BDC Digital Badging

What are microcredentials? If you learned it, you've earned it!

They are a digital representation as a credential that demonstrates an outcome or experience or achievement or competency that can be verified in real-time based on a standard. Badges provide information about the issuer, earning criteria, and verifying evidence. A badge may be a one-off Experience 1 introduction or form part of a pathway of learning or build towards a microcredential at an advanced stage.

BDC badges will identify a range of opportunities beyond the classroom, soft skills, and general capabilities. BDC will use Schoolbox and Credly to assist in the recognition and sharing of student and staff badges and microcredentials.

The platforms include Schoolbox for K to 6 and LinkedIn Australia (BDC Credentials Group) for College staff and Year 7 to Year 13.

Benefits of Badging or a BDC Microcredential

• A badge provides a way to share a person's knowledge, skills, abilities, and achievements across digital platforms such as websites, social media, online portfolios, and/or email signatures.
• A badge is portable, moving with the earner for the life of the badge at BDC eg Year 12 into the workforce. A badge represents the attainment of a level or completing a skill set or knowledge or service.
• Credentials could be recognised locally, nationally, by a specific workforce, or by education providers. Formal recognition of skills/knowledge. This could be a BDC Credential or a community-identified credential.
• For employers, badges provide evidence of content, knowledge, and employability skills.
• Learning can also be authenticated to reveal the verified webpage that contains more information about the achievement and or how it was obtained.

The importance of badges and microcredentials

• Encourage employers, higher education institutions, and other workplaces to think about how learning is measured and recognised.
• Emphasis on small, focused areas of learning means badges are useful in providing evidence of knowledge, skills and attributes for specific specialist areas.
• Badges support a growing worldwide interest in continuing, lifelong professional education across a variety of industries and professions.
• Badges travel with the earner.
• Badges may be stackable to build a portfolio of expertise, a specialist skill, or a microcredential.

How is a badge or microcredential earned?

• Completing activities, assessments, and/or projects that form part of a learning experience and earners demonstrate evidence of learning.
• Badges are across different categories (or levels) of learning experiences and are online or face to face learning contexts.
• Badges may be stacked to build a specialist skill or qualify for a micro-credential.
• Schoolbox K to 6, staff, Year 7 to 12 via Credly.