Digital Badges - Are they a solution to the credentials issue?

Digital Badges

     There is a credentials issues in IT education. For employers, grades are meaningless today. They do not tell them what a student can do today. They want to know what the competencies of graduates are and what level they are at. A resume does not really tell an employer much except what is told to them by their candidates. A resume lists the experiences and skills they have BUT not what they can do.

     There is a movement called Digital Badges. Digital Badges is a technique that allows someone to document the skills someone has. The concept is similar to the Boy Scouts Merit Badges. I am hopeful that badges could be a solution but I am concerned that badges are given out when someone completes a task or series of tasks. How do we know what is learned in these tasks? Someone could do the tasks but not learn a lot.

    I believe a combination of the prior learning assessment (PLA) and badges could help this out. Experience is what employers want today and PLA is a way to measure that learning has taken place. So, I would like to see more accountability in how badges are awarded and not just awarded for completing simple tasks without some assessment of the learning taking place. This does not mean that we will just create a test and when they pass we award the badge. It is much more than that. Students must demonstrate the skill and also the knowledge gained in learning that skill. This will provide some accountability that the badge the student has earned truly illustrates the knowledge and skills learned in that badge that was earned.

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Digital Badges