completion matter

Certificates make it possible to provide verifiable training services online, for the purposes of licensing, corporate training, and so forth.

Teachable instructor Daniel Elizade is doing exactly that with his Internet of Things Product Management certification course. He provides training services to individuals and companies in both online and in-person settings. For his online students, having a completion certificate allows them to prove to their company (or to a hiring manager) that they finished the course.

“My certificate helps them demonstrate that they have skills in the very complex area of IoT Product Management,” says Daniel. “They’re looking for an edge to advance their career.”

Beyond authentication to an employer, certificates have also been shown to improve student engagement and course completion rates.

According to a Harvard and MIT study, students who pay for certificate verification on otherwise free courses are much more likely to finish the course. The study found an average 5% course completion rate among students who didn’t opt for the certificate. Among those who did, the number skyrocketed to 59%. “The perceived value for most is a more official and shareable certification of knowledge, skills, and abilities,” says the report.

Goals matter

The extra motivation here can be for professional reasons or simply for the enjoyment of achieving personal success.

“Many people post a screenshot of the certificate on LinkedIn,” says Daniel. “It also works well as a job-searching tool to demonstrate to potential employers they’ve taken this curriculum. My goal for offering a certificate is to elevate the value of my program and help me compete with other schools that offer certificates as well.”

How to create course certificates on Teachable

Certificates are available to schools on Professional plans and up, and are found on the course level (Admin > Courses > Course > Certificates), so you can design a unique certificate for each course you offer.

Teachable offers three out-of-the-box templates you can use. Or, you can make your own certificate from scratch, as they are fully customizable with our block editor (rich text and Liquid/HTML blocks).

When using one of our templates, you’ll have the ability to customize the copy and colors. You can also add a course-specific logo and signature. We’ll even add in a serial number automatically for authenticity as well.

You can issue certificates to students automatically or manually. With either method, students can save their certificate as a PDF. With the automatic method, when a student completes the course, they will be taken directly to their certificate of completion inside the student lesson area. Additionally, the student receives an email with a link to their certificate.

If you choose to issue certificates manually, you’ll be responsible for deciding when certificates are sent out. You can do this by visiting the student’s profile, clicking the Enrollments tab, and selecting Issue Certificate from the Actions menu for the course. This will send them an email with their certificate link.

Want to learn more about generating certificates on Teachable? Check out our guide in the Knowledge Base.

Boost your course value while saving money

Zoe Joy of Autism Ed Support provides official continuing education courses for behavior analysts through her Teachable school. Her students rely on certificates to provide proof of their required continuing education hours to the BACB, an international licensing board.

“Before, I used Zapier with WebMerge to automatically send a completion certificate to students,” Zoe explains. “However, I’ve been having some issues lately with that system.” The introduction of native certificates on Teachable is saving Zoe “not only time and frustration, but money as well!”

Money saved, time gained

With built-in certificates on Teachable, you can save time, money, and the tech headache and reliability issues associated with integrating with a third-party certificate provider. Now, you can do even more from one, centralized place: your Teachable school. It’s all part of our goal to be a one-stop shop for your online business needs.

Since making the switch, Zoe says, “I am loving this feature! It has been really easy to navigate, and the fact that you can customize what the certificate says is also a valuable addition! I’m excited to use this feature more, especially as I partner with various agencies across the country to feature me as their sole continuing ed provider.”

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Beyond certificates

Providing native course completion certificates is one more step towards giving Teachable school owners greater control over the student experience. We can’t wait to continue providing instructors with the tools and features they need to create an amazing student experience. If you’re on a Teachable Professional plan or higher, you can make your first course certificate today. If you’re on the Free or Basic plan, you can upgrade to start using certificates on your school.