How it works
Completion certificates are a per-course setting in Alva Courses. When enabled, the app watches each student's progress and, the instant they complete every lesson in the course, awards them a personalised certificate showing their name and the course title. The certificate appears in their course player and a PDF is emailed to them — no manual issuing on your side. On a course that requires evaluation the trigger is different; see below.
Enable certificates for a course
1. Open the course settings
In the Shopify admin, open Alva Courses, click Courses, select the course you want, and open its Settings tab.
2. Enable the certificate
Find the Certificate Settings card and switch on Enable Certificates. Alva Courses generates a certificate template for the course automatically, ready to use as-is or to brand later.
3. Set the completion rule
The certificate is issued once a student completes every lesson in the course. Check that all the lessons you want counted are published, so a student can reach 100% progress and trigger the award.
4. Save and test
Save the course, then enrol as a test student and complete the lessons. Confirm the certificate is awarded in the player and that the email arrives with the PDF attached before you announce it.
What learners see
As soon as a student ticks off the final lesson, their course player shows the certificate with their name and the course title, ready to view or download as a PDF. The same certificate is emailed to them, so they keep a copy even after they leave the player.
Courses that require evaluation
If the course has Require manual evaluation before completion switched on, finishing every lesson is no longer enough to earn a certificate. The student submits their work, an evaluator reviews it, and the certificate is released only once that evaluation passes. While a submission is still pending, or after a request for revisions, there is no certificate to download and none is emailed.
See turn on course evaluation for the workflow, and add a grade to a certificate to print the grade the student earned.
See also
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Last updated 2026-09-07