Badging and Microcredentials Service Overview

Digital badges (at times also referred to as microcredentials) are electronic, visual indicators that show knowledge, skills, and competencies that a student, staff or faculty have gained from the training or learning experiences. Badge and Microcredential Service team members can consult with interested stakeholders, guiding their development and design of badge courses that adhere to quality practices and interface with our external badging platforms to provide verifiable credentials.  

Visit our St. Thomas OneStThomas Badging and Microcredential site for specific resources on how to enroll in St. Thomas badges and resources for sharing. 

Also consider the public facing St. Thomas/Canvas Credentials Badge page to learn what badges are currently published and visible on an external facing public site. Corrections to either of these sites, please submit a ticket to the Badging and Microcredential service team. 

Badging and Microcredential Features:

• Students have opportunities to earn badges as they develop certain knowledge, skills and competencies that may complement their academic degree plan and transcript; badges may also open doors to additional opportunities at St. Thomas and further showcase their credentials. 
• Student employees may at times be required to complete certain digital badge courses, or seek out digital badge courses for further career enhancement. 
• Staff and faculty also have opportunities to develop and showcase their knowledge, skills, and competencies via a badging or microcredential platform. 
• Student, staff and faculty badges (with our Canvas Credential platform) are typically anchored in Canvas our main course learning management platform (LMS) at St. Thomas although there are ways to also leverage Canvas Credential badges in other electronic platforms if you have a single badges connected to a Badge Pathway series (set up a consultation). 
• Badges are set up so that you can share that credential in your social media platforms (e.g., Linked In, Facebook, etc), your resume, personal website, or e-portfolio. This provides more on  How to share digital badges and microcredentials. 

Getting Started

Looking for current badges offered at St. Thomas in our Canvas environment? Visit our  Badge and Microcredential Current Badges page. 

Interested in developing a badge or microcredential? Please submit a ticket to the Core Badge team to have a consultation about your ideas. To prepare for that consultation,  please review the Develop a Badge page and be ready discuss:

• the focus for the area of badge/learning development- what would you like someone to learn and demonstrate as a result of  that badge course; 
• the audience (are you wanting to design training/badging for students, student employees, staff and/or faculty);
• learning outcomes (what you would like your target audience to know or learn to do as a result of the badge); and
• timelines (when you hope to launch that badge/training). 

Please know that at times the Badge and Microcredential Service team may dissuade (advise against) developing a digital badge course; at times simply creating a digital resource or other type of training/learning experience is better.

The decision to develop a digital badge module or course needs to also include both conversation about the resources available for initial development, the plan for ongoing maintenance, and level of connection to university-wide goals.  

Request Service

Our request service form will allow you to:

• Request an initial consultation to determine if a badge or microcredential is the right fit for your needs and situation; 
• Request assistance in building out your plan and badge or microcredential resource once your initial idea has been developed (to ensure that your badge is designed with verifiable criteria, incorporates St. Thomas badge protocols, has a sustainable plan for management for ongoing upkeep and awarding of badges according to criteria set); 
• Troubleshooting or reporting a problem once your badge or microcredential site has been launched.