Digital Badge Guidelines for Noncredit Programs at Virginia Tech

Abstract

At Virginia Tech, students, faculty, and staff engage in a variety of training and activities that support their professional and personal development outside of for-credit, transcriptable experiences; however, there has not previously been a university-wide approach or tool to aid in tracking attendance, providing assessment and feedback (when appropriate), and recognizing learners for their work, accomplishments, and professional growth in those noncredit, nonclassroom experiences. Digital badging offers a way for units offering noncredit, nonclassroom experiences on campus to track, respond to, and recognize learners for their engagement. For units offering these a variety of learning experiences, digital badging provides data for showing the reach and impact of their work and awards for learners for their participation. For learners, digital badging offers a visible and shareable asset that complements their academic work. For hiring professionals, digital badges are offering a new way to identify and classify large applicant pools, with a tool that is “machine readable.” The Digital Badge Guidelines for Noncredit Programs at Virginia Tech are meant to help groups at Virginia Tech who are interested in developing either a single badge or a full microcredential program to navigate both the technology and the design questions in an easy-to-follow format. The Quick Guide for Noncredit Badging at VT contains an abbreviated version to share only essentials needed for badge creation. The power of microcredentials lies in a value proposition between the issuer, earner, and viewer. Virginia Tech’s badges will be much more valuable when we follow some key design principles as a group and some best practices that have been identified nationally. This record link serves as a hub for current and previous versions of the Digital Badge Guidelines for Noncredit Programs at Virginia Tech and the Quick Guide for Noncredit Badging at VT. Previous versions will remain published at this link. Please scroll down and select the most current version of these guidelines when beginning your badge work at Virginia Tech.