The Importance of Digital Badges in Higher Education

Digital badges have emerged as a game changer in higher education and the world at large over the last decade. Simply put, digital badges, also known as digital certifications, are the digital equivalents of traditional paper certifications such as a driver’s license, passport, or educational certificate.

Digital badges: A Game Changer

As more multinationals, including IBM, HubSpot, Google, and others, offer digital badges for completing specific programs, these certifications make it easier to communicate skills you have acquired.

Badges enable a hiring manager to quickly identify desired skills and the effort a candidate has put in beyond their formal education by visiting an applicant’s online profile. These badges demonstrate your commitment to lifelong learning and participation in programs that will advance your career.

Link Badging to Education Goals

Today’s students of higher education institutions expect a completely different learning experience. They are no longer content to sit through long lectures in a packed auditorium. They are not enthralled by theoretical subjects that require years of practice to apply what they have learned.

In order to provide additional value to the learning experience school’s go the extra mile to provide professional certifications for their students. For instance, students in computer science could have the opportunity to earn certificates in networking from Cisco, Machine Learning from Google, or Database management from Oracle.

By collaborating with leading organizations to create learning opportunities for students, they can gain the experience they need to succeed after graduation. It also helps prospective employers verify their skill set. As a result, it is not uncommon to see hiring managers from various organizations trying to attract talents finishing up their studies in business schools and other higher education institutions.

The Value of Digital Credentials

Digital badging is laying out a clear path for students, members, and employees to understand where they have been and where they are going on their journey to lifelong learning. Individuals are motivated to learn more as they see their opportunities grow with each badge earned.

This type of incentive is comparable to earning a degree. You recognize the importance of developing skills, networking with peers, and creating a community. Similarly, digital badges demonstrate that you have completed a program and acquired certain capabilities.

Benefits of Digital Badges

Considering the impact it can have on both employers and job seekers, many companies, institutions, and organizations are launching digital badges and certifications.

Some of the advantages of digital badges include:

· Recognizes the acquisition of new skills.

· Allows hiring managers to quickly identify acquired skills.

· Encourages students and members to learn new skills.

· Participants’ careers are advanced by teaching new skills.

· Showcase students’ enthusiasm for lifelong learning.

These and other advantages, such as the ability to brag about your achievement on social media, are just a few of the reasons why institutions use digital badges.

Badges Help Recruiters Identify Top Candidates

Recruiters from Amazon, Facebook, Google, and top consulting firms like PWC go after the talent in top schools like Stanford, IESE business school, Oxford, and the likes. They know that not all higher education programs are created equal.

Program managers at the school must spread the word to students and prospective students about the programs available and the certification opportunities within those programs. This is an excellent method for gaining leverage.

Badges Communicate the Value of your Programs

Digital badges have a lot of applications. This applies to the learning organization, increasing motivation, supporting customization, increasing transparency, promoting understanding, further developing marketing, and finding new ways for students and teachers to communicate.

Badges help advertise what your school has to offer and draw in prospective students. As you develop avenues to market your school, you should develop strategies and resources to invite others to join your community. We encourage you to share stories from your students’ lives as you advertise your school! If you are just starting your school, you could consider running a short trial run, perhaps over a weekend or a two-week taster, and use testimonies from this time. We have seen schools use this method and succeed in getting the word out.

Conclusion

Digital badges in education are proven indicators of individual success, abilities and skills, and interest in various learning settings. Digital badging is a fantastic tool that educators can use to recognize and reward learners’ efforts in order to encourage learning. However, the benefits are entirely dependent on its proper implementation.

Universities are recommended to examine the potential of digital badges. Although the names vary widely, a basic idea of ​​certifications is that study content can be broken down into the smallest parts and put back together again in the sense of the greatest possible modularization and aggregation capability. Certifications are characterized by the intention to aim for formalized certificates. Badges, on the other hand, aim to make competencies visible that are acquired within the framework of the curriculum or outside of it.

EdVerso is Blockchain for Education

We are an international non-profit organization that merges educational experiences with Blockchain power. We developed a registered certification schema oriented to tracking, certifying, and promoting skills and reskilling activities.

EdVerso is a project based on Lutinx Inc. Blockchain. After three years of testing, it offers a suite of ready-to-use blockchain solutions for High Schools, Universities, Academies, and Educational structures.

With EdVerso, Blockchain for Education is a reality moving faster to the metaverse world.