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DIGITAL BADGE PROJECT
The WRS digital badge proves that a student has passed the related test. CTECS offers the digital badge through our partner Credly, where students go to acquire and share badges, build profiles, and ultimately to connect with real postsecondary and employment opportunities.
Three Easy Steps to Start Sharing Your WRS Digital Badge
- Request your badge
- Create your Credly account
- Claim and share your badge on Credly
Students receive the badge by direct request
We are currently issuing badges by request through our partner, Credly, directly from the testing environment. Once the test is submitted and passed, the student receives a note of congratulations and an offer to enter their email address if they are interested in collecting/claiming the WRS Badge. This request automatically triggers a response email from Credly on behalf of CTECS with a link to set up their free account on Credly. Once they do this, using the same email with which they made this request, the WRS Badge will be waiting for them at Credly, but they still need to claim it in order to share it.
The student process directly from passing the WRS test
Request retroactively
FAQ
What are digital badges?
- Watch the introductory video, “A Short Story About Open Badges,”.
- Watch “Rethinking College” from PBS New Hour.
- Today’s badges are digital credentials that represent skills, interests, and achievements earned by an individual through specific projects, programs, courses, or other activities. There is a learning ecosystem behind the badges that make them powerful and connected credentials. This ecosystem is made up of badge “issuers,” badge “earners,” and badge “consumers.” —Expanding Education and Workforce Opportunities through Digital Badges, All4Ed.org (Alliance for Excellent Education and Mozilla Foundation, 2013)
- Watch what business and industry is saying about badges, and how they are using them at https://vimeo.com/31574890, from Badges with Competition, Mobile Digital Arts, 2012.
Why are digital badges an emerging trend in education?
The digital badge ecosystem is an emerging “disruptive technology” and a key element in lifelong learning trends. Digital badges are credible, portable, personalized, online credentials that can be professionally shared with anyone the recipient chooses, including potential employers and postsecondary educators. More importantly, these consumers of badge information can unpack the badges to see deeper, granular detail of the student’s accomplishments adding meaning, value, specificity, and proof of the educational experience. The online infrastructure enables any recipient to easily store and share badges online.
What are the benefits to earning digital badges?
- Teachers and schools benefit from more students earning credentials and validating programs, and competition among providers could mean improved curriculum resources offered by those employers. Improved credentialing allows new and meaningful career paths to emerge and aids program planning.
- Students benefit from having an online professional credential system that represents their portfolio in an official, credible manner. The badge system helps them track their achievements and provides new ways for them to combine or stack badges. Sharing is often just a click away. Employers, college recruiters, and other professionals would benefit from this information.
- Employers/organizations benefit from increasing visibility of their credentials. Increased visibility would lead to more credential earners, and more credential earners would supply more qualified workers and close the skills gap.
Why should teachers encourage students to acquire digital badges?
The success of the digital badge project, which promises to become a standard part of any student’s continuing education, is dependent on participation, and student participation depends, to large degree, on the ability of current educators to properly inform and encourage students to acquire badges. Not only is lifelong learning a human necessity, the value is spelled out on the Workplace Readiness Skills list. Participation in the ecosystem helps to build it and adds value to any individual badge.