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Open Learning Digital Badges
About Open Learning Digital Badges
Open Learning makes use of digital badges as microcredentials to recognize and validate learners’ knowledge and skills gained through learning within the platform. It is a verifiable and shareable visual representation of competencies gained by the learners in a particular subject or field.
Digital badges are reserved for Micromodules. Open online courses and self-paced courses in Open Learning make use of a different certification system.
Advantages of Open Learning Digital Badges
- Visible
Digital badges provide a visual representation of a learner's skills and achievements. They offer a concise and easily recognizable way to showcase competencies and knowledge in a specific area, making it easier for employers, peers, or clients to understand the learner's capabilities.
- Verifiable
Digital badges often include metadata or embedded information, providing additional details about the issuer, criteria, and evidence of learning. This transparency ensures that the badge represents a legitimate achievement and allows others to verify its authenticity and significance.
- Shareable
Digital badges can be easily shared and displayed across various platforms, including social media, online portfolios, and professional networking sites. This portability allows learners to showcase their accomplishments to a wider audience, increasing their visibility and credibility.
- Microcredentialing
Digital badges serve as microcredentials, highlighting specific skills or achievements. They allow learners to showcase their expertise in niche areas, providing a more granular representation of their capabilities compared to traditional degrees or certificates.
- Lifelong learning recognition
Digital badges can be earned for both formal and informal learning experiences, recognizing achievements beyond the traditional education system. This promotes lifelong learning and encourages individuals to engage in continuous professional development, acquiring new skills and knowledge throughout their careers.
- Continuous skill development
Digital badges encourage learners to engage in ongoing skill development. By earning badges in various areas, learners can demonstrate their commitment to staying updated with industry trends, technologies, and best practices.
Guideline and Criteria for the Award of Open Learning Digital Badges
The following criteria will be followed in awarding the digital badge:
- Completion of micromodule/s
The learner must successfully complete a particular micromodule or specific number of micromodules.
- Assessment and participation
Learners should take and pass the formative and/or summative assessments within each micromodule and actively participate in discussion forums, peer feedback activities, or collaborative projects throughout the course.
Additionally, separate badges will be given out based solely on the number of courses a learner completes. These digital badges can serve as milestones and acknowledgments of a learner's commitment to continuous education and professional development.
- "Micromodule Explorer" - Awarded for completing max 5 micromodules;
- "Micromodule Learner" - Awarded for completing entire micromodules under a category;
How to Use and Share on Social Media the Open Learning Digital Badges
If you want to view your earned badges, click Preferences at the left pane of your dashboard. Under the badges section, select Manage Badges.
To share all your collected badges on social media and for verification, you will need to connect to a backpack. A backpack is a platform or system for storing, managing and sharing badges. To create a backpack, we will use https://badgr.com/auth/login. Create an account using an existing email or social media account. Once you are registered, we recommend you to Set password under the Account settings in order for you to connect it with our LMS, openlearning.cgiar.org.
Connecting backpack to LMS
- Login to openlearning.cgiar.org, then open the link https://openlearning.cgiar.org/badges/mybackpack.php
- Click the button Change backpack settings
- Input the email address you used to register your backpack
- Input the password you set
- Then click the Connect to backpack button
- For the final step, verify the connection on your email address
Once you are connected successfully, you may checkout and share your badges on social media by visiting this link https://badgr.com/backpack/badges
Additional Notes
At the moment, only a few micromodules issue badges. Gradually, all the micromodules will issue badges, and you don't need to retake the micromodules to earn the badges.
Digital badges may expire when a course gets updated. In such case, learners are to take the updated course to regain the badge.
