All About Awards

This article covers the following topics:

• Awards Introduction
• Create an Award
• Award Expiration Dates
• Award Triggers
• Award Actions
• Multilingual Overrides
• Duplicate an Award
• Use Cases
  • Recognizing learner progress with visual and shareable achievements
  • Driving content access with milestone-based gating
  • Issuing time-limited certifications with flexible expiration rules

 

Awards Introduction

Awards are gamification tools used to motivate, recognize, and celebrate Learner progress through the LMS. Award types include:

• Badges - validate; an award that is displayed on the Learner's profile
• Certificates - certify; a physical award that can be downloaded and printed for a Learner's personal records or an accreditation body
• Milestones - progress; an award that used to move users to new User Groups, opening new content (not available for the user view)

Awards (and other gamification tools such as Points) also allow Administrators to authenticate learning experiences in the LMS. 

Awards can also be configured to move users to new User Groups; opening up new Categories, Courses, and Learning Paths (Private Access)

Award completion can be affected by the Refresh Course Progress function. 

 

Create an Award

Go to Learning > Click Awards > Click New

In the Award Type field, select from the following:

If Badges is selected, select an image to represent this badge. 

If a Certificate is selected, Admins have two options. 

If Internal is selected, select an existing certificate from the Certificate Designs.

An External certificate represents a certificate that an Admin uploads directly to a user's profile in the Awards tab of the User Manager. External Awards show up as any other certificate in the Admin and Learner portals, including:

• Learner Transcripts
• Learner Dashboard
• Share Award Page
• Notifications > Award Expiration type
• Education > Awards and Learner Progress types
• Activity Reports
• Activity Dashboards
• Overview Dashboards

For either Badges or Certificates, select if the Share Award Page is enabled. 

If Milestone is selected, only Expiration Date settings (see below) are displayed. 

 

Award Expiration Dates

Selecting any of the three award types also brings up Expiration Date options.

 

 

Select  “Fixed Date,” “Dynamic (Time Passed),” or “None” in the Expiration Type field.

If Fixed is selected, select the date from the Calendar Selector. Fixed Expiration Dates are often used for accreditation certificates that expire on a specific date.

 

If Dynamic is selected, select the time interval (days, weeks, months, or years) and the number. The inputted time interval represents the time passed from the Award issue date. 

Award Triggers 

In the Requirements tab, select the “trigger” for this Award. 

In the Requirement Type field, "Conditional" signifies that the following requirements are required to earn the Award. "Assigned" means a list of selected users receives the Award automatically.

In the Requirements Must All Be Achieved field, select “Yes” if Learners must complete all requirements or “No” if a single requirement triggers the Award. Also, select if the user can lose this Award if requirements are no longer met. 

 

For “Conditional” Requirement Types, click the green “plus” icon (1) to add a requirement. 

Select the Requirement Type (2). Requirement types include:

• Access Level - when a Learner is assigned a particular Access Level
• Category - when a Learner completes all Courses of a Course Category
• Checklist - when a Learner completes all items in a Checklist
• Course - when a Learner completes a Course
• Event - when a Learner registers or checks in to an Event
• Learning path (Private Access) - when a Learner completes a Learning Path
• Lesson - when a Learner completes a Lesson
• Quiz - when a Learner passes a Quiz

User Group - when a Learner is assigned a particular User Group

 

Select the Completion Type (3). The “Any” option means that if any one of the selections below fulfills the requirement. The “All” option requires that all selections be completed. 

Select the required items in the Required Item (4) field.

 

Award Actions

Awards are often used to move users from one User Group to another; opening up new content, courses, and lessons. 

In the Actions tab, select if the recipient is added or removed from certain User Groups.

Select which user groups the user is added to and which user groups the user is removed from.

 

Select if this Award will issue Points to the Learner. Select the Points Category and set the amount of points. 

 

Multilingual Overrides

In the Multilingual Override tab, provide  localized content for viewing the Learner Portal in a different language. 

The following fields are supported with Multilingual Overrides: Title, Description, and Hover Text.

Click Save. 

 

Duplicate an Award

Duplicating awards can make quick work of creating a new award with only slight differences from a previous award. Duplicated awards retain the Basic Info, Requirements, and Actions of the original.

Check the box of the award(s) to be copied > click Duplicate Award(s) > the new award will appear marked as (copy)

 

Use Cases

The following are possible general use cases for utilizing this feature:

 

Recognizing learner progress with visual and shareable achievements

A learning team wants to boost motivation and engagement by celebrating course completions with visible awards that learners can collect, display, or share.

This feature is useful because:

• Badges and Certificates are earned automatically through course or quiz completion

• Badges appear on learner profiles, and certificates can be downloaded for personal or official use

• Multilingual Overrides support global user bases

Example Use Case
After completing the “Project Management Essentials” course and passing its final quiz, a learner earns a certificate that includes their name, the issue date, and an official-looking design. It’s automatically saved to their profile and can be downloaded or printed for HR documentation.

 

Driving content access with milestone-based gating

An administrator wants to control the learner journey by unlocking content in phases — ensuring users only see advanced material after they meet specific criteria.

This feature is useful because:

• Milestone Awards can automatically shift users between User Groups

• Admins can configure actions like granting/removing access based on achievement

• Pairs well with Checklists, Categories, and Learning Paths

Example Use Case
When a learner finishes a “Core Safety Training” checklist, they are awarded a Milestone. This action removes them from the “Phase 1” group and adds them to “Phase 2 – Site Access Training,” unlocking a new set of courses and lessons without requiring admin intervention.

 

Issuing time-limited certifications with flexible expiration rules

An accreditation body or training provider needs to issue Certificates that expire after a set time — either on a fixed calendar date or a rolling interval — to maintain compliance and encourage recertification.

This feature is useful because:

• Awards can expire on a specific date or dynamically based on issue date

• Expired awards remain on the user’s record but can prompt renewal flows

• Helps organizations support real-world credentialing or CEU processes

Example Use Case
A Certificate for “Data Privacy Compliance” is issued with a 1-year expiration. After 12 months, it no longer counts toward the user’s current certification requirements, and a refresher course is assigned. The expiration is handled automatically using dynamic timing from the original award date.