About Digital Badges

To understand what we’re all about at Badge Nation it is important to understand Digital Badges.

What are digital badges?

A smart, simple, and visual way of recognising non-accredited learning.
An effective and inexpensive way of demonstrating your impact as an organisation.
Accessible anywhere to anyone, using only a website link.
A useful tool for earners to proudly display on their website, email signature, LinkedIn profile, and CV.

How do they work?

Using Credly, digital badges show the awarding organisation’s logo and the criteria achieved.

They recognise and acknowledge the development of transferable skills and aptitudes that employers value, typically not recognised through exams and formal qualifications.
They motivate learner behaviour by recognising achievement.
They help earners better tell the story of their participation with you.

Here is what a digital badge looks like in your browser. You can clearly see the awarding organisation, skills, and earning criteria associated with the badge.

Why we love digital badges

Not all learning happens on paper, gaining skills and knowledge is a very human activity that deserves to be celebrated!

Outside of formal qualifications, exams and tests, individuals are constantly evolving through everyday work, volunteering in communities, attending events, and interacting with new ideas – but how can we recognise and mark all this ‘extra stuff’ in a lasting and meaningful way?

We believe that digital badges are the answer.

You can write a badge about anything, and award it to anyone that has achieved the specified criteria. Whereas an old-fashioned certificate may just title the activity and the date that it was achieved, a digital badge clearly displays the earning criteria and skills involved in completing that activity, immortalising it online and giving earners the power, tools, and language to articulate their experiences when seeking future opportunities.

Read below to find out about the Cities of Learning Badge Standard or check out why to badge for different sectors.

Why badge?

The Badge standard

This Cities of Learning standard provides a structure to communicate learning in a consistent way,
making it easier to understand what people are doing, how it helps, and where it could lead.

Engage Layer

Information is given to learners to engage them with a topic and encourage them to undertake further learning opportunities in this area.

Examples:

Careers fairs
Exhibitions
Open days
Assemblies

Participate Layer

Learning is interactive and undertaken with other people to deepen knowledge of a subject. Activities have specific learning outcomes to help learners progress.

Examples:

Workshops
Training
Qualifications
Clubs

Demonstrate Layer

Learning is contextualised in a real world setting and learners are given the opportunity to present their work and receive feedback to help them grow.

Examples:

Competitions
Work experience
Awards programmes
Projects

Lead Layer

Learners are given the opportunity to embed their knowledge in different contexts. Through their work they can show how they have inspired and influence others.

Examples:

Ambassador programmes
Leadership programmes

Digital Badges explainer

In this explainer video we take a look at Digital Badges and how they work. This is a good place to start if you’re new to the world of badges, or are looking to attend a Badge Writing Workshop.

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