How-to

Add a grade to a certificate

Alva Courses can print the grade a student earned onto their certificate. You add it as a Grade element in the certificate layout designer, and the app fills it in from the evaluation that awarded the grade.

Before you start

Set up your grade scale on the course first, so evaluators have letters to award. The layout designer also needs a background image before it will open.

Add the Grade element

1. Open Shopify admin, then Alva Courses, then Settings → Certificates.
2. Pick the graded course in the Course dropdown, or leave it on Use store default.
3. Upload a Background Image if the design does not have one, then click Customize Certificate Layout.
4. Click Add Element and choose Grade.
5. Drag it into place and set its font, size, alignment and colour.
6. Click Done, save the page, then use Download Test Certificate to check the placement.

A graded course issues nothing until the work passes

On a course that requires evaluation, finishing every lesson is not enough to earn a certificate. The student submits their work, an evaluator reviews it, and only a passing evaluation releases the certificate. Until then there is no certificate to download and none is emailed.

The grade is fixed once the certificate is issued

Alva Courses records which evaluation a certificate was built from the first time that certificate is generated, and keeps using it. Editing the course's grade scale afterwards only affects evaluations made from that point on, so a scale you rework next term cannot rewrite a certificate a student is already holding.

What students see

Students download their certificate from the storefront course player once their evaluation has passed, and the grade appears exactly where you placed it. The emailed PDF carries the same grade.

See also

See turn on course evaluation, per-course certificate designs, or turn on completion certificates.

Last updated 2026-09-07