What is a Digital Open Badge?

Digital Badges with Accredible are opening up the possibilities for sharing, utilising and verifying achievements.

What is a Digital Open Badge?

A badge is traditionally seen as a symbol or indicator of an accomplishment, skill, quality or interest. Digital open badges are an online standard for recognising and verifying learning that complies with the Open Badges Specification. They allow recipients to use an image to quickly show off their skills and achievements. Accredible badges have metadata embedded in the image to authenticate the credential, meaning that it’s more than just a pretty picture.

For recipients, badges are a fantastic way to exhibit their achievements at a glance to establish credibility. Certificates are a more formal approach to credentials, featuring more face-value detail of the accomplishment. However, it is becoming more and more common for individuals to use badges across platforms as a visual snapshot of their achievement, then having the badge link back to the verified webpage that contains more information about the what achievement entails and how it was obtained.

Where are Digital Badges Most Useful?

Badges can be shared in a variety of places, such as:

  • Websites
  • Social Media
  • Online Portfolios - CVs
  • Blogs
  • Email Signatures

Why are Digital Badges Useful to Issuers?

For issuers, badges have a wide application for motivating students. Furthermore, the increased visibility and sharability means that Digital Open Badges can be great exposure for your business.

Examples of Digital Open Badges

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Badge vs. Certificate - Why Choose? 

At Accredible we're 'credential agnostic'; meaning that we enable issuers to choose whether they would like to issue digital certificates of badges, we don't force you to use one or the other. The question then is, 'When do I use badges, certificate or both?'

The answer is entirely up to you, but the rule of thumb tends to be:

1. If you want your credential to be widely shared, use a Digital Badge.

2. If you want specific details to appear on your credentials, like names and issue dates, use a certificate.

But the beauty of Accredible is that you can have the best of both worlds! You can issue a certificate and a badge together. The recipient can easily share their badge, which will direct their audience back to view their full certificate.

 

Badge Link


Want to Learn More?

Check out some of our other articles on badges:

How Do I Design a Digital Badge?
How Do I Add a Badge to a Group?


Has this article helped you? Let us know!

If you would like to tell us about any improvements you feel could be made to this page, you can email us at support@accredible.com.