Digital badges provide a way for individuals to display skills and competencies acquired through training or professional development. 38% of organizations currently use or plan to use digital badges, and 81% will maintain or increase their use. Digital badges capture competencies in different ways than traditional credentials by being easily understandable, ensuring quality, staying up to date, enabling comparisons, and being interconnected. They are increasingly being used in industries like manufacturing to connect employers to job seekers who have demonstrated certain competencies through badges.
4. 38% of organizations use or
plan to use digital badging in
the future.
81% will maintain or increase
their use of badges in the
future.
5. Digital badging can
connect employers
to job seekers.
Employer must have
access to a database of
badged specialists
Badged candidates must
have visibility into
employment opportunity
Seamless connection
as a result of
technology
6. What’s the Difference
•Are easily understandable
•Assure quality
•Up to date
•Be interconnected
•Enable comparisons.
Digital Badges Capture Competency in Different Ways
Digital badges can be used by anyone to instantly display the
skills and competencies they have acquired from training or
professional development opportunities.
10. Building a Digital Badge
Digital
Badge
Certified by
recognized
brand
Articulates
marketable
skill(s)
Demonstrates
proof of learning
(rigor)
Aligns to
industry &/or
employer
standards
10
11. Concerned about the Validity
of a Badge?
Verified by:
• Technical Standards
concerning Meta Data
• Displays the identified
competencies of the
badge
12. In Colorado--Why Badges?
Why Now?
Demands
Industry
Manufacturing Sector Shortage
of qualified workers =15,000
per year
May 2015
Executive Branch of Colorado
state government requested
alternative credentials
Solution
Identified Competencies that are
Learner Focused, Community
Centered and Industry Driven in
the form of Digital Badges
Transparency of learning
Competencies at a granular level
Link what knowledge to what a
badge earner “can do”
Portability
Follows the learner through a life
long learning pathway
Data can be verified and certified by
badge consumer
13. Issuing Badges
• Access
the badge
Badge
• Review
the meta
data
Meta data
• Compile
the meta
data
Competencies
• Transcript
PLA
• Identify
granular
Competencies
Competencies
• Identify how to
measure
Mastery
Assessments
• Compile the
meta data
Meta data
• Issue digital
credential
Badges
Receiving Badges
E
C
O
S
Y
S
T
E
M
14. CCCS Workforce Targeted Badges
Industry driven badge competencies: Machining, Engineering Graphics, Faculty
Development, Technical Math
WWW.CCCS.EDU/BADGES
15. Badges Help Anyone Standout
From a Crowd
Use Competencies which Employers Understand
17. CCCS Badge Anatomy
This badge validates that an individual has the skills and knowledge to successfully
complete process planning, basic drilling applications, machine set ups, operations,
inspection techniques and safety standards.
• Demonstrate safe and proper use of cutting tool assembly , tool selection,
process planning and setup to include: machine configuration, selection,
operation sequencing, and work-holding concepts/devises, aligning cutters to
center bunch, mounting stops, movable vise-jaw adjustment.
• Effectively use machining applications of counter-boring, countersinking, drilling,
reaming and tapping applying correct operations such as deburring and part
loading (vise/fixture).
• Demonstrated ability to interpret block tolerances, line types/conventions,
orthographic projection, surface finish requirements, and title blocks /revisions.
• Use geometrical dimensions and tolerancing feature control frame, control
symbols, tolerancing categories, characteristics in inspections to ensure
compliance to block tolerances, line types and conventions, orthographic
projection surface finish requirements and title block and revisions.
• Link to the NIMS Credentialing site
18. What a badge
earner’s
backpack or
portfolio looks
like
Brenda’s Badge
Backpack
URL Digital Badge Link on
a Resume:
https://credly.com/u/pere
aink
21. Real World Examples
IBM
Started with external Badges
for industry recognized IT skills
Quickly realized the value
added for talent management,
now is internally badging their
employees
Bank of America
Understood hiring by competency
Need for internal recognition of
competency identification
Internally badging all their current
HR professionals
Prepared to now handle
applicants digital badgesFossil
• Started with external badges for
mentoring students in design
• Quickly realized the value
added for talent management,
now is internally badging their
employees mentoring students
• Using digital badges in
leadership development
Microsoft
• Started with external badges
for IT skills
• Using digital badges for IT
certifications due to ability to
verify credentials
23. Department of
Treasury, Machinist: Set
up and operate machines
for machining pieces at
unusual or compound
angles. Determine proper
gear train and gear ratios
to produce specific pitch,
lead, and pitch diameter for
various standard and
nonstandard screw
threads, making the
necessary computations
for differential, compound
and angular indexing.
