Digital Badges

The University of Texas at Dallas has adopted a new digital badge initiative to recognize the completion of microcredentials, or other scholarly programs throughout the institution.

Digital Badges, not unlike transcripts, serve to provide recipients with the opportunity to share their completed accomplishments, but also contain metadata composed of specific information about the program including description, earning criteria, specific skills, and other parameters set by the faculty or staff lead. Thus, recipients can digitally display and share badges that easily verify the acquisition of specific skills and proficiency in certain subjects.

Digital badges are awarded directly to the recipients, and only they can choose how and when to display and share their digital credentials.

To view our current digital badges catalog, please visit the official UTD Canvas Credentials page.

How to Issue Digital Badges for your Program

All new or existing programs that want to issue a digital badge must submit a digital badge request form. They are all subject to the appropriate governance approval.

If the digital badge is for a new academic microcredentials program, both forms, the new microcredential template and the digital badge request form, must be submitted at the same time.

Digital badges are awarded under the UTD umbrella by a specific "Issuer." Issuers are the official entities within UTD, such as the individual schools, offices, etc. Each "Issuer" may reflect digital badges from different areas within their organization structure, such as multiple departments within one academic school.

Digital Badge Designs & Platform

All Digital Badge designs follow standardized metrics, including university branding standards and best practices. The microcredentials team will design all digital badges and coordinate with the faculty or staff lead to choose the final design.

UTD will award its digital badges through Canvas Credentials (previously named Badgr).

Awarding Digital Badges

After the semester ends and grades are officially posted, the microcredentials team will award the digital badges after confirming the recipients completed all the requirements.

Before awarding the digital badges, the recipients are emailed with specific instructions to ensure they can retrieve their badges successfully. The instructions include steps to set up their free Canvas Credentials account, steps to merge their existing accounts, and steps to navigate the Canvas Credentials platform to retrieve and share their badges.

Once the digital badges are retrieved, the recipients will be able to share their digital badges via direct link or via social media platforms, such as LinkedIn. They can also be uploaded to digital wallets if the recipient already has an account with one of the many available platforms, such as Territorium.

Questions?

Check out our Digital Badges & Canvas Credentials Q&A section. If you can’t find what you are looking for, please let us know at microcredentials@utdallas.edu.