Non-degree courses taught on Canvas@Illinois or non-credit courses taught on Canvas Catalog can be configured to automatically generate Accredible digital credentials upon completion. In some cases, Accredible digital credentials for such courses may need to be generated manually. This document details the steps to creating an Accredible credential manually.

University faculty and staff can issue badges and certificates manually through Accredible, outside of Canvas or any other platform.

Please note that any manual use of Accredible outside of the context of a Canvas course, while technically possible, is not a use case that can be supported by Tech Services staff. If you need to issue credentials for Moodle or any other platform, please contact accredible@illinois.edu with information on the nature of the credential and an estimate of the number of recipients you expect, and refer to Accredible’s Help Center for technical support.

To manually issue credentials, you need an account with Team Member permissions. If you don’t have a Team Member account in Accredible, or if you do, but need Team Member permissions, please contact accredible@illinois.edu.

Once you have the permissions you need, please proceed with these steps:

1. Have a CSV file ready with the names of the credential earners, as well as any attribute variables you’d like added to your credentials. You can find a list of attribute variables in the Attributes section of your dashboard.
2. Create a design for your credential by clicking the Designs tab, and then clicking either “Create Badge Design” or “Create Certificate Design”
3. From here, you can either choose an existing design to use or modify or use the design options on the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. See “How Do I Design a Digital Badge?” for more information. Note that you can add attributes to your credential that correspond to the attributes on your CSV file.
4. Save your design by clicking “Save and Close” in the top right corner.
5. Next, you need to create a Group, which is a collection of learners who have completed the same achievement (usually a group is analogous to a single course, but it is not limited to this). To do this, go to the Groups tab on the top left part of the dashboard screen.
6. Then click Create Group on the top right, and fill in the parameters you need for your group. Link your badge or certificate design and click Save.
7. To issue the credentials, go to the Credentials tab at the top of the screen, then click “Create Credentials” and select "Single Group.” Select the group you just created.
8. Now you can upload your CSV from Step 1, and follow the prompts to issue the credentials. If you only have a few recipients and don’t have a CSV, you can click “Create Credentials via Form.”

For more information about issuing an Accredible badge or certificate in your non-credit course or program contact accredible@illinois.edu for additional training.