Problem Description
NOTE:
This idea emerged from a collaboration between Raccoon Gang and Schema to bring into the community and product process the end-user pain points identified by Raccoon Gang’s support team. It’s inspired by Yana Loviagina’s 2025 Open edX Conference talk, Let’s Make Open edX Users Happy Together!Full context: https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/x/NwCPMwE
TL;DR:
Many users complete a course but don’t receive a certificate because, by default, courses are created in Audit mode, which does not allow certification.
- Administrators: The platform provides no clear, in-platform guidance on enabling certificate-eligible course modes, and the setting is hidden in the Django Admin.
- Instructors: Encounter unclear or irrelevant instructions in Studio and cannot enable certificates without admin permissions.
- Learners: Are unaware they’re enrolled in a non-certificate track until after completing the course.
This leads to frustration, increased support requests, and a poor learning experience.
Proposed solutions:
- Set Honor mode and automatic certificate generation as default.
- Redesign certificate setup workflows and messaging to be contextual and clear.
- Enhance the admin console to simplify certificate configuration.
Many users report not receiving a certificate after completing a course, only to later discover that the course was set to Audit mode, which does not offer certification.
This issue affects learners, instructors, and administrators, and stems from unclear workflows, insufficient in-platform guidance, and overreliance on external documentation or technical support. Full details for the Administrator, Educator, and Learner perspectives included below.
Administrator Perspective
For new administrators, the platform is not self-explanatory regarding certification setup.
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All courses are created with Audit mode enabled by default, which does not allow certificate issuance. There is no in-platform indication that additional course modes must be configured to enable certificates.
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The platform does not proactively inform administrators that certificate eligibility requires setting up a proper course mode (e.g., Honor or Verified mode) in the Django Admin Panel. Without prior experience, they must rely on external documentation or self-research.
Instructor Perspective
Instructors encounter several usability and guidance issues when attempting to set up certificates:
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Instructors are not informed that certificates must be set up before the course starts and that doing so depends on having a certificate-eligible course mode configured.
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When instructors navigate to Studio > Settings > Certificates, they see the message:
“This course doesn’t use a mode that offers certificates”.
However, the page does not explain how to enable such a mode or who has the permissions to do so. -
The right-hand panel titled Working with certificates provides instructions assuming that the correct course mode is already enabled in the Django Admin Panel. These steps (e.g., “Select Edit,” “Select Preview,” “Select Activate”) do not apply to their current situation, causing confusion.
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Clicking “Learn more about certificates” takes instructors to Open edX documentation (the page is down) that states:
“Before you can issue certificates, the Administrator for your instance of Open edX must configure the platform to allow course teams to generate and issue certificates.”
This is unhelpful for instructors who lack admin permissions or technical knowledge. -
Without admin access, instructors cannot resolve the issue themselves and must contact technical support or a site administrator. What could be a simple action (creating a course certificate) becomes a process that requires specialized intervention.
Learner Perspective
From the learner’s point of view, the problem manifests differently:
- During enrollment, there is no clear indication that they are joining an Audit track, which makes them ineligible for certificates.
- Learners only discover they cannot earn a certificate after completing the course, often leading to disappointment and support requests.
- While this information can be added to the course description, the platform does not require or prompt instructors to include it. If omitted, learners remain unaware of the limitation until it’s too late.
Impact
A straightforward expectation (earning a certificate after completing a course) becomes a multi-step, technically gated process.
- Administrators must configure course modes in an area that is not obvious and requires technical access.
- Instructors receive unclear, misleading, or inapplicable instructions within Studio.
- Learners remain uninformed about their eligibility until after completing the course.
The result is frustration across all user roles, increased support requests, and a diminished learning experience.
Possible Solutions
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One quick solution could be to set Honor mode as the default course mode, combined with enabling the Automatic Certificate Generation feature for learners, as described in the documentation: Enable Automatic Certificate Generation.
With this configuration, newly created courses would automatically allow certificate issuance without requiring any prior intervention from an administrator. Instructors would then be able to set up certificates directly from Studio whenever needed, without having to access the Admin Panel or rely on someone else to make this configuration. -
A more comprehensive improvement would involve redesigning the certificate configuration workflow. This means updating all pages related to certificates to provide accurate, contextual instructions depending on the current platform configuration. For example:
- If the instance does not have any certificate-eligible course mode enabled, the Studio > Certificates page should display tailored instructions explaining how to enable one.
- If automatic certificate generation is not active, the Certificates page could guide the course author on how to enable it, without relying solely on external documentation.
These ideas could be implemented in small iterations to quickly reduce confusion and support requests.
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Finally, a more advanced approach could involve enhancing the administrator console, adding features to configure certificate settings in a more user-friendly way. This would give platform owners and administrators clear control over the certificate setup process while ensuring a consistent experience for instructors and learners.
Although this post outlines a recurring issue and explores possible solutions, we invite the community to share their perspectives.
Whether you have experienced the same challenge, discovered a workaround, or have ideas for a better approach. Your feedback will be key to refining the problem statement and moving the discussion toward actionable improvements.