Using Certificates in WatuPRO

This pictorial will guide you step by step through the process of creating and assigning certificates in WatuPRO.

In this guide:

Creating Certificates

Go to WatuPRO -> Certificates and click on “Add new” link. You will be taken to a page with a simple form to create a certificate:

This is as simple as creating a post in your site. You can insert and format text and pictures just like everywhere in WordPress.

Attention: If you have a ready design for your certificate or prefer to design it yourself using HTML we strongly recommend not using the rich text editor at all and selecting this option at WatuPRO Certificates page:

In such case you will be presented a regular textarea where to create or paste your HTML code. This is because the WordPress rich text editor is known to “fix” the code to its own likes, which can often create problems with carefully designed pages.

Note that when this option is selected we will not automatically add new lines on the front-end! You are entering HTML code and you should use <br> or <p> tags where appropriate.

 

Under the box for creating certificate you will find several variables which you can use inside the certificate so they are replaced with dynamic content when the certificate is displayed.

The certificate can have expiration date or require admin approval.

Certificate Verification

From version 6.5.5.5 WatuPRO supports verification of the issued certificates. For each of them the plugin generates an unique URL which can be used to verify that this certificate is really issued by your site.

All you need to do is to use the variable %%VERIFICATION%% inside the certificate contents. It will output the URL for verification. It’s not a hyperlink so use the rich text editor or a HTML code to make it clickable.

If you have the plugin QRCode installed and active, instead of an URL the variable will print a QR code. In such case do not hyperlink it. The QR code will automatically take the user who scanned it to the URL for verification.

The verification URL is not the same as public certificate URL. It does not expose the certificate contents and does not require the certificate to be marked as public. All it does is to show a text saying whether the certificate is valid or not.

PDF Certificates

Normally certificates are just rendered in the browser when they are achieved. This is very convenient because it works on all devices and even lets you include video or audio in the certificate.

However many customers need certificates that are printable and easy to download. PDF is the industry standard for this. To create such certificate you need to download and install our free PDF bridge. This plugin is large so the functionality is intentionally not included in the WatuPRO core.

Once installed and activated you need to select and save the following option on the WatuPRO Certificates page:

After that your Add/Edit Certificate page in WatuPRO will get a new section called PDF settings:

Certificates will be created in PDF format accordingly to your selections in this area.

So far we have covered the most important points of creating certificates. But how do quiz takers actually get them? To do this we need first to talk about the difference between single-quiz and multiple quiz certificates.

Single Quiz or Multiple Quiz Certificates

By default certificates in WatuPRO can get assigned when user completes a quiz and if they achieve a desired result (grade). More on this in the next section.

However you can define certificates that get assigned upon completing several tests. To create such certificate select the multiple quiz option, then select the quizzes and the desired criteria:

Assign Certificates to Quizzes

So, how do certificates actually get assigned? There is a difference between single-quiz and multiple quiz certificates:

  • Single quiz certificates get assigned when user completes a quiz with a desired grade. How do you define this grade? By going to Grades link for the quiz you want to issue certificate and assigning the certificate to the successful grade(s) of that quiz:
    Save the grade and when the user completes the quiz and achieves this grade they will be assigned the certificate.
    If you have a quiz that defines no grades but still want to assign a certificate you must create one “catch-all” grade that will cover every possible outcome of the quiz (from 0% to 100% correct answers) and assign the certificate to it. You don’t have to show this grade in the end of the quiz if you don’t want to. However it must exist.
    You can also have more than one grade in the quiz assign the certificate or even have different grades assign different certificates.Don’t let the phrase “single quiz certificate” mislead you. Such certificates are not tied up to only one quiz. You can very well reuse them in any of your tests.
  • Multiple quiz certificates get assigned automatically when all requirements are met. This means all the required tests are completed by the user AND the average points and percentages required are achieved. If you allow multiple attempts on your quizzes and the respondent doesn’t achieve the required averages on their first attempt, but achieve them later, they will get the certificate when the conditions are achieved.

Multiple Certificates from a Single Test Attempt?

After version 6.0 of WatuPRO it’s possible to achieve multiple certificates in a single quiz attempt. The respondent can get one “single-quiz” certificate assigned to the achieved grade + any number of multiple-quiz certificates as long as completing the current test has triggered their assignment.

