Overview
Give your learners one easy place to find and download every certificate they’ve earned. The Show Certificates module adds a shortcode that lists a logged-in user’s LearnDash course and quiz certificates anywhere on your site, so achievements are always just a click away.
What This Module Does
Once enabled, the Show Certificates module provides the [uo_learndash_certificates] shortcode (the hyphenated alias [uo-learndash-certificates] also works). Drop it onto any page, post, or block area and signed-in learners will see a tidy list of the certificates they’ve earned, each linked for viewing and download.
The list automatically reflects what each learner has unlocked:
- Course certificates are listed alphabetically by course title.
- Quiz certificates are shown newest-first (the reverse of the order the attempts were recorded).
- Group certificates are also included.
- If a learner earns the same certificate more than once, each instance is shown, matching LearnDash’s native behavior.
Because the shortcode only ever displays certificates for the currently logged-in user, you can safely place it on a shared “My Certificates” or account page.
How It Relates to the Certificate Widget
Show Certificates and the Certificate Widget are two independent ways to display a learner’s earned certificates — they do not depend on each other, and each builds its own certificate list directly from LearnDash.
- Show Certificates provides the
[uo_learndash_certificates]shortcode for placing a certificate list directly in page or post content. - The Certificate Widget displays a similar list inside a sidebar or other widget area.
Enable whichever fits where you want the list to appear — or both. Enabling one is not a prerequisite for the other.
How to Enable the Module
- In your WordPress admin, go to Uncanny Toolkit.
- Find the Show Certificates module and click Activate.
- The [uo_learndash_certificates] shortcode is now ready to use anywhere on your site.
Using the Shortcode
Add the shortcode to any page or post to display the current learner’s certificates:
[uo_learndash_certificates]
Shortcode Attributes
You can refine the output with the following attributes:
- title — Sets a custom heading above the certificate list. Example:
[uo_learndash_certificates title="My Certificates"] - class — Adds a custom CSS class to the list container for styling. Example:
[uo_learndash_certificates class="my-custom-class"] - course_certificates — Show or hide course certificates. Accepts show (default) or hide.
- quiz_certificates — Show or hide quiz certificates. Accepts show (default) or hide.
- group_certificates — Show or hide group certificates. Accepts show (default) or hide.
- no-cert-message — Custom message shown when the learner has no certificates (default: Complete courses to earn certificates).
To hide a whole category, set its attribute to hide. The shortcode only outputs nothing if all three certificate types (course_certificates, quiz_certificates, and group_certificates) are set to hide and the learner has no certificates to show.
Tips and Troubleshooting
- The shortcode only renders certificates for the logged-in user, so be sure to test it while signed in as a learner who has earned at least one certificate.
- Certificates must be properly configured and earned in LearnDash before they will appear. If the list is empty, confirm the learner has completed the relevant course or quiz.
- Some page builders process shortcodes differently. If the list doesn’t render as expected, we recommend testing the shortcode in the standard WordPress editor first to confirm it’s working.
Tried using [uo_learndash_certificates] inside a Divi builder unit and it just outputted ‘[uo_learndash_certificates]’ instead of the certificates. What is strange is that other [uo…] tags in the same module, i.e. right above this one, work fine. Any ideas?
If shortcode rendering is a problem, make sure you check the module type in the Builder. If it’s Code, switch to Text instead. Almost make sure that module is turned on the Toolkit settings and page and also try it in the Classic Editor or Gutenberg to rule out it being an issue with the Divi Builder.
Hi, as mentioned – there are existing shortcodes, including a UO one, in the exact same module which are rendering fine. I’ve ensured the module is turned on. The only certificate one I didn’t turn on was the widget one, do both have to be on to support the shortcode?
The testing I mentioned in the normal editor would be helpful to potentially trace if it’s a builder conflict, though we haven’t seen it. Also make sure you copied and pasted from https://www.uncannyowl.com/knowledge-base/show-learndash-certificates/, just to make sure there’s no typo.
We aren’t able to provide site-specific support in the Knowledge Base though. If you’re a Pro user, it would be great if you could log a ticket using your account and include a screenshot of what you have in the editor. If you’re using the free Toolkit, add a ticket to WordPress.org and we can take a look there.
No worries, we’re pretty comfortable with WordPress and coding. We are confident the basics, like copying and pasting your shortcode via plain text window, have been covered. We are using the basic ‘text module’ Divi module and in the same block of code we’re using ‘uo_show for=’loggedin” and it works just fine. Just thought you’d want to test and see if you can replicate it as Divi is popular. Can’t open a ticket, but this is a heads up nevertheless 🙂
Is there a way to separate the certificates they give for exams, from the ones they take for courses?
I’m afraid we don’t allow it right now; both quiz and course certificates are listed in the shortcode output. It’s a good idea though. We’ll consider it for a future release.
Is there a way to separate the certificates they give for exams, from the ones they take for courses? – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for = )
Yes, see the attributes above for course_certificates and quiz_certificates. If you just want to show course certificates, for example, you could use [uo_learndash_certificates quiz_certificates=”hide” course_certificates=”show”]. Then the opposite to show only quiz certificates.
I would like to make the certificate link accessible by anyone, how can we do that? The idea is if I share the link to my friends they should be able to see the certificate , currently when I send the link to them it says “Access to certificate page is disallowed.”
I’m afraid this cannot be done. LearnDash generates nonces in certificate URLs that makes them unique and tied to the session. Shareable certificates would require generating them and providing a means to access them outside of LearnDash (meaning they could not be LearnDash course/quiz certificates) and unfortunately that’s not something our plugins (or any others I’ve seen) can support. Something could be developer, but there is no out-of-the-box solution for this. Alternatives might be using a gamification tool and sharing badges showing course completion, or potentially something like our Continuing Education Credit plugin that allows anyone to look up completed courses for a user.
I will post again.
I’m a learndash’s developer in Japan.
We are developing New learndash site.
This site use wordpress 5.9, H5p for Learndash and them tools, BuddyBoss and them things etc.
Our client wish Certificates list of all subscribers.
I tred your Uncanny Toolkit for LearnDash.
But, no good.
I think to use your TIN CANNY REPORTING FOR LEARNDASH now.
Can this plugin come true my hopes?
And tell me the points to notes.
It’s specifically.
Thank you.
Hi, the best way to reach is for presales inquiries and specific questions is through our Help Desk. Knowledge Base comments aren’t monitored for support questions.
The module outlined on this page won’t help Group Leaders or admins retrieve certificates. Admins can access certificates from the edit user page in /wp-admin/, but there is no way to download certificates for all users in bulk. Keep in mind LearnDash doesn’t store certificates as files, they are generated dynamically when retrieved, so generating them in bulk would be VERY slow. For Group Leaders, our Manage progress page in Uncanny Groups provides a way for Group Leaders to retrieve certificates, but it’s again done by user one at a time, there is no bulk download action for multiple users.
Does it provides support for group certificates as well ?
Yes, recent versions support group certificates.
How can I display only one specific certificate versus all of them?
Right now all earned certificates would be shown for the user viewing the page. Passing in the ID for a specific course or quiz via attribute isn’t currently supported, but we can consider that as a feature request.