Overview
Uncanny Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) turns your LearnDash courses into a complete credit-tracking system. This guide explains what the plugin does, how the pieces fit together, and where to go next based on what you’re trying to achieve.
What Is Uncanny CEUs?
Uncanny CEUs lets you assign a credit value to any LearnDash course and automatically award those credits to learners when they complete it. You decide what the credits are called — CEUs, CPDs, PDUs, CMEs, contact hours, or any custom label — and the plugin tracks every credit each learner earns over time.
Once credits are flowing, you can:
- Report on credits through front-end reports for learners and group leaders, and detailed admin reports for administrators.
- Set credit requirements for individuals or groups, with annual rollover dates and automated reminder emails for learners who fall short.
- Issue certificates automatically when a learner earns enough credits or completes a defined set of courses.
- Keep a permanent record of every credit earned — even if a course is later edited, reset, or removed.
Common use cases include compliance and recertification training, professional continuing-education programs run by associations, and selling accredited courses that award contact hours.
How CEUs Work
The basic flow is straightforward:
- Assign credits to courses — Set a credit value on each LearnDash course you want to track.
- Learners complete courses — When a learner completes a course, the plugin automatically awards the assigned credits and stores a permanent record.
- Track, require, and certify — Use reports to monitor earned credits, set requirements with rollover dates, and award certificates when thresholds are met.
Every earned credit is stored as its own record with the course name, credit amount, and date. Because these records live outside of LearnDash’s own completion data, edits to a course never change credits a learner has already earned.
Choose Your Workflow
Uncanny CEUs supports several workflows depending on how your organization uses credits. Use the guide below to find the right starting point.
I want to award credits for completing courses
This is the core of the plugin. Assign a credit value to each course, and learners earn those credits automatically on completion.
Start here:
- Adding Credits to Courses — Set a credit value on any LearnDash course
- Generate Historical LearnDash Course Credits — Award credits retroactively for completions that happened before you installed the plugin
I want to enforce annual training requirements
If learners must earn a minimum number of credits within a recurring period — for example, an annual compliance requirement — set a rollover date and define how many credits each learner or group must earn.
Start here:
- Required Credits — Set per-user and per-group requirements, rollover dates, and reminder emails
I want learners and managers to see their credit totals
Display credit totals on any page using shortcodes or blocks, give learners a front-end report, and let group leaders run reports on their teams without admin access.
Start here:
- Continuing Education Report — Add a front-end credit report for learners and group leaders
- Continuing Education Shortcodes — Display credit totals, remaining credits, and more on any page
I want detailed reporting for administrators
Administrators get a full Credit Report inside WordPress with filtering by user, group, course, and date range, plus CSV and Excel export.
Start here:
- Continuing Education Admin Reports — Filter, export, and configure the admin Credit Report
I want to award certificates based on credits
Issue certificates automatically when a learner reaches a credit threshold or completes a specific combination of courses, and email them to learners, group leaders, or admins.
Start here:
- Continuing Education Certificates — Configure credit-based and multi-course certificates
I want to manually adjust a learner’s credits
Award credits for activities completed outside of LearnDash (such as a webinar or an in-person workshop), or correct an existing record directly from the report.
Start here:
- Add and Remove Credits — Add, edit, and delete credit records from the Credit Report
I want to automate actions when learners earn credits
Uncanny CEUs integrates with Uncanny Automator. You can start a recipe when a learner’s earned credits reach a threshold, or award credits as a step in a larger automation.
Start here:
- The Uncanny CEUs integration in Automator includes a trigger that fires when the total number of credits earned by a user is greater than or equal to a specific number, and an action that awards a number of custom credits to a user. See the Uncanny Continuing Education Credits integration for setup details.
First-Time Setup Checklist
Before learners start earning credits, complete these steps:
- Install and activate the plugin and enter your license key under Uncanny CEUs > Settings. See Set Up the Uncanny Continuing Education Credits Plugin.
- Set your credit label under Uncanny CEUs > Settings. Choose the singular and plural names for your credits (for example, “CPD” / “CPDs”) so they appear correctly everywhere on your site.
- Set a rollover date if learners need to meet a recurring requirement. Leave it blank if you only want to track lifetime totals.
- Assign credits to your courses under each course’s edit screen. See Adding Credits to Courses.
- Add reporting and display — place a front-end report or credit shortcodes where learners can see their progress.
- Test the flow — complete a course as a test learner and confirm the correct credits are awarded and appear in the report.
Managing Credits Over Time
Once credits are being earned, these tools help you monitor and maintain them:
- Continuing Education Admin Reports — Filter and export credit data, and configure report defaults
- Add and Remove Credits — Adjust records for individual learners
- Required Credits — Track who has and hasn’t met their requirements with the Deficiency Report
Related Articles
- Set Up the Uncanny Continuing Education Credits Plugin — Installation, license, and configuration
- Continuing Education Shortcodes — Full shortcode and block reference
- Uncanny Continuing Education Credits – Changelog — Version history