How Digital Badges Are Used in Higher Education and Professional Workplaces Today

How Digital Badges Are Used in Higher Education and Professional Workplaces Today

by | Aug 1, 2023 | Blog Post

How Digital Badges Are Used in Higher Education and Professional Workplaces Today

In today’s fast-paced world, continuous learning has become more important than ever before. Not only are technological advancements happening at an accelerated pace, but they’re also anticipated to reshape millions of jobs over the next decade, according to the European Commission. Because of this, individuals need to keep themselves updated with the latest skills and knowledge to stay competitive in the job market. 

But, how can educational institutions and university registrars motivate students to pursue continuous learning when learners don’t see the immediate value in doing so? Read on to find out how organisations across the educational realm are using digital credentials to support and motivate students along their lifelong learning journeys.

IHEA Members Live on My Equals

In today’s ever-evolving educational and professional landscapes, traditional methods of assessing and recognising educational achievement are not the only option to empower learners. Credentialing technology in the form of digital badges is emerging to enhance and augment the conventional learning experience — whether in a classroom or the workplace. 

Boasting versatility, portability and shareability, these competency-based credentials are quickly gaining traction as a powerful means of certifying and showcasing accomplishments. To uncover this innovative approach to flexible and continuous education, we’re taking a closer look at digital badging and how organisations are taking steps to harness the potential of these solutions. 

Taking a look at the growing digital badges landscape

Digital badges, sometimes referred to as digital credentials, provide organisations with a meaningful way to recognise and verify a learner’s specific skills or accomplishments — all in a portable format that can be easily shared online. An individual badge encompasses more than a mere visual image or logo; in reality, it’s a dynamic and portable icon embedded with learners’ verified data. This qualifying information includes:

  • The badge issuer.
  • The location and method of earning a digital badge.
  • A detailed description of the specific skill, achievement or competency met.
  • Links to multimedia artefacts (e.g., websites, images or documents).
  • Expiration dates and continuing education information (if applicable).

Key drivers of digital badge expansion

Systems for digital badging in both the educational and professional realms are on the rise, putting a spotlight on the true value of lifelong learning and continuous professional development. In fact, market research from Valuates Reports revealed that the global digital badges market is set for massive growth, with experts estimating it to reach a value of $365.1 million by 2028. This accelerated progress can be attributed to:

  • Increasing demand for more personalised, accessible and flexible learning opportunities.
  • Intensifying calls for digital learning via various online platforms.
  • Fast-paced advancements in technology and, in turn, greater potential for digital badges.
  • Growing recognition and acceptance by institutions and employers.

While there’s no shortage of the types of competencies that a digital badge might represent, examples include anything from data analysis and programming languages to leadership and teamwork, cybersecurity and project management. By arming badge earners with a tangible and verifiable certification of a specific learning achievement, organisations can more effectively empower learners on their unique, lifelong educational journeys. 

Common use cases of digital badges today

Let’s consider how digital badges are used in the education sector today: While credentialing technology provides concrete evidence for student achievement, digital badging systems can be leveraged strategically to ensure personalised educational opportunities. This boosts the overall learning experience and drives organisational recruitment and retention. 

The University of Central Oklahoma, for instance, introduced digital badges as a tool to combat the growing lack of soft skills in the workforce — focusing on topics like professional communication, business etiquette and reputation management. According to a University Professional and Continuing Education (UPCEA) and Pearson survey of 190 institutions, one in five educational institutions offers digital badges today. What’s more, 94% of the organisations profiled provide alternative credentials, which will likely drive the continued growth of digital badging moving forward. 

In the professional world, an employer can utilise badges to verify the skills and competencies of job candidates and existing employees, not to mention facilitating ongoing professional development long-term. Professional learners can then easily share achievements through the integration of badges into online job platforms, social media and professional networking sites or company-specific systems. Leading global brands, including IBM and Salesforce, have already adopted digital badges to certify employee expertise, as more and more companies embrace skills-based hiring and learning programs. This is not only reinforcing a culture of lifelong learning but helping convert relevant industry knowledge into verifiable educational credit.

The value of digital badges for institutions, learners and employers

As employers and educational institutions increasingly introduce systems for digital badging, there are several key benefits that stakeholders can anticipate as a result:

  1. Learners receive enhanced visibility of their achievements and competencies, allowing them to display a more holistic profile of their expertise on demand. 
  2. Students can take advantage of digital badge portability, making it simple to share and showcase credentials across platforms and social media.
  3. Educational institutions have the opportunity to meet growing demands for more flexible and accessible learning environments with credentialing solutions. 
  4. Employers can implement more efficient talent evaluation; improving the chances of a proper job fit in the hiring process and revealing workforce skill gaps for existing employee development. 
  5. Organisations can enjoy the assurance of expertise with authenticity and verification built into digital badges.

The culmination of these distinct digital badging benefits helps teams across professional and educational environments to promote a better overall learning experience and foster a culture of continuous education. 

Introduce Open Badges with help from Digitary 

As digital badging continues to grow, educational institutions and professional workplaces hold a remarkable opportunity to bridge the gap between conventional learning and the escalating need to showcase validated certification and skills, quickly and easily. Incorporating credentialing technology that supports micro-credentialing strategies can help your organisation fortify its future by empowering learners and augmenting its attractiveness as a result. 

Digitary by Parchment provides trusted credentialing solutions enabling the world’s leading institutions, learners, employers and government agencies to certify, issue, accept and verify academic credentials worldwide. You can drive your micro-credentialing strategies and help learners tell their complete story with Digitary Badges, powered by an open-source digital badge platform. 

