The Awards tool enables instructors to provide merit-based awards to students. There are two types of awards: Badges, and Certificates.
Badges are awarded based on any criteria determined by the instructor. They are meant to provide digital markers that represent accomplishment throughout a course or program. Badges do not contribute to achieving a passing grade; however, badges are awarded for achievements that also can contribute to the type of work ethic that results in a passing grade. For example, an instructor might create a badge that is based on posting 15 discussion posts in the first month of a course, or on perfect attendance, or on academic excellence. These items are the types of trends that can help a learner to succeed in a course or program.
Certificates are also awarded based on criteria determined by the instructor. Certificates are similar to Badges, however, they include a PDF that users can print. Certificates typically indicate an official statement of certification or award at the end of a program, but can be awarded during the course for other criteria as well. Certificates can be awarded based on achieving a milestone that a learner can use for further academic or career success, such as passing a practical exam. Certificates also do not contribute to achieving a passing grade.
Prevent plagiarism and protect an organization's intellectual and branding copyrights
All earned certificates downloaded from the Awards tool are password-protected from editing. Each certificate is generated with a random password that is not displayed to users, preventing anyone from editing the certificate in Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. This makes it unnecessary to manually add password-protection to uploaded certificates.
Badges and Certificates can be automatically awarded based on release condition criteria, or can be manually awarded.
Add a unique identifier
You can use the replacement string {CertificateID} when creating certificate templates to add an automatically-generated numeric ID. This ID uniquely identifies the issued award. A unique ID is generated and populated into the replacement string {CertificateID} on an ongoing basis when released.
The unique generated ID is 12 numeric characters long and is stored in the Brightspace database as CertificateID, along with other data for the issued award.
To control whether learners can view the CertificateId when sharing their awards, use the d2l.Tools.Awards.DisplayCertificateId configuration variable. It can be set at the organizational level and overridden for specific organizational units.
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Important: The API call for IssuedAward returns CertificateId based on the d2l.Tools.Awards.DisplayCertificateId setting:
- ON: The API returns the corresponding CertificateId and Certificate ID displays in the PDF certificate.
- OFF: The API returns a null value and Certificate ID is not displayed in the PDF certificate.
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