Setting attempts, pass marks and certificates
These sit on the Advanced tab of course settings, and they are the settings worth thinking about before anybody starts. They decide how many goes somebody gets, what counts as passing, and what they hold at the end.
Limiting attempts
Section titled “Limiting attempts”Maximum attempts is blank by default, which means unlimited.
The warning under the field is the part people miss: each start counts, finished or not. Somebody who opens the course, is interrupted, and comes back tomorrow has used an attempt.
The one exception is an attempt a qualified signatory did not sign off. It never counts, so a learner who is not signed off can always take the course again.
So a limit of two is stricter than it sounds. If you set one at all, set it with that in mind, and expect to field requests to reset it.
Attempt limit period makes the limit a rolling window rather than a lifetime. Left as Lifetime (no period), the count never resets.
The pass mark
Section titled “The pass mark”Assessment submission mode decides when learners find out how they did:
| Mode | The learner |
|---|---|
| Submit each question | Answers, then sees whether it was right, then moves on |
| Submit at end | Answers everything, then submits the lot |
The first teaches, the second tests. Pick deliberately; it changes what the score means.
The pass mark itself only appears once the course has an assessment — until then the field explains that rather than letting you set a number that could not apply. The relationship is enforced both ways when you publish: a course with an assessment must have a pass mark, and a course without one must not.
For how a result is actually decided, and what happens on a second attempt, see How attempts and passing work.
Requiring an attestation or an observed sign-off
Section titled “Requiring an attestation or an observed sign-off”A course can ask the learner to sign an attestation confirming they completed it, or ask a qualified person to observe them and sign off their competency. Both are switches on the same Advanced tab: Requires learner attestation and Requires observed sign-off.
Either one changes when the course completes. Finishing the content is no longer enough — the course is held under Awaiting sign-off until the step is done, and only then completes and awards its certificate.
That is the point of it, and it is also the thing to explain to anybody asking why a course shows as unfinished for somebody who has plainly done the work. See Set up a post-course process.
Attaching a certificate
Section titled “Attaching a certificate”Certificate of completion lets you pick a certificate to award.
If the setting is not there, it is because your account has no certificates yet. The block appears only once at least one exists, so create one first and come back.
How long a certificate lasts is set on the Duration tab, not here.
Requiring approval
Section titled “Requiring approval”Require approval means somebody has to agree before a learner can start, rather than before the course is published. It is a gate in front of the learner, not in front of you.
What to decide before publishing rather than after
Section titled “What to decide before publishing rather than after”Attempts, the pass mark and any post-course sign-off all change what an existing completion means, so changing them later leaves you with records made under two different rules. The assessment setting is the one Learnient will not let you take back at all: once the course is published you cannot switch assessments off, because people may have started expecting a mark.