If your organisation is ready to meet the evolving needs of learners today while empowering individuals along their unique lifelong educational journeys, submit an enquiry today to get started. 

 

The Unexpected Benefits of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) for Higher Education Institutions

The Unexpected Benefits of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) for Higher Education Institutions

by | Jul 28, 2023 | Blog Post

The Unexpected Benefits of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) for Higher Education Institutions

In today’s fast-paced world, continuous learning has become more important than ever before. Not only are technological advancements happening at an accelerated pace, but they’re also anticipated to reshape millions of jobs over the next decade, according to the European Commission. Because of this, individuals need to keep themselves updated with the latest skills and knowledge to stay competitive in the job market. 

But, how can educational institutions and university registrars motivate students to pursue continuous learning when learners don’t see the immediate value in doing so? Read on to find out how organisations across the educational realm are using digital credentials to support and motivate students along their lifelong learning journeys.

IHEA Members Live on My Equals

Today, amid the continued digital transformation of learning, higher education institutions are increasingly implementing digital solutions to effectively streamline and upgrade the processes they have in place. As reliance on advanced technology continues to grow rapidly, there’s an increasing need for digital trust solutions, particularly self-sovereign identity (SSI)

SSI helps with privacy-preserving features, giving learners control over their own data and data security. With this in mind, we’re taking a closer look at the unexpected benefits learners can experience as a result of SSI technology. 

Understanding self-sovereign identity in higher education

Self-sovereign identity is a growing approach to digital identity that gives individuals control of their digital identities and personal data. Organisations are beginning to leverage SSI as a powerful strategy to establish trust in online interactions, especially as digital credentialing grows and technology continues to evolve and change the way we communicate. 

How are SSI and VCs affecting higher education today?

The development of SSI has been accompanied by advances in Verifiable Credentials (VC), which is an open technical standard that enables tamper-evident digital credentials that can be cryptographically verified. These technological innovations are shifting the access and sharing paradigms for credentials, through the use of digital wallets. 

These digital wallets will serve as valuable containers for everything learners will need to share in their academic and professional careers, from transcripts to micro-credentials and degrees. By keeping VCs in their digital wallets, they can save time and ensure verification, which inevitably eases the burden on higher education administrators, too. 

By introducing digital trust ecosystems based on SSI principles and Verifiable Credentials., institutions can support learners in accessing and sharing data in a new, controlled and trusted way. Not only can learners share their academic credentials and accomplishments with institutions and potential employers across the globe, but also with loved ones on social media. The growing desire for more privacy, control and agency by learners, is driving institutions and employers toward the implementation and adoption of  SSI technology. As a result of introducing SSI solutions, all key parties stand to enjoy a host of benefits moving forward.

 

The benefits of SSI for key parties — institutions, learners and employers:

Institutions:

  • Supporting the admissions process: In the educational domain today, there are two distinct admissions processes for international and domestic students, and overseas students have a particularly demanding process to navigate. With the introduction of VCs and an SSI ecosystem, these processes can be effectively aligned as it becomes considerably easier for students from anywhere in the world to share their academic credentials and for institutions to verify them.
  • Improving the learner experience: Only half of university students believe the education they’re receiving is worth their tuition, according to Qualtrics. This highlights a critical gap in what students are looking for and what higher education institutions are able to offer them. Fortunately, leveraging advanced digital solutions — SSI technology, issuing VCs and using digital wallets — is a considerable step in the right direction, providing learners with the security, agency, control and accessibility needed to elevate their overall learning experience. This inevitably helps attract potential learners while retaining the valuable students you already have in the long term. 

Employers:

  • Streamlining employment processes: According to a survey conducted by Intelligent, 57% of employers verify education credentials to ensure applicants have the right knowledge and qualifications for the position. However, this can be incredibly difficult for employers to validate and for learners to effectively show exactly what they’ve accomplished over the years. With VCs and an SSI framework in place, individuals can share the specific trustworthy credentials that are applicable to the job opening and as a result, employers can more easily access and verify this information.

Learners:

  • Improved security: Within an SSI framework, personal data is decentralised and encrypted, giving students ownership of their information and control over its security. This makes it more secure for students to share this information directly with an institution and mitigates the opportunity for cyberattacks. 
  • Upgraded control and consent: Because SSI gives you ownership over an identity piece, learners can control what parts of their identity to share. This introduces the possibility for learners to avoid sharing personal information they’re not comfortable with — such as age, gender, ethnicity etc. — when applying for further study or future jobs. 
  • Increased learner agency: Introducing VCs and SSI solutions is also a critical step toward fulfilling learner agency. Learners establish control and own their connections with issuers and verifiers which enhances cross-border mobility and interoperability between systems.

Introducing SSI and digital credentials with Digitary CORE

The growth of digital credentialing and SSI technology within higher education institutions is quickly empowering students to take control of their unique learning journey and assert claims to third parties through progressive and deliberate disclosure — while considerably simplifying and streamlining processes for institutions and other key parties along the way. 

If your organisation is ready to introduce advanced digital solutions to relieve the burden on valuable team members and elevate the student experience, Digitary by Parchment can help. Digitary is a leader in digital credentials, providing an online platform for certifying, sharing and verifying academic credentials. This enables millions of learners to share their digital credentials online quickly, securely and easily, while institutions and their registrars reduce credential fraud, improve service levels and increase their overall efficiency. 

To learn more about Digitary CORE or our approach to digital credentials and SSI, submit an enquiry today.