TL;DR

• Our Mod Certification courses are re-opened and have a new home.

• There are some new specialized courses added and new trophies available.

• We will be launching and translating more courses in the future!

Hi Mods!

You may or may not be familiar with our Mod Certification program - a 2 course series ( and ) that focuses on foundational mod tooling knowledge as well as best moderation practices. The target learners for the “certification” courses are newer moderators joining existing teams and first time community creators. Feedback from teams who have incorporated the certification courses into their training process for new mod recruits has been positive and we found that new community creators who took part in the certification courses are significantly more likely to see activity and growth in their communities one month out from creation compared to new creators who did not participate. Additionally, learners who successfully complete the courses are granted profile trophies.

Several weeks ago, we paused course testing and trophies while we fully focused on setting up and launching a new learning experience for our Mod Certification courses. Today, we’re happy to announce that site is live.

Where we started

Mod Certification began as a tiny pilot for brand new community creators to see if it might demystify the experience of starting and launching a community for new moderators and help them find success. That program evolved into Mod Certification 101 and 201 - open, self-led courses that were hosted in their own communities on Reddit.

Feedback we saw often was around the limitations of that experience with regard to tracking progress, ensuring all assessments were completed for trophy purposes, and following along effectively. Additionally, we wanted a way to better branch out the programs to mods leading and building communities in other languages.

What’s new today

We’ve launched this single hub for Reddit’s mod education courses, the , based on feedback gathered from previous learners. The known certification courses 101 and 201 are still there… with a few updates. We’ve also added 3 new courses, created in partnership with some of our , and we’ve translated some of the courses to help meet language specific learning needs.

On the site, learners will be prompted to login/create an account when starting a course and from there, will be able to track all of their progress via their profile and within the courses themselves. There are no prerequisites and learners can choose which courses make the most sense for their needs.

As always, the program is completely voluntary and meant to serve as a resource for new community builders and community leaders who may benefit from further training tools for themselves and their mod recruits. Our hope is that it helps round out other known resources, like the and amazing mod-led communities such as , , and more.

To ensure learners are getting the most up to date information, we’ll be closing the 101 and 201 communities on Reddit over the next couple of weeks but will continue using as one of the ways we’ll communicate new course launches and Mod Edu program updates directly on Reddit. Ongoing help requests and questions around courses and the new site should be sent into modmail.

Where we’re going

We’ve gathered feedback from moderators and are working on even more improvements to our existing courses and building additional new courses focused on deeper issues and more difficult topics, such as conflict management and more advanced Automod usage. We’ll also continue working to provide more content in more languages. At the top of the site, you’ll find a feedback link where you can share your thoughts, any ‘quick tips’ you’d like to see added, and any ideas for improvements or curriculum you’d like to see in the future.

Known imperfections

• We are still in the process of translating some course content into the languages that are now available for Mod Certification 101 and we will continue to work on how we can better serve international learners in the future.

• Native dark mode functionality is not available at this time, although Reddit’s Community Mentor testers found the site to work well with dark reader extensions.

What else?

That’s pretty much what’s up! I’ll be around to answer questions for a while but I hope that you sign up and try out the new site and share your feedback with us. And if you’ve got some new mod recruits on your team, maybe send them over and see if they find value in taking the courses alongside any existing training materials your team uses.