Digital badges are online records of achievements, tracing the badge holder’s groups of interaction which issued the badge along with the tasks completed to acquire it.
There is a brand new concept gaining significant attention in the spheres of ELearning as well as professional development – Digital Badge.
A professional or student can receive a digital badge by achieving something that matches the established benchmark set by the badging platform. Once the badge is earned, one can open an account on the badging body’s website in the pursuance of sharing it with friends & colleagues via email along with social media websites, such as Facebook. Professionals can enhance their status in the corporate world by showcasing their badges on LinkedIn and other websites that are helpful in building a solid professional network.
Contrary to badging, there are conventional ways of getting one’s knowledge and skills tested and the student receives a report card with grades and perhaps a hard copy of a degree or other kind of achievements. However, if a person completes a project for an organization or pursues an informative program through an online learning portal. It becomes tough to exhibit what one gained out of it.
The beauty of badges is that they make it convenient for you to display your accomplishments. They act as a ratifying indicator of one’s accomplishments, knowledge, skills, interest or quality. Another fact adding to their credibility is that they make it simple for everyone to issue, obtain, and showcase badges over the web via an infrastructure which uses shared as well as open technical standards.
The world around is constantly changing in a super quick manner, as a result of which conventional modes of evaluation are unsuccessful in capturing the learning which takes place at any location and age. Digital badges act as a robust new tool for determining as well as confirming the rich range of skills, achievements, knowledge, along with competencies. They also inspire new paths to acquire learning and connecting learners with opportunities and resources.
Digital Badges – The Challenges
There is an array of challenges that have come in the way of badging becoming an even bigger trend than it is today. The system of badging is still in its stage of infancy and there is a lot to be done for badging programs to become broadly adopted.
For starters, there has to be widespread awareness about the value that badges can offer not just to the holders but also to the issuers along with the employers. Badges are contrived to make knowledge visible in addition to validating learning in both informal and formal settings. They undoubtedly own the potential to bring a change in how and how learning is actually valued.
Many organizations are working towards transforming the mindset of people with regards to badging by introducing digital badges in education. There is a multitude of digital credentials being offered in the market for people wanting to learn in disparate non-conventional environments.