Digital Badging Initiative

Each digital badge contains detailed metadata, including information about the issuer, the criteria for earning the badge and evidence of the recipient’s accomplishment. Metadata ensures transparency and credibility.

Digital badges can be verified in real-time, often through a unique URL or blockchain technology. Verifiability allows employers or peers to authenticate the badge’s origin and validity.

Badges are designed to be easily shareable across various online platforms, such as social media, professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and digital resumes. Shareability enhances visibility and allows earners to publicly demonstrate their competencies.

Digital badges are stackable, allowing individuals to accumulate multiple badges in a pathway that represent specific skills or achievements, showcasing a comprehensive skillset.

Some digital badges come with expiration dates, ensuring that the skills or knowledge they represent remain current. This can also encourage continuous learning and skill development.

Digital badges are portable, meaning they can be displayed across different contexts. Digital badges are also stackable, allowing individuals to accumulate multiple badges that represent specific skills or achievements, showcasing a comprehensive skillset.

The Digital Badging Community of Practice (CoP) is dedicated to fostering microcredentialing, recognizing valuable skills and abilities, and awarding digital badges at UT through a shared commitment to purpose, people and best practices. The CoP meets monthly for cross institutional collaboration and is open to UT faculty, staff and administration.

Whether you are a seasoned contributor and awarding digital badges or this is your first time connecting with us (likely because you completed the Digital Badging Quick Start training), or somewhere in between, all are welcome to participate in the Digital Badging Community of Practice.

When designing a digital badge or pathway, there are several decisions to be made and options available.

• Audience: Badges can be designed for a variety of audiences, including students enrolled in an academic course or program, students in a cocurricular or extracurricular program, faculty or staff development, or continuing and professional development activities. Like audience, the context in which the skills are developed is an important part of the design.
   
• Badge types: Badges awarded through the Digital Badging Initiative fall into two broad categories: completion and competence.
  • Completion badges are verifiable digital records that acknowledge completion of an assignment, training or other activity. 
  • Competence badges are verifiable digital records of assessed mastery of knowledge, skills and/or abilities in a given context. Competence badges have learning outcomes, assessment and rubrics.
  • All badges contain metadata with detailed information about the achievement and earning criteria.
     
• Badge level: Badges can be standalone or part of a pathway. Within a pathway, some badges are prerequisites for other badges. The Digital Badging initiative offers three possible levels of completion and competence badges to allow for the existence of pathways between the badges: Foundation, Milestone and Terminal.
   
• Alignments: Digital badges include valuable metadata about the recognized skills and competencies. The metadata can include links to professional competencies and standards, skills tagging and keywords, as well as continuing education credits awarded.

The Digital Badging Initiative supports every college, school and unit (CSU) in offering digital badges and pathways to meet their strategic needs. A supportive framework has been established to make the process easy and impactful.

Governance
A badging representative and contact are identified for each CSU. The CSU establishes a badge review and approval process that is appropriate for their context. Faculty and staff can propose a digital badge or pathway to their CSU for approval. Once approved by the CSU, the badge proposal is submitted to the badging administration for review and finalization.

Cost
Badges are awarded through Canvas Credentials, which is currently procured through Academic Affairs. There is no charge for CSUs to award badges to current UT students, faculty or staff. Badges awarded to non-UT affiliated recipients will be charged $2 per recipient per year for any number of badges awarded to that recipient.

Continuing and professional education programs pay a one-time fee of $500 per issuer to participate in the Digital Badging Initiative. In addition, badges cost issuers $2 per recipient per year for any number of badges awarded to that recipient.

Digital credentials empower learners by providing verified digital badges that showcase their skills, boosting motivation and encouraging continuous skill development. These badges can be shared on resumes, job applications, portfolios, professional websites and social media platforms like LinkedIn, which enhances learners’ professional profiles and visibility. By highlighting relevant experiences during interviews, digital badges give learners a competitive edge and build their confidence in their abilities.

Interest and investment in digital credentials, such as digital badges, comprehensive learner records and microcredentials, are rapidly increasing among higher education institutions, professional associations, employers, learners and training providers. To learn more, explore these relevant organizations:

• American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
• UPCEA
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)
• 1EdTech
• The Badge Summit
• Instructure – Canvas Credentials
• UT System Texas Credentials for the Future
• Texas Careers – Coursera Academy
• EDUCAUSE