A digital badge is a validated measure of skill, quality or accomplishment – a type of certification – that can be earned…A digital badge usually contains data detailing what it has been awarded for, such as issue date, badge issuer and recipient.

A digital badge:

1. Certifies the knowledge, skills or competencies that the recipient has learnt and demonstrated in order to achieve the award.
2. Shows that the certification is from a respected and credible source.
3. Allows the recipient to publicise and share their accomplishments via digital media platforms – such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

(The University of Edinburgh. Digital Badges. https://www.digitalskills.ed.ac.uk/digital-badges/ [Accessed: June 2022])

Badges can be an effective means of motivating student engagement with certain independent study activities where there is no formal academic assessment of their activities. They can be particularly effective when applied to the recognition of competencies and non-academic skills.

There is a digital badging tool built in to the Blackboard VLE (My Achievements) that can be used to award badges to enrolled students based on specified achievement criteria.

In this example the student has been awarded a Digital Me badge by scoring 40% or more on a series of quizzes relating to their digital competency.

Each badge has an associated panel which lists key details.

Find out more about how to use the Digital Badging function in Blackboard >