Digital Badges

Female hand presenting merit badge
(Image credit: Wavebreakmedia Ltd)

A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, “Digital Badge Systems: The Promise and Potential,” highlights how the increasing adopting of digital badge systems supports professional learning for teachers and college and career readiness for students.

The report recommends strategies that include transitioning from seat-time requirements for learning to more flexible models that advance students after they master course content. The report also recommends safeguards at the state level to ensure that competency-based learning prevents at-risk students from falling behind. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of clear protocols around how student data is collected and how privacy is protected within a badge system.

The report is available at http://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/DigitalBadgeSystems/