Did you know your learners can share any earned certificates on their LinkedIn profile? After meeting the completion criteria of your your content and earning a certificate, learners can make sure they let the world know what they've accomplished!
Use Case Information
After earning certificates from content in your Thought Industries instance, learners can share those certificates on their LinkedIn profile right from their learner dashboard and transcript.
Tip
The Learner Access widget is the key for learners to view, download, or share their certificates from the learner dashboard. Please make sure this widget is included on the learner dashboard, or a place where your learners can access it. Go to Site > Site Builder > Layouts > Dashboard Layout > Edit to design the global dashboard layout.
Setting Up LinkedIn Sharing
Before learners can share a certificate from either the Learner Access Widget or a Transcript, set up the link between your organization and Thought Industries.
- From your homepage, select Settings > Certifications.
- Under the section Certificate Settings, toggle Allow learners to add to LinkedIn profile? to Yes.
- Two additional fields will appear: Issuing Organization Name and Issuing Organization ID. We only require one of these fields to have a value (either one). Get instructions on how to find your LinkedIn ID here.
Note
Although you can include either the Name or the ID for the Issuing Organization (only one is required), we strongly recommend including the Issuing Organization ID.
- Make sure to click Save.
At this point, learners will be able to share certificates to LinkedIn from the Learner Access Widget with no further action. If you’d also like to allow learners to share from their transcript, proceed to the next section.
Adding LinkedIn Sharing to the Learner Transcript
Set up the option for learners to share a certificate to LinkedIn straight from a transcript.
- From the homepage, go to Settings > Certifications.
- Under the section Certificate & Transcript Fields, select Add Certificate Field.
- Add a Label to identify the new field.
- From the Type dropdown, select the Link to Add Certificate to LinkedIn option.
- Enable Include on Transcript.
- Make sure to Save.
Note
The link is not present for third-party certificates and is not visible to managers when they view learner transcripts.
Important Certificate Set Up Notes
When a learner shares a certificate on LinkedIn, information is passed from Thought Industries to LinkedIn. The table below shows each field available in LinkedIn and how it relates to Thought Industries fields. The Pass Over Criteria describes the set up in Thought Industries needed (if any) for the information to be successfully passed to LinkedIn.
| LinkedIn Field Name | Pass Over Criteria | Thought Industries Field Name |
Certificate Field Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Passed automatically | Content Title | N/A |
| Issuing Organization | Passed if value exists in Settings > Certifications > Issuing Organization Name | Issuing Organization Name | N/A |
| Issue Date | Passed if the Certificate Field exists in Settings > Certifications using the Certificate Field Type: Certificate Issued Date | Label value for the Certificate Field with the Certificate Field Type = Certificate Issued Date | Certificate Issued Date |
| Expiration Date |
Passed if the Certificate Field exists in Settings > Certifications using the Certificate Field Type: Certificate Expiration Date AND the Certificate generated to the learner has an expiration date set up (expiration date set up is done at the Content level; go to Courses > All Courses > Click on Content Title > Completion step > Certification > Edit the Certificate) |
Label value for the Certificate Field with the Certificate Field Type = Certificate Expiration Date | Certificate Expiration Date |
| Credential ID | Passed if the Certificate Field exists in Settings > Certifications using the Certificate Field Type: Unique Identifier | Label value for the Certificate Field with the Certificate Field Type = Unique Identifier | Unique Identifier |
| Credential URL | Passed automatically | Automatically Generated | N/A |
Setting Up Fields for Certificates
Learner Experience
If LinkedIn sharing is enabled, learners can share their certificates from the Learner Access widget on the Certifications tab (generally available on the Learner Dashboard). If you’ve added the transcript field, they can also share from their transcript.
Note
If the learner doesn't see the Certifications tab, it either means they have not yet earned a certificate or it's possible an admin user has translated the tab to have a different name other than Certifications.
To share a certificate to LinkedIn from the Learner Access Widget:
- Complete a course and earn a certificate.
- Navigate to the Learner Access widget and click on the Certifications tab.
- Click Add to profile.
- A new tab will open and the learner will be prompted to login to LinkedIn (unless already exists).
- Once logged in, the learner will see the "Add licenses & certifications" screen in LinkedIn.
- Most of the information available will be passed over from Though Industries and automatically filled in, but the learner can adjust as necessary on this screen.
Tip
If the learner has any issues with information being passed over, make sure the certificate set up meets the Pass Over Criteria outlined earlier in the article under Important Certificate Set Up Notes.
- Most of the information available will be passed over from Though Industries and automatically filled in, but the learner can adjust as necessary on this screen.
- Click Save in LinkedIn.
- The certification will now display on the learner's LinkedIn profile.
- If a user clicks See Credential from the "Licenses & Certifications" area in a LinkedIn Profile, it will bring the user to the Certificate URL in Thought Industries.
To share a certificate to LinkedIn from the learner transcript:
- Complete a course and earn a certificate.
- Navigate to the transcript page.
- Locate a course where you have earned a certificate.
- Click the link to add to your LinkedIn profile.
Note
The link only appears for Thought Industries courses that have a certificate attached. It does not appear if no certificate has been earned or if the certificate was earned via a third party and uploaded to Thought Industries.
- Follow the same steps as above (under share via Learner Access Widget) to log into LinkedIn and share your certificate.