Earn Digital Badges with ITSO

A digital badge (a type of micro-credential) recognizes an individual’s ongoing community engagement, professional development, and other important accomplishments. In recent years badges has grown in popularity in higher education and is being used by many institutions to document student learning as well as faculty/staff professional development.

To that end, the Instructional Technology Support Office has created the ITSO Badging Program. Individuals who meet established criteria can earn digital badges in recognition of their engagement with our offerings and initiatives. We are using the Credly platform, a leader in verifying, sharing, and managing digital badges and credentials.

You are doing amazing things. So many of you are actively engaged in significant learning experiences and innovating your teaching and work through the use of technology. And we want to help (digitally) recognize, validate, and share these efforts. Digital badges simplify the process of keeping track of professional development activities. Instead of maintaining paper files of letters and certificates, you can supply a link to your digital badges.

We designed this professional development program to encompass the technology training that ITSO currently provides, including online teacher preparation. We encourage interested faculty and staff to explore the available on-demand learning opportunities that will be more visible and accessible on your schedule. Lastly, the communication among faculty/staff regarding digital badges has the potential to facilitate digital networking and create communities of learning and engagement.

The ITSO Badging Program currently has two achievement levels for Online Teaching.

• Level 1 attainment demonstrates an instructor's understanding of distance education standards and regulations, and indicates their interest in creating a quality online course.
• Level 2 attainment demonstrates an instructor’s ability to use Laulima to build an online course.

For more information, view the Badges, Levels, and Descriptions flyer.

All faculty, lecturers, and staff are eligible to participate in this badging progam. The requirements for every badge are different, but in general there are two fundamental steps:

• Participate in a learning module offered by ITSO.

• Submit evidence that demonstrates mastery/usage of the new skill learned/knowledge acquired.
  

Once awarded, Credly's system will send you an email with instructions on how to accept the badge. The instructions include information about creating an account with Credly. Once accepted, the badge will be publicly available on your profile. Credly displays not only the badge icon but provides additional metadata that describes the accomplishment and the criteria that the earner was required to meet.

Credly's system makes it easy for you to share badges with others and post them to personal websites or social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Want to lean more about posting your badges on Linkedin?

SPRING 2024 UPDATES

• New Level 1 modules are coming! In early March 2024, the badging program will undergo some renovation. Most Level 1 modules will be replaced, and the Course Design module that is currently in Level 2 will be updated and moved into Level 1. Once the renovation is complete, the Online Teaching Level Badges section below will be updated.
• Also as a reminder, although called a badging program we are continuing to issue digital certificates at this time. The UHCC System is developing a systemwide policy to govern microcredentials (including badging). Rest assured that the completion of badge modules and the level 1/level 2 certifications will continue to be recognized and we continue to update the Badge Earner website. We hope to resume awarding badges once they finalize their policy and procedures, and we can obtain the necessary approvals.
  

Fill out the short form linked below (or click on this link to the form) and we'll contact you with more info and next steps. The badging program (and most of the learning modules) will be housed in a Laulima site. Please be assured there is no obligation or cost in participating in the badging program.

• Diaz, V. & S. Smith. (2014). Educause 7 things you should know about badging for professional development. Educause.
  
  

• Dyjur, P. & Lindstrom, G (2017). Perceptions and Uses of Digital Badges for Professional Learning Development in Higher Education. Tech Trends, July 2017. (CC-BY 4.0)
  

  
  
• Fain, P. (2016). Digital, verified, and less open: more colleges are issuing digital badges to help their students display skills to employers or graduate programs, and colleges are tapping vendor platforms to create a verified form of the alternative credentials. Inside Higher Ed, August 9, 2016.
  
  
• Finkelstein, J., E. Knight, and S. Manning. (2013). The potential and value of using digital badges for adult learners. American Institutes for Research.

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