Digital Credential Design

The narrative of each student’s educational journey is a story that must be told, and digital credentials/badges can be instrumental in helping to tell that story.

Digital Credential Design

The narrative of each student’s educational journey is a story that must be told, and digital credentials/badges can be instrumental in helping to tell that story.

Program Approach

Our Digital Credential Design approach is to help public and private higher education organization make informed decisions around adopting digital badging and help them approach digital credentials in a strategic and sustainable manner. Our approach is vendor agnostic focusing only upon student benefit and institutional reputation. As “always on” and “instantaneous” become the norm in business it is imperative that students have a way to communicate proficiency, and credentials on demand.

Our Objective

To help you design and implement digital credential programs that are sustainable and promote communication between colleges, communities and employers.

Strategic Planning

Digital Credentials/Badges can represent the many credentials offered by your institution. Your program should be designed with your key objectives in mind while recognizing the needs of your students, faculty, employers and community.

Start Your Digital Credential Design

Represent existing credentials. 1 of 5 Industry recognized certifications with qualifications defined by certification bodies. 2 of 5 Discrete skill or proficiency that is part of a larger credential. Can be stacked to acquire academic or certificate badges. 3 of 5 Vocational skill or proficiency certificate. 4 of 5 Shows participation in activities or events. 5 of 5

What Is a Digital Badge?

Digital Badges are virtual representations of achievements, proficiencies, skills, or other activities. It is an important distinction that a badge is not the “THING”, the badge represents the “THING.” Therefore, the value of a badge is established by what it represents. There are many uses for badges with the major classes being identified in the graphic shown here.

Digital Credential Design and Mapping Activities

NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference 2019

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NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference 2019

NICE K12 offered digital badges for their attendees to demonstrate the knowledge gained by attending conference sessions and workshops. By mapping to both the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for CTE, educators are able to communicate the conference value and link to industry standards.
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3CS Conference Workshop Credential

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3CS Conference Workshop Credential

3CS wanted to provide conference workshop attendees with more than just a completion certificate. By mapping to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework and the Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAD-CD) KU’s, educators walked away with a digital badge that reflected the knowledge they gained by attending conference workshops.
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Wicked 6 Cyber Games Competition

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Wicked 6 Cyber Games Competition

The top 6 teams participating in the Wicked6 Cyber Games competed to earn a digital badge for Champion, Finalist, Runner up and Qualifier. Badge details mapped the activities of the game scenarios to show the skill sets used for the final cyber games. Badge skill details were mapped to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, allowing earners to highlight their cybersecurity experience in real-world game scenarios.
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Community College Cyber Summit (3CS) 2019

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Community College Cyber Summit (3CS) 2019

3CS wanted to provide conference participants with more than just an attendance or presenter badge. By mapping to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework and the Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAD-CD) KU’s, designating the number of sessions attended and linking presentation materials participants walked away with a digital badge that reflected the level of engagement in the conference.
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School of Professional and Personal Learning

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School of Professional and Personal Learning

SynED provided vendor search services and evaluations for College of the Canyon's program platform, which is designed to provides adult learners in the Santa Clarita Valley with educational opportunities to ease the transition to college, prepare for new career pathways, upskill in their current field, explore personal interest opportunities. Students can learn and earn: take courses, earn digital badges and certificates, and get ready for opportunity!
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California Mayors Cyber Cup 2019

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California Mayors Cyber Cup 2019

In addition to winning a trophy and medals, the first, second and third place winners received digital badge awards. We felt that it was critical to map the game “flags” to the NICE Framework, an industry and government recognized standard, which defined the digital badge. This will make these badges very valuable to those earning them as they progress along their career path.
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CCCAOE Conference Badge Design

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CCCAOE Conference
Badge Design

CCCAOE Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 offered badges for conference attendance and to presenters. Presenter badges contained evidence with links to the presentation materials used in the presenter's session. Attendance badges contained the number of sessions attended as evidence of the level of participation for each attendee.
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Regional Career Strategist Program

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Career Strategist Badge

South Central Coast Regional Consortium is offering a region wide Career Strategist program that is a day-long workshop to teach attendees how to setup and maintain their LinkedIn profile, create a resume and practice in interview simulations. This badge is generally their first badge connected to their LinkedIn profile.
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Career Skills Institute Badge Program Development

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Career Skills Institute Badge Program Development

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) reassessed its traditional business skills program. With validated local business feedback, SBCC redesigned its entire professional development program from the ground up and also used digital badges as a catalyst to invigorate the program. SBCC worked with synED to fit badge technology to the overall project.

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Health Care Digital Badge Roundtable

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Health Care Digital Badge Roundtable

Select healthcare leadership in the Santa Barbara region and special guest Das Williams, Assembly Member and Chair of the CA Assembly Higher Education Committee met at Antioch University on October 8, 2014 at a meeting convened by SynED, an educational non-profit futures group, to discuss a unique solution for access to relevant training for the healthcare workforce.
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Digital Badge Review Roundtable

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Digital Badge Review Roundtable

On May 16, 2014 a group of professionals representing various stakeholder viewpoints in workforce education gathered at Los Positas College to discuss the vision and issues relating to giving recognition for skills acquired in both tradition and non-traditional learning venues. It was held as an information sharing session on the topic of Digital Badges with attendees representing a workforce digital badge ‘ecosystem’.
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