16.5. Ending a Course

This topic describes how to complete several end-of-course tasks.

For more information, see the following other topics about certificates.

16.5.1. Sending a Farewell Message

As you prepare for the end of your course, you can send learners a course farewell email message.

16.5.2. Assigning Final Grades

To assign a final grade to each learner enrolled in a course, you generate grades after the course end date and time have passed. For more information, see Generate a Grade Report for All Learners in a Course.

The learner’s final grade and the grading configuration you set in Studio determine whether the learner has earned a certificate for the course.

16.5.3. Issuing Certificates

Typically, you generate and issue certificates after the course ends for instructor-paced courses, or at specific intervals for self-paced courses.

For self-paced courses, you can also allow learners to request and download certificates before they have completed all of the course materials. To receive these on-demand certificates, learners must have completed enough of the course, and with a high enough grade, to qualify for a certificate.

16.5.3.1. Issue Course-Generated Certificates

If the administrator of your instance of Open edX has configured your instance to allow course teams to generate and issue certificates, you can issue certificates for your course. For more information, see installation:Generate Certificates for a Course.

If your Open edX administrator has not configured your instance to allow course teams to generate and issue certificates, you must work with your administrator to issue your course certificates. For more information, see installation:Enable Certificates.

16.5.3.2. Allow On-Demand Certificates (Self-Paced Courses Only)

You can allow your learners to receive on-demand certificates as soon as they qualify for a certificate in your course. This process has two steps.

  1. Allow learners to request certificates.
  2. Allow learners to download certificates.

Note

If your course offers on-demand certificates, we encourage you to include this information on your course About page, on the Home page, and in communication with your learners.

16.5.3.2.1. Allow Learners to Request On-Demand Certificates

To allow learners to request on-demand certificates, you modify the Enable Student- Generated Certificates setting on the Instructor Dashboard.

  1. View the live version of your course.

  2. In the LMS, select Instructor, and then select Certificates.

  3. Select Enable Student-Generated Certificates.

    When they have qualified, learners can request their certificates from the Progress page.

    To prevent learners from requesting certificates, select Disable Student-Generated Certificates.

16.5.3.2.2. Allow Learners to Download On-Demand Certificates

To allow learners to download on-demand certificates, you modify the Certificates Display Behavior advanced setting in Studio.

  1. In Studio, on the Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.
  2. On the Advanced Settings page, locate Certificates Display Behavior.
  3. In the Certificates Display Behavior field, enter "early_no_info". Be sure that you include the double quotation marks.
  4. Select Save Changes.