FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. WILL I RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE FOR THIS COURSE?
To receive a certificate, you must pass the course by obtaining an overall average of at least 60%. After you’ve passed, note that our certificate policies vary depending on whether you’re a government official, IMF staff member, or member of the general public:
- Government Officials: If you have registered for the course through the IMF Catalog, you will receive a free certificate via email if you pass the course. Note that the IMFx team waits until after the course has closed to issue certificates, but you should receive yours within two weeks of the course deadline.
- IMF Staff: If you have enrolled for the course through IET, your IMF training transcript will be updated if you earn a passing grade.
- Members of the General Public: If you would like to get a certificate, you may purchase one by navigating to the course homepage and selecting the option under “Pursue a verified certificate”. Note that you will only be issued the certificate if you pass the course. If you have questions related to edX’s certificate policies, please refer to this link.
2. WHEN AND WHERE WILL MY CERTIFICATE BE AVAILABLE?
- Government Officials: We work to issue certificates via e-mail within two weeks of the course end-date.
- IMF Staff: We work to update your IMF training transcript within two weeks of the course end-date.
- Members of the General Public: If you have upgraded to the verified track, your certificate will immediately become available once you achieve an overall passing grade in the course. You can access the certificate through your edX learner dashboard, your edX profile page, or the “Progress” page of the course. If you have specific questions about the edX certificate, please refer to this link or contact the edX team at info@edx.org.
3. HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THIS COURSE AS A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL?
If you are employed by an agency of your national government (e.g. central bank, ministry of finance, etc.) or by an international institution (e.g. European Union, Bank for International Settlements, World Trade Organization, etc.), you are eligible to take this course as a government official. The advantage to registering as a government official is that your IMF training transcript will be updated once you complete the course, which will be viewed favorably when you apply to the IMF’s face-to-face courses. To apply to take the course as a government official, please use the IMF Catalog.
4. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMF STAFF-GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND GENERAL PUBLIC?
- Government Officials: If you are an employee of government institutions – central bank, ministry of finance, etc. – please make sure that you have applied through the IMF Catalog. Doing so, will ensure that your completion is recorded in your IMF training transcript. Successful completion of this course will be viewed favorably when applying to face-to-face trainings offered by the IMF.
- IMF Staff: Personnel of the IMF.
- General Public: we consider general public anyone who is interested on learning about IMF’s course and register using IMFx/Edx web. That end, courses found can be audited free or students can choose to receive a verified certificate for a small fee by following edX’s procedures.
5. WHAT IS THE PASSING GRADE FOR THE COURSE, AND HOW CAN I CHECK MY GRADES?
To pass this course, you must obtain an overall average of at least 60% on all graded questions. Remember that you must pass the course in order to receive a certificate. To check whether your overall grade is at least 60%, please navigate to the “Progress” tab and check your score in the “Grades” bar of the bar chart.
6. WHAT IS THE DEADLINE FOR COMPLETING THE COURSE?
To obtain a certificate, you must complete the course activities and assessments by August 31, 2022.
7. WILL THE COURSE MATERIALS BE ACCESSIBLE AFTER THE COURSE ENDS?
After the course ends, you will no longer be eligible to pass the course and receive a certificate; however, you will still have access to the virtual platform and course materials.
8. CAN I REQUEST A PERSONAL EXTENSION OF THE COURSE DEADLINE?
Unfortunately, we are unable to grant individual requests to extend our deadlines. However, if you don’t have enough time to finish the course, we encourage you to sign up for the next offering.
9. IF I HAVE A QUESTION RELATED TO THE COURSE MATERIAL, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
We encourage participants to help each other think through course-related questions. If, at some point during the course, you find yourself confused about the lectures or readings, please feel free to post your question in the discussion forum and ask your fellow participants for help. Though collaboration on course concepts is encouraged, note that it is against the rules to reference the answers to graded questions in the discussion forum.
10. IF I HAVE A QUESTION RELATED TO THE EDX PLATFORM, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
If you are experiencing platform-related technical difficulties (e.g., if the videos aren’t working, or you can’t submit your answers to assessment questions, or certain links are malfunctioning…), please let the course staff know by posting in the discussion forum and inserting the label [STAFF] in the title of your post. For other question related to edX please check here.
11. WILL THE PRE- AND POST-COURSE TESTS AFFECT MY ABILITY TO EARN A CERTIFICATE?
The pre- and post-course tests are completely ungraded and have NO impact on your ability to earn a certificate in the course. They are designed to give the course team feedback on how much you learned in the course without punishing you if you do not perform well. We strongly encourage you to take both tests!
12. WHEN I TRY TO ACCESS CERTAIN PAGES OF THE COURSE, I GET A MESSAGE THAT SAYS “CONTENT LOCKED.” WHAT SHOULD I DO?
This means the course has a prerequisite structure that prevents you from seeing certain pages if you have not completed previous material. If you get the “content locked” message, it means you will need to complete the prerequisite section to advance. This means you will have to answer all the questions and watch all the videos in the prerequisite section. You can check whether you have done this by looking for a green check mark after each unit of the prerequisite section. Note that skipping or failing to watch all of a video will prevent you from receiving a green checkmark.
13. I’M A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, AND I SIGNED UP FOR THE COURSE VIA THE IMF COURSE CATALOG; HOWEVER, WHEN I NAVIGATE TO THE “PROGRESS” TAB TO CHECK MY GRADE, I GET A MESSAGE SAYING THAT I AM ENROLLED ON THE AUDIT TRACK AND WILL NOT RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
As long as you registered through the IMF Catalog, you’re safe to ignore this message. Note that the message is generated automatically by the platform to tell you that you have not paid for the edX certificate. The edX certificate is designed for members of the general public, and since you are a government official, you will be receiving a free IMF certificate.