Automate sending of certificates to badged Instructors

[maneesha]

When someone receives a DC, LC, or SWC badge, we have a script that generates an Instructor Certificate and stores it in this repo. (Note this is a private repo.)

Currently, I manually run a Python script that sends an email to each newly badged Instructor with their certificate attached. We'd like to see this integrated into AMY, where the certificate is generated once the badge is assigned.

This can be emailed to the Instructor and a copy can also be accessible to the Instructor when they log in to their own profile.

Edit - link to my Python script used to email certificates (also in a private repo)

[maneesha]

Update - I think this would be useful to implement as part of the upcoming instructor selection project. We can issue the certificate when the badge is assigned in AMY. Then, instead of emailing the certificate as a separate email with an attachment, we can have the email direct people to their AMY profile to view/download their certificate and ensure everything else in their profile is set up. This will ensure they are ready to sign up for workshops using our new system.

[pbanaszkiewicz]

The steps as I understand are:

1. generate certificate
2. send email with link to profile page
3. allow certificate to be downloaded from the profile page

Where would be certificates stored? On AMY's server? I'd say S3 bucket is a better solution here. We'd have to have a discussion with @fmichonneau on how to technically resolve some challenges in this task.

[maneesha]

I have a script I run locally that does the following:

• Takes as input a text file and a svg file
• Queries for recently badged instructors
• Generates a PDF certificate for each instructor using the svg template
• Sends an email using the text file as its body with the PDF certificate attached

The certificate is never stored anywhere (beyond the moment necessary when generating and sending it).

We do either/both of the following:

1. Have an automated email that does the above steps once the Instructor badge is awarded
2. Have an automated email that invites the Instructor to log in to AMY to download their certificate as below.
3. Have a button on the Instructor profile page that will generate the certificate as above and allow the Instructor to download it. This can be available at any time, so if an Instructor loses their certificate, they can recover it.

I would recommend having Instructors log in to AMY to download their profile, as this ensures they are getting in to AMY which is required to sign up for teaching opportunities. It also gets them to verify that their personal information and consents are accurate and up to date.

[maneesha]

I've added this to the email automation project as that most closely fits our current workflows (I have a scheduled script that sends the emails weekly). If we to having the option to download the certificate in AMY, we would still have an automated email that tells them they completed certification and their certificate is ready to be downloaded.