When you move your credential processes online, you will likely have more to digitize than just your handbook. We’re not talking about digital badges (although we do integrate with Credly’s Acclaim Digital Credentialing, if that’s something you want for your program). We’re talking about right-sized, well-formatted, beautiful PDFs that are as crisp and professional on paper as they are in your system.
It can sometimes be a heavy lift for program personnel to manually track printing and delivery for one or more credentials, especially with reprints and renewals. Luckily, LearningBuilder is designed to manage credential processes, including PDF downloads, certificate printing, and reprints. LearningBuilder offers two ways in which you can manage your PDFs, one designed for your practitioners and one designed for your staff. In both cases, we will work with you to make sure they meet your standards and needs.
Practitioner Self-Service: Print-at-home PDFs Rendered from Templates
Do you assign responsibility for printing credentials to the credential holders themselves? If so, you may never need to print your templates at all — you can just provide the files. You’ll want to make high-quality PDFs available so that practitioners can download a shareable PDF or print them at home. Or, in cases of name changes and misplacements, re-download them.
What about tracking the prints? In LearningBuilder, it’s now possible for each PDF credential to create a corresponding digital record. All of these digital records are stored in the database and available to system administrators. Separately, we also offer the option for a searchable practitioner credential database so that the public can verify practitioner credentials.
Staff Self-Service: In-office Fulfillment with LearningBuilder’s Print Module
With LearningBuilder’s certificate printing capabilities, you won’t need a third party to do your printing for you. LearningBuilder’s Certificate Print Module sends your PDFs to print via a digital print queue. You can automate prints for initial certifications, renewals, reprints, and wallet cards.
Our team can help you configure your print queues according to what specific application steps or business events (like completing payment or submitting an application) you want as your triggers.
When someone is added to a print queue, LearningBuilder renders the associated template as a background processing service. This is both to provide scalability and avoid system performance issues. LearningBuilder stores the resulting HTML document in the database. LearningBuilder will merge all credentials in the batch into a single PDF. Once you have the prints, you can perform a mail merge to pull mailing addresses for each recipient.
Once you have your templates and queues configured, all you have to do is choose the paper.
Best PDF Practices to Seamlessly Confer Credentials
You need PDFs you can print with a high level of precision and fidelity. After all, the physical quality of your credential should reflect the professionalism and expertise it represents.
LearningBuilder’s customizable credential templates can accommodate multiple file sizes, from “on the wall” to “in the wallet.” You’ve likely already designed your credentials, but consider their individual graphic and text components. Some, like names and dates, will likely be filled in by substitution variables in the template.
Before we begin working with you to create your PDF credential templates, it’s helpful to collect the following information and assets:
- Sizes: You may want to print a wall certificate and a wallet card for initial certification, but recertification or renewal may only necessitate an updated wallet card.
- Logos: Part of the appeal of a physical credential is the opportunity to showcase your organization or board’s unique branding. If you can provide a vector-based file, that’s ideal.
- Signatures: Likewise, each signature on your credential will be its own image file. Needless to say, you don’t want your signatures to appear pixelated or otherwise “off.”
- Seals: State or other jurisdictional seals may also be necessary to display on your credentials.
- Watermarks: You might want to embed a watermark in your PDF like a seal or the credential’s expiration year, depending on whether you plan to print on watermarked paper.
- Fonts: We work with royalty-free Google Fonts. You’ll want to identify at least one font for the name of the credential, one for the text field labels (like “Issued To” and “Issue Date”), and potentially a third font for your organization’s name.
Don’t forget: LearningBuilder can also create beautiful, branded PDF templates for non-credential documents like letters, receipts, and score reports.
LearningBuilder: Helping Organizations Confer Credentials since 2010
At Heuristics, we value when things “just work.” That applies equally to all aspects of the credentialing process, including PDFs. Are you seeking a new technology partner that “gets” you and your needs? Please schedule an exploratory call with us to see if we are a fit.