Can Badges = Jobs?Barber-Nichols Inc.,
CNC Lathe
Machinist/Programmer:
Programming and use
of CNC equipment.
• Demonstrate safe/proper setup/use of: boring soft jaws or collet,
machine controls, mounting work holding devices, program verification
(dry run), setting geometry offset for center cutting tools, setting
XZ geometry offsets.
• Accurate selection of cutter applications/features/attributes to
manufacturer’s technical data references.
• Effective operations of: deburring, fixture/geometry offset
adjustments, machine controls/startup/shutdown/warmup, part
loading(vise/fixture) tool height offset adjustments.
• Inspection/verification of: feature with/out size, runout, surface finish,
and total runout.
• Executing applications of: facing, OD turning.
• Effective process planning, to include: machine
configuration/selection, operation sequencing and work-holding
concepts/devises.
• Accurate programming of: cutter radius compensation, developing
and interpret setup sheets, fixture offsets, motion commands, plotting
coordinates, program structure/formats, code memory, rectangular
coordinate system, and selecting program zero.
• Link to the NIMS Credentialing site
25. CC BY and Attribution
This Workforce Solution, ”Digital Badges and CCCS” presentation by Brenda M. Perea
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a
work created under the Department of Labor, TAACCCT3 grant, permissions beyond
the scope of this license may be available at Colorado Community College System
This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of
Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the
grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of
Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of
any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information
on linked sites, and including, but not limited to accuracy of the information or its
completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership.
Editor's Notes
What is a digital badge?
A validated indicator of an accomplishment or skill
Earn badges through:
Online learning
Job training
Professional development
Share through:
Websites
Social media
Email
Resulting in:
Job opportunities
Promotions
Recognition
Certifications
Life-long learning
Where in the world are digital badges?
51% North America
14% Latin America
19% Europe, Middle East & Africa
15% Asia Pacific
2% Central and Eastern Europe
38% of organizations use or plan to use digital badging in the future. 81% will maintain or increase their use of badges in the future.
Digital badging can connect employers to job seekers.
Employers must have access to a database of badged specialists.
Badged candidates must have visibility into employment opportunity.
Seamless connection as a result of technology.
Are easily understandable. All postsecondary credentials – from badges to degrees and beyond – should be based on competencies, making them easier to understand and use by students, employers, educators and workforce agencies.
Assure quality. Users must be able to rely on the quality of credentials, including their accuracy in representing the competencies possessed by a credential holder.
Up to date. Credentials should be continually updated and validated to ensure they stay relevant to employer needs.
Be interconnected. All students should understand how credentials connect and be able to see several pathways to increase career and economic mobility. Users also must be able to combine credentials to fit their needs and inform their education-career planning, including job transitions.
Enable comparisons. Stakeholders must be able to compare the value of various credentials and determine which credential best fits their needs.
Common uses for digital badges:
70% are used for professional development
49% to indicate certification
40% to recognize achievement
40% for competitive motivation
38% to encourage course completion
The values of digital badging:
27.1% Improve course completion rates
27.6% increase productivity
31.8% Add fun component to organization
37.1% Encourage participation in personal development activities
39.2% Recognition of specific knowledge/skills (math, accounting, teaching, etc.)
43.3% Recognition of ‘soft skills’ (leadership, collaboration, etc.)
44% Display of achievement
45.3% motivation
65% believe that digital badging will grow in the future.
29% don’t know or are not sure.
Digital Badges are more complex than simply adding a picture image to your profile. Although the physical look and feel of the badge are very important, what makes up that badge meta data is what is most important and requires quite a bit of attention. This is not a simple process and will likely need to be revisited and refined over time.
When building a digital badge it is extremely important to make sure your course/curriculum is “badge worthy”. Making that first step of determining what ‘badge worthy’ means one of the most important. What is your purpose, what is the digital badge’s purpose?
From there an extensive course material and curriculum review may be required. Learning objectives need to be identified and aligned with any state/national/employer standards
If a student earns a badge for Microsoft Word, regardless of who teaches or when the class is taken – all students should be guaranteed the opportunity to learn the same objectives.
Standards are emerging to make badges more relevant for the receiver of the badge and the employer who wants to know what specific skills a prospective employee has.
Verified by:
Technical Standards concerning Meta Data
Displays the identified competencies of the badge
An fortunate set of circumstances
TAACCCT grants
Colorado Workforce asked for other types of credentialing
Colorado Industry demanded shorter turnaround training
An unfortunate set of circumstances
A K-12 system had a failed digital badge pilot in and a K-12 school system implement badges 2014-2015 wanting them to articulate up to the community colleges.