When multiple certificates are assigned, the %%CERTIFICATE%% variable will contain individual links to all of them. If you are using the PDF bridge and have selected to send certificates by email as attachments, each of the approved certificates will be attached to the email.

OK, now you know how certificates are assigned. But how do users actually get to see them:

How Users Can See Their Certificates

  • In the “Final screen” of the quiz. The easiest method to let the user know they achieved a single quiz certificate is to include the %%CERTIFICATE%% variable in the “Final page / Quiz output” box of the quiz. If a certificate is not earned the variable will be replaced with nothing. If the certificate is earned it will contain the text “You can now print your certificate” with a link to it.
  • In their dashboard. By default all registered users get “My Certificates” page in their dashboard, under the “My Quizzes” (or “My Tests”, “My Exams”, etc. depending on your choice of words) page. They can refer to these certificates any time.
  • By email. You can select to have an email sent to the user when they complete the test. From Edit Quiz page go to User and Email related settings tab and select:
    Then make sure that the %%CERTIFICATE%% variable is included in the quiz Final page or the email contents box so the user gets a link to the certificate in the email.
    If you have installed the PDF bridge and selected that certificates will be generated as PDF, you can skip the %%CERTIFICATE%% variable in the email contents and instead have the PDF attached to the message by selecting this option:

    Certificates that require admin approval will not be sent by email when the quiz is completed! Instead they can be sent when the approval is done and only if you have configured the following section:

Troubleshooting Not Assigned Certificates

A certificate is not assigned as expected? Please check the following most common problems:

  • It’s a single quiz certificate and the desired grade is not achieved. You can see the result of the particular user in your Quizzes -> View results page. Is the desired grade achieved? Probably not. If yes, please make sure you have actually assigned the certificate to the grade in Quizzes -> Grades page.
  • It’s a multiple quiz certificate and the criteria are not met. This is harder to check because you need to find all user’s attempt on the required tests and calculate the averages. However we can assure you that WatuPRO does these calculations correctly and this has been tested multiple times. So even if you are sure something is not OK please double and triple check your Math before emailing us.
  • It’s a certificate requiring admin approval. These certificates do not get issued until admin manually approves them.
  • It’s a certificate with expiration date and has expired.

If you have gone through the troubleshooting list and still don’t have a certificate assigned as expected you can contact us to have a look. In such case you MUST provide URL of your site, administrator’s login and clear explanation which certificate had to be assigned to which user but it did not happen.

Paid Certificates

If you have the Intelligence module installed you can also charge for getting a certificate. In such case the test taker must first complete the test(s) successfully so they earn the certificate. After that, when the access the link to see it they will be presented the selected payment methods. After payment the certificate becomes available for viewing and/or downloading.

Assuming you have set some payment methods in WatuPRO Settings page, enabling paid certificates requires just setting a price on the Add / Edit Certificate page:

Note that paid certificates cannot be sent as attachment to emails – you can however insert the link to the certificate so users can pay when they try to visit / download it.

Coupon codes and bundles cannot be used for paid certificates. Users with rights to manage WatuPRO will always be able to see paid certificates.

If you use our free WooCommerce bridge and have WatuPRO 6.3 or a newer version you will be able to also sell certificates as WooCommerce products.

WatuPRO 5.9

Version 5.9 of the WordPress quiz plugin WatuPRO is now available. Improvements and fixes since version 5.8:

    • Improvements when questions are grouped by category: subcategories will by default arrange under their parents (you can change the order from Edit Quiz -> Advanced Settings tab). Added options to choose heading tag for categories and subcategories. Added option to exclude subcategories from the category-based paginator.
    • Basic integration with Ultimate Member allows users to select WautPRO user group on registration. More details: https://blog.calendarscripts.info/how-to-allow-users-to-select-watupro-user-group-on-ultimate-members-registration-form/
    • Added taking ID on the View Results page.
    • Added support for “percent of max points” calculation for category-based grades.
    • If you create custom CSS themes for the quizzes you can now place them in your WP theme directory, under folders watupro/themes/ to avoid losing the files when WatuPRO is updated.
    • A new experimental feature added: compact likert survey table display for likert surveys. More info at https://blog.calendarscripts.info/likert-scale-survey-maker-for-watupro/#likert-table
    • Added option to enable a required checkbox on the “Ask user for contact details” section. The checkbox can be used to request agreement to TOS, GDPR compliance, etc.
    • Most of the category-specific performance variables can now be used directly in certificates. See the section “Manually craft the output” at https://blog.calendarscripts.info/using-category-grades-in-watu-pro/ for more information.
    • Added option to sum up subcategory question performance into the main categories. In this case subcategories will not be calculated and shown individually on category-grade related variables.
    • Option to include the subcategories in category-grade related variables even when “Sum up subcategory points into their parent categories” is checked.
    • Added option to save achieved category grade titles and descriptions along with each quiz attempt so they can be referenced individually from certificates. Note that this option can take a lot of DB space if your grade descriptions are large. Use it only if required.
    • Added option to not randomize answers on any individual question (when answers are randomized on the test level).
    • The “Feedback on questions” page now has a version that shows feedback from all quizzes on one page.
    • Added Performance per category tab in the View details pop-up.
    • Added design configurations for the “Display like survey table” feature.
    • When “sum up subcategory performance into parent categories” is selected for grading, the main categories will be included in the grade loop and grade selections even if they don’t contain questions.
    • From the WatuPRO Settings page you can enable GDPR compliance options which allow users to export and delete their data.
    • GDPR features now also mask IP addresses.
    • Using question hints now allows deducting points from the question for each hint used. The setting is on the Add/Edit Question page under the hints box.
    • Added column “Don’t randomize answers” to import/export formats.
    • Made session_start() calls conditional to avoid conflicts with the WP Plugin and Theme editor.
    • Added option to change the default view of the “View details” pop-up (and download) from table view to snapshot.
    • [Intelligence module] The option to Reuse questions from other tests now has filters for category, title & admin comments to make searching easier when you have a lot of tests.
    • [Intelligence module] Test bundles can now support multiple categories in a bundle.
    • [Intelligence module] Added option to enable My Quiz Bundle page for users who purchased bundles. They’ll have a table with all their bundles and expiration dates for these who expire.
    • [Intelligence module] When teacher edits user results num correct answers, num wrong and num empty information is also updated.
    • Fixed problem with orphan subcategories not showing in the Advanced Randomization.
    • [Fixed bug] Correct / incorrect points on Fill the gaps questions were not accepting decimals.
    • [Fixed bug] Backslashes were not added on importing questions which was causing problems with Math formulas.
    • [Fixed bug] survey questions were counted in %%WRONG%% and %%EMPTY%% variables.
    • [Fixed bug] When “Sum up subcategory points into their parent categories” is selected the % from maximum points was not correctly calculated on parent categories.
    • [Fixed bug] Calculating category-dependent global grade did not properly ignore the global 0 to 0 setting.
    • [Fixed bug] The property “allow checkbox groups” was not transferred when copying questions.
    • [Fixed bug, Reporting module] When user category chart was limited by taking ID via shortcode, the filter was not applied.
    • [Fixed bug, Intelligence module] Display as horizontal sortable was not saving properly.
    • [Fixed bug, Intelligence module] Sortable questions ignored new lines in the question contents.
    • [Fixed bug, Intelligence module] When loading user’s stored progress on a test the values in drop-down gap questions were not pre-selected.

As usual eligible customers will receive free upgrade. If your free upgrades subscription has expired you can renew with 60% discount.

WatuPRO and GDPR

From version 5.8.8 WatuPRO offers a feature that will help you be GDPR compliant.

The checkbox to enable it is in WatuPRO Settings page, section User Settings and Pages:

When selected the feature will enable two links in logged in users “My Quizzes” page:

  • Delete my results
  • Export my results

When enabled, the GDPR function will also mask user’s IP addresses when this data is stored as quiz results. Note that we’ll still store full one-way coded hash of the IP address to allow IP-based quiz attempt limitations to work.

Few things to note:

  • We are not your legal advisor and cannot guarantee this alone makes you GDPR compliant. If in doubt, consult a legal advisor. Either way we’ll take no liability.
  • This feature is for registered / logged in users. If you are collecting sensitive personal data from non-registered users you should let them know they can contact you to have their data deleted or exported. To be on the safe side we’d rather not collect sensitive data from non logged in users at all.
  • Be careful with all plugins and bridges that move user’s data automatically, subscribe them to mailing lists, etc. Using them is not illegal but users should be informed and should explicitly agree.

If you strongly believe the plugin could provide other features that make GDPR compliance easier please do get in touch with us at support@kibokolabs.com.