What are digital badges?
A digital badge can be thought of as an electronic representation of a printed certificate. Like printed certificates, you can use digital badges in a wide variety of ways.
Badges are commonly used to represent skill-based achievements in both academic and non-academic settings, but they can also be used to represent credentials obtained as part of continuing education and professional licensing requirements.
Why are digital badges important?
Schools and institutions of all kinds are looking for ways to capture and document a learners' participation and skill acquisition in and out of the classroom. Digital badges give these organizations a vehicle to communicate various types of data about learning, proficiency, and assessment in one form, standardized, across all kinds of issuers.
At the same time, employers need to have a more granular view of an individual's skills and a vehicle by which they can fine-tune the skills they want to see in the workforce. Digital badges allow employers to differentiate candidates more readily - and allow candidates to build a well-rounded picture of their skills and achievements.