Archived in v1.1. This feature area was renamed and moved to Instructor Experiences as Credentials & Certificate Management.

Credentials & Certificates

Overview

Credentials & Certificates covers the issuance, display, and verification of course completion certificates and program credentials. When a learner completes a course (meeting grade thresholds), the platform generates a certificate; completing a program of courses generates a program credential.

The credentials service is a standalone Django microservice extracted from edx-platform to handle certificate generation, storage, and verification. Certificates are publicly shareable and verifiable via URL.

Current State (2026)

• Certificate generation: Triggered by grade thresholds; generated as signed HTML pages (not PDFs) with unique shareable URLs
• Program credentials: Issued by the credentials service when all program courses are completed
• Learner record: frontend-app-learner-record MFE shows all earned credentials and allows sharing
• Themes: credentials-themes provides customizable certificate templates per organization
• Verification: Public certificate URLs are verifiable; certificates contain learner name, course, date, grade
• Legacy PDF: Historical PDF certificate generation deprecated in favor of HTML certificates

Architecture

• credentials service: Standalone Django app; receives signals from edx-platform when courses are completed; manages credential issuance and sharing
• edx-platform integration: LMS sends completion/grade signals; credentials listens and issues certificates
• Certificate rendering: HTML templates rendered server-side with learner data; not PDF (PDF generation was dropped)
• Sharing: Each certificate has a unique URL; learner can share on LinkedIn, email, etc.
• Program logic: Program completion tracked by credentials; checks all required course certificates

Relevant Repositories

Repository	Role in This Feature	Activity Level	Notes
openedx/credentials	Credentials service: issuance and management	High	Core service
openedx/frontend-app-learner-record	Learner record and credential viewer MFE	Medium	View/share credentials
openedx/credentials-themes	Certificate HTML templates and themes	Low	Per-org customization
openedx/openedx-platform	Grade thresholds, certificate signals, legacy cert generation	High	Signal source

Recent Changes

• PDF certificate generation removed in favor of HTML certificates
• Program credential improvements in credentials service

History

Origin

• Year introduced: ~2013 (certificates launched early in edX history)
• Initial implementation: Certificates generated directly in edx-platform; PDF rendered via background Celery task
• Context: Certificates were a key value proposition for MOOCs — social proof of completion that learners could share with employers

Key Milestones

Year	Milestone	Teams / People Involved
~2013	Course completion certificates launched	Unknown
~2015–2016	Program credentials introduced	Unknown
~2017–2018	credentials service extracted from monolith	Unknown
~2019–2020	PDF certificates deprecated; HTML certificates become standard	Unknown

People Who Shaped This Area

• Engineering: Unknown — open question for interview
• Product: Unknown — open question for interview
• Design: Unknown — open question for interview

Open Questions

• [ ] When were certificates first introduced and what form did they take?
• [ ] Why was the credentials service extracted from edx-platform vs. kept in the monolith?
• [ ] What drove the decision to abandon PDF certificates in favor of HTML?
• [ ] How does certificate verification work technically — what prevents forgery?
• [ ] When were program credentials introduced and what was the product reasoning?
• [ ] How are certificate templates customized per institution/organization?