What is a Digital Badge?
A digital badge is a virtual asset that has an image-based design (usually matching a company or institutions branding and corporate identity), with meta-data encoded in the file. The meta-data can be coded on the badge’s unique URL with all the information that the issuer decides to include in the certification. This meta-data is what makes a badge verifiable and traceable to the source that issued it.
Why use Digital Badges?
They act as rewards and they can be shared.
Rewards are essential to a healthy learning process. If you think of badges as tangible rewards, they are already contributing to a learner’s success and engagement.
As a virtual asset, a digital badge is the best representation of the investment people make in their own education. Because badges act as compensation for a successfully completed task and they can be shared, they are much more than a reward: they are the return on a learner’s investment in education.
What is encoded in a Digital badge?
Beyond the image-based design that represents the badge, meta-information is encoded to help any person verify it, or learn more about the achievement.
How Are Digital Badges Created and Issued?
The process of creating a badge typically involves five tasks:
Offering a learning or other experience, creating a badge to represent that experience, awarding the badge on successful completion of badge criteria, analyzing the results and receiving the benefits afterward.
