Ascend

Certificates

A certification → Certificates. Ascend has two kinds of course: ordinary courses and certification courses. Certifications are issued by VeraGen: certification is offered by VeraGen only for now, so the certification courses are the ones VeraGen publishes, on veragen.ai and in every Hub user's My learning. In any other account, every course is an ordinary course and the Certification setting is not shown. When someone passes a certification course, Ascend issues them a certificate: a VeraGen-branded page with their name, the course and its version, the date and a unique certificate ID, which anyone with the link can check, and a PDF of it. An ordinary course never issues a certificate.

A certification course can be taken two ways, and both earn a certificate:

• From its public page, after confirming an email address with a 6-digit code (below).
• Signed in, from My learning, under VeraGen certifications, from any Hub account. Your sign-in email counts as confirmed, so there is no code, and the certificate carries your profile name.

Your name, email and results on a certification are shared with the VeraGen Certification Program, which issues it; the start screen says so. VeraGen sees your results; your own account does not, because the certification is not its course.

Confirming the email first

On the public page of a certification, each person confirms their email with a 6-digit code before their first attempt:

1. They give their name and email and press Start the test.
2. Ascend emails a 6-digit code to that address. They enter it and press Confirm and start.
3. The test starts. On that browser they are not asked again; on another device, they confirm the email again.

A code works once, for 15 minutes, and 5 wrong tries end it; Send a new code sends another. At most 3 codes are sent to one address for one course in an hour. The confirmed email is what the 3 attempts in any 3 months are counted by, and where the certificate is sent.

The 3 attempts in any 3 months are counted per email across both ways of taking the course: someone who starts a test twice from the public page and then signs in with the same email has one attempt left, not three.

When a certificate is issued

A certificate is issued the moment someone has passed every module assessment and the final exam of the course (for a Quick Quiz, its one test), with their email confirmed or signed in. A lesson's quick check does not count. Each person gets one certificate per version of the course: passing the same version again does not issue another.

It carries:

• the name they gave when they took it from the public page, or their profile name when signed in;
• the course name and its Version, such as V2, shown together: "VeraGen AI Hub Fundamentals — V2";
• the date it was issued;
• its certificate ID, such as VG-7KQ2-M9XD: random, and unique to that certificate;
• its issuing authority: the VeraGen Certification Program.

Certificates are kept indefinitely. They are not removed when a person's name and email are cleared after the course's retention period; only Revoke and Forget (below) change one.

Versions

A certification course has a version: V1, V2 and so on. Every certificate shows the version it was issued for, and keeps it.

When the course changes enough that passing it means something new, an account owner or admin opens Settings, presses Start version 2 (or whatever the next number is) and confirms. From then on:

• passing every test again earns a certificate for the new version. Only passes made after the new version started count, so someone half-way through takes those tests again;
• every certificate already issued, of any version, stays valid. Someone holding V1 who passes V2 holds both;
• someone whose V1 certificate was revoked can still earn V2; the revoked one stays revoked.

Starting a version cannot be undone, and it is in the account's audit log and Activity. Whoever checks a certificate decides which version they need.

What the person sees

From the public page, their result shows You are certified, with:

• View certificate: the certificate's own page;
• Download PDF: the same certificate as a PDF. The download link it opens lasts 5 minutes; pressing it again makes a new one;
• Copy link: the link to the certificate's page, to share.

The link is also emailed to their confirmed address. Signed in, My learning shows You are certified on the result and on the course, with View certificate, which opens the certificate's page (where Download PDF and Copy link are); the link is emailed to their sign-in address.

The certificate's page

Anyone with the link sees the certificate, marked Valid certificate: a landscape certificate with the VeraGen logo and seal, the name, the course and its version, the date issued, the certificate ID, the address to check it at and a QR code that opens that address. The page never shows the email. It prints on one landscape page, and on a phone the whole certificate is shown smaller rather than rearranged. An ID that does not exist, is mistyped or has been revoked shows This is not a valid certificate instead.

Sharing your certificate

Under the certificate, beside Download PDF and Copy link:

• QR code opens a larger QR code for the certificate's page, with the page's address. Download PNG saves it as a 1024-pixel image and Download SVG as a vector file, both on white, for a résumé, a slide or a post. Anyone who scans it sees the certificate and whether it is still valid.
• Add to LinkedIn opens LinkedIn's Add license or certification form in a new tab, filled in with the course and its version as the name, VeraGen as the issuing organization, the month and year issued, the certificate ID and the link to the certificate's page. Check it there and save it; nothing is added to your profile until you do.

Certificates and Revoke

Certificates lists every certificate the course has issued, newest version first: the name, the certificate ID (a link to its page), the Version, the date and whether it is valid or revoked. It is visible to the person who created the course and to account owners and admins.

To revoke one, an account owner or admin presses Revoke beside it, enters the reason and presses Revoke it. Revoking cannot be undone. The record stays in the list as revoked, with the date and the reason; its page then shows This is not a valid certificate, and its PDF can no longer be downloaded. Who revoked it, when and why are in the account's audit log, and Activity shows it.

Forget on a person (on Results) also revokes their certificates, removes their name and email from them, and deletes their PDFs.

If something goes wrong