Importance of Digital Badges for Association Education

Rapidly evolving technology and the digitalisation era have impacted not only educational institutions and learning experiences but also how credentials are pursued. Digital credentials, which are a virtual equal to paper-based documentation of certificates, can now be issued by educational institutions in the form of digital certificates, digital badges, stacked credentials, and micro-credentials.

Individuals are no longer satisfied with traditional education institutions and training and are more willing to enrol in digital credential programmes and courses that allow learners to accumulate credentials and pursue professional development. Indeed, leading EdTech companies such as Udemy, UpGrad, Coursera, and Udacity have already begun to implement skill-based programmes and courses to address the skills gap in the technologically advanced workplace.

Importance of Digital Badges for Association Education:

Reduces manual work:

While traditional paper-based credentials required a significant amount of time and effort to create and issue the credential to the recipient, the entire process took at least a month and required a significant amount of manual work and labour.

By incorporating automation, this manual work can be avoided. Automation replaces physical human tasks with technology integration. By entering the criteria, process, and action into the automation software, the software can do all of the work for you. Digital certificates can now be issued in seconds or minutes thanks to automation reducing a lot of manual work and labour tasks.

LMS integration:

To persuade both members and employees of the program’s legitimacy, the course programme must have a standard set of best practices and processes that are appealing and beneficial to the learner. Institutions or course programmes can integrate a learning management system or LMS into their courses to improve their credibility and appeal to their members and learners alike. This allows for seamless linking of the competencies acquired, criteria of the badge or certification, issue and expiration date.

Learners will be considerably more focused and productive on progressing through the programme if the LMS is seamlessly integrated with the course system. LMS integration programmes have also been demonstrated to result in a considerable rise in course completion rates, according to studies.

Display of digital badges:

A digital badge that cannot be shared or shown has no value, even though the knowledge obtained is valuable. Because recruiters and hiring managers must verify qualifications, the shareability of digital credentials gained becomes critical.

Learners want to flaunt off the credential they got, which shows the criteria and competencies they met, and recruiters want to know about the skills they learned and how they relate to the role. This might be accomplished by enabling sharing and hosting of the digital badge on social media sites, embedding it in resumes and portfolios, and sending it via email.

In Conclusion:

Members have control and ownership over their unique learning successes thanks to digital badges. Digital badges allow members to identify skills relevant to the modern workplace and earn credentials in those areas leading to career advancement and professional development.