Badge Summit 2022

The Open Recognition working group of the Open Skills Network (OSN) is identifying cases in which worker-learners acquire skills from nontraditional job settings and learning experiences to recognize their legitimacy.

As part of our work, we've identified needs for:

1. Openly licensed skills frameworks
2. Accessible tools for authoring skills definitions. 

Wikis are mature, easily-accessible tools for collaborative authoring and openly licensed content, with established conventions/rules for social collaboration. In addition, skills defined in a wiki are easily converted to machine-readable formats, e.g., Rich Skill Descriptors (RSDs).

This session will introduce a new category of Badge Wiki for using and editing openly licensed skills frameworks, demonstrating how badge system designers can contribute and collaborate for increased impact.

CLR and/or LER - What is the Difference? Where do micro-credentials fit in? Where do these new learner attestations fit into a higher educational landscape?  What role do registrars play in shaping the direction of an institutions' alternate credential path?  Are there critical decisions that must be made now?  How do we ensure all learners and institutions have equal access to these credential opportunities?    

In 2020, the Alamo Colleges District created the Course+ Badge program to train faculty to embed marketable skills badges into their existing academic coursework. The program has grown to certify 120 faculty as Badge Specialists and host an active, faculty-led community of practice where faculty inform program processes, share best practices, and identify future opportunities for digital badges. In this panel, we will share insights on building grassroots faculty support for digital badges.

With the growth of digital credentials, professionals of all kinds are delivered assets that can help them be discovered and recognized for their knowledge, skills and abilities.  Credentials are intended to be a kind of currency that can be used in how people search for work, and how they are discovered by employers.  In order to drive the best outcomes, credentials should be designed with the resume in mind.  In this session we will discuss what SmartResume has learned about the credential space, how organizations can set their learners up for success, and the characteristics of credentials that make incredible resume content.

As UNC-Chapel Hill expands its digital and lifelong learning programming, we embarked on a Digital Badging Pilot for several of our noncredit offerings, to better highlight the marketable skills gained by graduates and improve career outcomes, and to create a foundation for future growth in the alternative credentials space. We translated our lessons learned and best practices surfaced into a Quick Start Guide for programs across campus, to help guide conversations. We'll walk you through it.

After hearing about the different aspects and various benefits of micro-credential programs over the past day and a half, what additional ideas or questions remain about launching or expanding a micro-credential initiative?? This facilitated roundtable session is geared toward professionals in higher education who will take lessons learned back to their campuses to contribute to these discussions and efforts. Participants will share thoughts, brainstorm ideas, and ask questions about the many nuances of building a successful micro-credential and badging program.