CCCS committed to developing a digital badge program that would allow us to address the learning needs of a broader audience, but this initiative was an unfunded in initiative. We had to think creatively about how to fund the resources needed to build a system wide digital badge program which interacted the 13 “separate but equal” colleges The pilot program was a non-credit professional development program that unbundled on-demand and competency based.
As a community we have agreed that digital badges should be:
Industry Driven
Community Centered
Learner Focused
Agree that every badge issued or accepted is tied to:
specific standards/or competency,
have a formal assessment or evaluation of competency
evidence of micro-learning.
Ecosystem of Digital Badges
Two processes for developing and using badges
Issuing badges
Who is the audience?
Accepting badges
What do they represent?
Technical Math has 23 badges, 6 Mastery and 17 Expert badges driven by our Advanced Manufacturing students didn’t know math, even though the students all took Math 108-Technical math. Digging deeper with business leaders was that students couldn’t perform math skills within an advanced manufacturing environment.
We created a Technical Math for Industry MOOC, contextualized math for advanced manufacturing with content, problems associated within the advanced manufacturing sector and assessments. We then digital badges each of the granular competencies. We found not only our CCCS students signing up for the free MOOC but manufacturers were sending their employees to reskills or upskill their employees in discrete math skills, earning the badges and using the badges within their companies to better utilized their workforce.
Machining badges were developed based on the National Institute of Metalworking Skills standards and backward designed into our existing Advanced Manufacturing programs. Students earn these badges by passing one or more of the 11 NIMS Machining Level 1 credential tests. The digital badge competencies were backward designed into one or more of our Ad. Manufacturing courses so students had multiple ways to earn the badge.
Engineering graphics badges were first designed with our 4 year partner Metropolitan State University within their BS in Engineering Technology department.
Competencies and badges were developed by MSU’s business advisory board in collaboration with MSU faculty. The badge competencies were then backwards designed into CCCS’ 2 year Engineering Graphics programs.
What resulted was 7 MSU badges and 3 MSU badges backward designed to CCCS programs and 6 unique CCCS engineering graphics digital badges for system use.
We are currently developing Faculty Development badges for blended and online learning to be deployed Aug. 1 and also a co-branded badge with CAEL, Council of Adult and Experiential Learning for badging faculty who have Mastered Prior Learning Assessment Portfolio evaluations.
Badges help anyone standout from a crowd.
Examples of badges based on mastery of skills
Certifications – industry or national
Validation –validating completion of IT trainings
Commemorate – Smithsonian badges unique programs/activities
Business and industry were not saying our programs didn’t fit their needs, but that it was difficulty to differentiate between workers, and what could people actually do on the job floor.
What it came down to was developing a credential (digital badges) which helped make skills transparent in a way a course, certificate or degree cannot.
One advantage to badges over a traditional college transcript or degree is that rather than having just implicit meaning, digital badges have EXPLICIT meaning
If you are uncertain of the value of the badge you can find out the:
Criteria
Context
AND the evidence of learning that has occurred
Because digital badges enhance an employee’s traditional credentials, they are often referred to as “stackable credentials.” These stackable credentials particularly help as they demonstrate the employees’ competencies that that their employers value most.
Certifications are typically reported on a pass/fail basis, so there is little indication as to which skills they have mastered and which they have not. For example, a job seeker who just barely passed their phlebotomist certification may be perfectly competent to handle hazardous waste items, but have trouble handling sensitive patient information. This job seeker may pass the certification exam, but then become a liability to an employer.
What a badge earner’s bac
Brenda’s Badge Backpack
URL Digital Badge Link on a Resume:
https://credly.com/u/pereaink
backpack or portfolio looks like
Badge Details available for each badge in Brenda’s digital backpack
What badges look like when the badge earner adds them to their LinkedIn profile
Real World Examples
Connecting Credential Competency Framework Adv. Manuf.
6 badges in Manual machining certificate, 4 additional badges in CAD/CAM certificate, all 11 badges in the AAS Precision Machining Technology which then can be articulated to MSU BS Engineering Technology
Can Badges equal jobs…..here are some examples of how
CC BY and Attribution
This Workforce Solution, ” Redesigning Developmental Education” presentation by Bitsy Cohn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work created under the Department of Labor, TAACCCT3 grant, permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.cccs.edu/partnering-for-success/trade-adjustment-assistance/taa-coetc/
This workforce solution was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites, and including, but not limited to accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership.
