Digital Badges and Credentials Toolkit

Who is this toolkit for?

While OpenBadges have been around for many years, and countless projects, initiatives and publications have shared their experiences and best practices, we realised early on that reliable information is spread around, not always up-to-date, and often difficult to connect to a new project. We wanted to bring all the available resources together in one place, as a reliable and structured start to your organisation's Digital Badging and Credentialing project.

This toolkit is thus designed to help you set up a digital credentialing program, and, whilst our own research focuses on organisations working with people distant to the labour market, the toolkit can be used by anyone interested in implementing digital badges in their organisation.

For more information on Badge Europe and the phases we have been through in the project, please visit our website https://badgeurope.eu/ Here you will be able to read about the background of the project, the partners, and our qualitative research with both learners and stakeholders in the target groups.

The project website also includes a resource bank of external articles and publications which are relevant to the project. This toolkit is the final stage of the Badge Europe project, which we hope will allow more organisations to integrate digital badges into their credentialing practices to make skills and competence more visible.

You may be a complete beginner and in the initial phases of exploring the opportunities available with digital credentialing, or may have already implemented a pilot project and are looking to expand your credentialing programme. Either way, we strongly recommend that you follow the role out plan steps in the correct order, as many actions are dependent on the preceding step being completed.

The Roll Out Plan comprises 5 steps, each of which is designed to initiate thought processes about your organisational aims, technical capabilities and stakeholder network, all of which are critical to the successful implementation of a credentialing system.

How to use the toolkit?

The toolkit is designed as a 5-step Roll Out Plan, with each step detailed on separate pages. Most of the stages have additional resources for you to work with, for example a Self-assessment, a Project Canvas, a Stakeholders' workshop and a Communication Plan. There are also Case Studies and Tips throughout each of the steps, so that you can utilise and reflect on other's experiences - click on the organisations' logos to read about their company initiatives in digital credentialing. At the end of each step, you will find a checklist of points that you will have considered or completed during the step.

It is intended that the steps are worked through in order, however during your journey, you will be directed by links to our Resource pages, where you can find additional resources to assist your progress. Once you have reviewed a resource, you should then return to the main page for the step that you are working on, in order to continue on your path.