What is WordPress?
WordPress is one of the world’s leading open-source, all-in-one, content management systems (CMS). WordPress is used to build, launch, and manage blogs, forums, informational websites, e-commerce stores, membership sites, professional portfolios, and more. It is free to use and is supported by a huge library of plugins, apps, widgets, templates, themes, and other useful resources. Using WordPress, issuers can create professional websites to:
- Deliver educational content to learners
- Host informational service pages for off-site learning content
- Promote an issuing organization’s brand
- Serve as an e-commerce store for programs and courses
- Provide a booking system for in-person learning and training
What is WordPress Integration?
The WordPress integration through Accredible automates the creation and delivery of digital credentials, digital certificates, digital badges, and blockchain credentials through WordPress sites. Using the WordPress integration, credential issuers can:
- Issue feature-rich digital badges and digital certificates to WordPress users
- Instantly deliver digital credentials via email to recipients
- Allow WordPress users to view their earned digital credentials
- Automatically issue digital credentials on course completion from supported WordPress themes and LMS plugins
The benefits of using WordPress Integration
WordPress functionality is extremely versatile and the library of add-ons, plugins, templates, and themes allows users to create any type of site. WordPress doesn’t support the issuance of digital badges and digital certificates without additional integrations and while there are a few different options available, the majority focus on the use of PDF certificates. This means issuers and recipients are restricted by:
- A lack of shareability for digital credentials to social platforms
- Poor support for embedding digital certificates and digital badges
- Restricted space for additional information such as exam scores or program details
- No or limited issuer control over validity and expiration
- No easy method of verification
- No or limited portability of earned credentials
- A lack of ability to measure reach of engaged and shared credentials
Using our WordPress integration to issue digital certificates and digital badges benefits both the issuing organization and their candidates. Features of the WordPress certificate plugin from Accredible include:
- Ability to issue format agnostic credentials including digital badges, digital certificates, and blockchain credentials
- Easy to use, drag and drop tools for creating digital badge and digital certificate designs supported by a library of templates
- Dedicated credential page for issued credentials with space for program or course details, links to the issuer’s website, and evidence of demonstrable skills
- One-click sharing to social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter
- Embeddable credentials for email signatures or webpages
- Ability to add earned credentials to recipient LinkedIn profile
- Full issuer control over validity and expiration dates
- Portable credentials that can be added to smartphone digital wallet cards
- Support for downloadable PDF and printable credentials with QR-Code link to live credential page
The Accredible WordPress integration enables issuers to deliver branded, feature-rich digital credentials to their candidates with an improved recipient experience. Digital credentials from Accredible are easy to issue, manage, and revoke and are used by organizations to drive referrals, provide additional revenue streams, and promote program growth.
Drive Referrals
The shareability of digital credentials helps to increase visibility for the earned credentials, the issuing organization, and any additional offered programs or courses. Recipients share their digital certificates and digital badges to their preferred social networks in celebration of their achievement. Their peers see their shared credentials and as they often fall within the target audience of the issuing organization, they are more likely to pursue the same credentials for their own professional development. Issuers can track the reach, engagement, and referrals of shared credentials from the analytics dashboard and reward their top-sharers to encourage further engagement.
Additional Revenue Streams
The issuer validity control over digital credentials helps to create revenue streams by encouraging recipients to return to refresh their skills or knowledge or renew their membership. Issuer’s can set the credentials to automatically expire after a set time period such as a year or two years after issuance. Recipients receive an email notification when their credentials are nearing expiration, with an additional email sent once the expiration date has passed. The credential itself is still viewable but is updated with a page-width banner to state that it has expired and can no longer be verified. The increased visibility of expired credentials encourages recipients to keep their knowledge, skills, or membership up-to-date by returning to reskill or renew.
Promote Program Growth
Issuers can promote program growth through clearly outlining next steps for recipients and simplifying the enrollment journey for prospective candidates. Recipients can be encouraged to pursue continuous learning by including a link to the next recommended course in the credential delivery email, including a link on the dedicated credential page, and by utilizing the Pathways feature to build engaging, easy-to-follow learning pathways. This is particularly effective for learning providers that charge on a per-course basis. Additionally, third-parties that visit the dedicated credential page can follow on-page links to the course sign-up page, the course website, and the issuing organization’s website. This streamlines the process of enrollment for candidates and helps to drive additional sign-ups.
How to set-up WordPress Integration
We have a short video tutorial available for setting up Accredible’s WordPress integration that you can watch below, or follow the instructions below the video.
From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to ‘Add New’ in the Plugins tab on the left-hand sidebar. Search for ‘Accredible’ in the plugin library, click the option to Install, and then click ‘Activate’ once the plugin is installed.
Once installed, navigate to ‘Settings’ in the left-hand menu, and choose Accredible Certificates. To start using the integration, you will need to connect using an API Key.
Head over to the Accredible dashboard, click on ‘Settings’ under the account name in the top-right corner and then scroll to the bottom to find the API Key.
Copy and paste the provided API Key into the API Key box on the WordPress instance and the integration is now ready to use.
How to use WordPress Integration
Management for users is handled in the newly added ‘Certificates and Badges’ option in the left-hand menu. From here you can see all of the users you have on the instance including their name, email address, and links to existing credentials.
Creating a Digital Badge or Digital Certificate
Digital certificate and digital badge designs are created, managed, and updated from within the Accredible digital credentialing solution. Detailed guidance for creating digital credentials can be found in our knowledge base. Follow the links to our detailed help articles below:
Issuing Digital Credentials from WordPress
To issue digital credentials to WordPress users, you first need to set-up a digital credential group from the Accredible platform. Learn how to do this in our knowledge base article below:
Once the group has been created, navigate to the ‘Certificates and Badges’ plugin in WordPress, select the required users from the list, select the relevant group from the dropdown box above the user list, then click the button ‘Create Credentials’ next to the group dropdown.
WordPress Integration FAQs
Find answers for the most commonly asked questions regarding the WordPress integration:
Q: How do I get an API key?
A: The API key for connecting your Accredible account to your WordPress instance can be found by navigating to the account name on the Accredible dashboard, choosing Settings, and then scrolling down to the bottom. Here you can find the API key to copy and paste into the relevant box when setting up the WordPress integration.
Q: How can I show certificates or badges to my users?
A: Display badges or certificates that belong to the current WordPress user by using the widget or shortcode.
The shortcode is: [accredible_credential] but it accepts a number of options: [accredible_credential image=”true” limit=”10″ style=”true”].
Q: Can you add support for another WordPress LMS or theme?
Absolutely, let us know which LMS or theme you’d like support added for via: https://github.com/accredible/accredible-certificates/issues
In Summary
Accredible’s WordPress integration enables organizations to issue feature-rich digital credentials to their WordPress users. Start issuing your candidates digital credentials that are easy to share, verify, and enable them to prove their certifications, knowledge, and skills on-the-go.
For more information about Accredible, digital credentials, or additional features, book a platform demo or contact the sales team.
Further Reading
Download our Digital Credential Sign Off and Planning Guide to better support the procurement process and help your teams streamline sign off and get stakeholder buy-in. Research how to build an ROI model to predict the potential return on investment and create tailored sign off checklists, or use the print-friendly checklists provided.
