Groups are essential for creating digital credentials, here's why and how to create one.
What is a ‘Group’?
A group is a holder for all of the information regarding a specific achievement that you are awarding.
You can create a group for a number of different reasons, such as :
- An accreditation
- A license
- An event you recipients attended
- Any kind of achievement
Important Note: You will need to create an individual group for each achievement that you are awarding.
One Certificate Design for Multiple Groups
One major benefit of groups is that you can issue a number of different credentials with different course names, but only use one certificate design! You don't need to create multiple versions of the same certificate design with minor changes on each one, you can keep the same certificate design for multiple groups, and attributes will make these minor changes (like course name or tutor's names) for you. To find out more about how attributes work, here is our article: A Guide to Attributes
Creating a New Group
In the top righthand corner of the Groups, Overview click on the 'Create Group' button.
Creating a new group takes you straight to 'Credential Information', where you can enter the required information for your group and the credentials it will produce.
Display Name
Whatever you put in this field will populate the attribute [group.course_name] on your certificate design. This can be the name of the course, license or achievement that your recipient has earned. Find out more about attributes and how to use them here.
Identifier
This is how you can identify your group in the Group Overview for easy searching. This is different from the display name because the display name may be the same for different groups. You can use a course code or other form of a unique identifier that separates this group from the others in your Accredible account.
Appearance
Here is where you select which of your certificate designs has the correct format and information on it for the particular group you are creating. If you are using an open badge you can select the correct badge you want this group to receive.
Description
Expand upon what your credential means, what it qualifies your recipients to do, or include any other information that you feel is useful or relevant for your recipients and their potential employers. This is a great way to increase website traffic by giving information on how the credential was earned.
Website
Here you can add a URL to a webpage of your choice, eg. your website's home page, or the web page where new customers can sign up and earn the credential from this group. This link will appear as a button on the published credential view labeled 'Issuer's Website'.
Now that you have entered all of the information mentioned above you are ready to hit 'save' and start publishing credentials to your students. Or you can use the 'Send yourself a preview' function at the bottom of the page to check how the information you've entered appears on the credential.
Adjust the Settings for Each Group
A group allows you to fine-tune how credentials within that group will behave. You might want:
- One group of credentials to have an expiry date and another not to
- Credentials from one group to be issued as private and credentials from another to be public by default
- To record one group's credentials onto the Blockchain
There are many ways in which you can customize how each individual group will work. Use the left-hand sidebar menu to find all these options. In this sidebar menu you'll find settings for the following:
How to issue credentials as private
How to add an auto-expiry period
How to send PDF versions of certificates along with their credential link
How to allow duplicates credentials within the same group
How to set up a stacked credential
How to add credentials to the blockchain
How to turn off email notification for a group
How to add a transcript letter
How to change the visibility of credentials online
How to change the language of the recipient experience
Default Group Settings
You do not need to customize these settings for each group if you would like your settings to be the same across all new groups. You can set up default settings for all your new groups under default group settings at the top righthand corner of the Groups Overview.
When making changes in 'Default Group Settings' note that:
- These settings will be applied to newly created groups by default.
- Making changes here does not affect your existing groups.
- You can override the default settings for an individual group.
View a Preview Credential
Here is how to preview how a credential will look after it is published from a specific group:
1. Click on the group you wish to preview a credential for
2. Click the 'Preview' button in the top right-hand corner
3. You will now see a default dummy credential view demonstrating how a credential from this group will appear.
Email a Preview
Click on 'Email a Preview' at the top right-hand corner of the dummy credential view to replace the default name and send a test recipient email to yourself. The preview will be deleted from the recipient's view after a week.
Preview credentials do not affect your allowance.
Share Preview
Click on 'Share Preview' to generate a URL for this dummy credential that you can share with your colleagues for review. The preview will be deleted from the recipient's view after a week.
Preview credentials do not affect your allowance.
Publishing Credentials from a Group
At the top of your group page, you will see a button called 'Create Credentials'. Click this to go straight to publishing credentials for this group.
You will be taken to the start of the credential issuing process. To find out more click here.
Moving Credentials from One Group to Another
If you happen to publish credentials in the wrong group or would like to move them into another group, you can do this by following these steps:
- Find the group with the misplaced credentials in the overview. Click 'Credentials List'.
- In the Credentials list, find the misplaced credentials and check the box next to them.
- Click 'Move Credentials' at the top of the page.
- In the pop-up window, select which group you would like to move the credentials to and click 'Move Credentials'.
Your credentials will now appear in the correct group.
Has this article helped you? Let us know!
If you would like to tell us about any improvements you feel could be made to this page, you can email us at support@accredible.com.