Using the Badges Function in eLearn

Centre for Teaching Excellence

Studio | Educational Technologies | Badges in eLearn

Badges are digital certificates that are used to recognize an accomplishment, e.g. acquiring a new skill, completing a task/s or achieving status. The opportunity to earn a Badge can be a powerful motivator for students. Badges can be designed and awarded within eLearn. Here’s everything you need to know about Badges in eLearn.

Purpose of a Badge

Providing students with an opportunity to earn a Badge can be used for a number of applications:

Motivation – motivating students to complete an activity or task such as posting to forums, building co-curricular skills such as networking or creating an e-portfolio, e.g. the Signature Learning Experiences at Centennial College; or participating a course.
Recognition – flagging an accomplishment such as completing study abroad or a field school.
Tracking – signalling completion of modules or workshops such as CapU’s Academic Integrity Module or the LEAP Online program at the University of Bolton.
Community – signalling capabilities or interests to peers such as student mentor or student ambassador.
Recruitment – increasing the appeal of a Capilano degree, e.g. the ability to earn industry-recognized Badges at Ryerson University.
Micro-credentialing – to operationalize a micro-credential program, e.g. Humber College.

Example of a Badge in eLearn

The purpose of the Academic Integrity Module is to provide a learning experience that ensures that CapU students are properly informed, have a working knowledge and can apply all relevant concepts regarding academic integrity to their work. Faculty can use the Module as a pre-course activity or as a remedial activity if an academic violation occurs. In this case, a Badge is being used for Tracking – the Badge signals that the Module has been successfully completed, i.e., faculty can easily see whether a student has completed the module.

Video: https://video.capu.ca/media/Badge%20Example/0_niwoj63o

Badge Requirements	Academic Integrity
Name	Academic Integrity
Description	This badge is awarded for completion of a self-paced online learning module for students on the importance of adhering to academic integrity principles and raise their awareness around plagiarism, citation, quoting and paraphrasing, and CapU assistance in these areas.
Image (icon)
Badge expiry	728 days (2 years)
Criteria	Users are awarded this badge when they complete the following requirement: The following activity has to be completed: “Quiz – Final step: Academic Integrity Declaration”
Message	You have been awarded the badge Academic Integrity! More information about this badge can be found on the Academic Integrity badge information page. You can manage and download the badge from your Manage badges page. Please note: the Academic Integrity Badge is valid for 2 years.

How do I set-up a Badge in eLearn?

Before creating your Badge in eLearn, it’s recommended that you “plan” your Badge.

Planning Steps	Considerations
1. Purpose of the Badge	Determine the purpose of the Badge, i.e. why are you creating the Badge? Motivation Recognition Tracking Community building Recruitment Micro-credential
2. Audience	Who is the audience for the Badge? Is the student likely to want to export the Badge to their LinkedIn or other social media profile? Internal (faculty, student peers) External (future employers)
The decisions you make for Steps 1 and 2 should be used to guide the decision-making for the remaining steps of the planning process.
3. Activities	What do student need to do, learn, etc. to earn the Badge
4. Criteria	What level do students need to attain on the activities to earn the Badge, e.g. 100% on the related Quiz, view the module.
5. Management	Who will manage the Badge in your Department, Team? What will be required to manage the Badge, e.g. for a Teacher awarded badge, how often will the Teacher review the results on the activities to identify who has earned the Badge?
6. Look/feel	What type of icon would be appropriate? Who will design the icon (if required)?
7. Communication	How will the availability and/or the significance of the Badge be communicated to students, other instructors, CapU Community (if relevant)?

The step-by-step process for creating a Badge in eLearn are demonstrated in this video:

https://video.capu.ca/media/Badges+in+eLearn/0_bvyoi8v7

How do I decide which options to use when creating a Badge?

The opportunity to earn a Badge is more likely to motivate students if they can clearly see the value of achieving the Badge. Using appropriate settings when creating the Badge can ensure that the Badge’s value is clear to students.

eLearn Badge Settings	Consider/Include:
Name	The name of the Badge should provide some indication of what the Badge has been awarded for. An easily recognized name increases the value of the Badge, e.g. reflect what has been accomplished/the skill that has been attained
Description	An explanation of what the Badge is for and/or what it signifies, e.g. introductory level, intermediate, advanced level of the skill that has been acquired. Include an overview of tasks or activities completed, the learning outcomes and/or the topics covered for the Badge to be awarded Provide the name of issuing person or group, e.g. the instructor’s, “Capilano Library Services” It is not necessary to include the “congratulatory” message for the student that earns the Badge. The Description is what others will see after the Badge has been earned. (The congratulatory message can be included in the Message Setting.
Image (icon)	There are several options for sourcing the icon for the Badge: Repository in eLearn – generic icons that are available for anyone to use Create your own, e.g. using Canva.com (max size: 256KB) MDX for branded icons for a Department Badging program (not available for one Badge) Search online for an appropriate icon (max size: 256KB)
Badge expiry	Set an expiry date if possible/appropriate (avoids cluttering student’s eLearn profile)
Criteria	For course-level Badges – Preferable to be based on Activity Completion (completing activities within a course) rather than Teacher-awarded (so internal/external audience can see what the student had to do to earn the Badge)
Message	Next steps you may want the student to take Instructions on how to export to LinkedIn

What are my options for sourcing an icon for the Badge I’m creating?

There are several options for sourcing the icon for your Badge:

Badge Icon Repository in eLearn – generic CapU branded icons that are available for anyone to use
Create your own, e.g. using Canva.com (max size: 256KB)
CapU Marketing Department for branded icons for a Department Badging program (please note: this option is not available for one Badge and is dependent upon resource availability)
Search online for an appropriate icon (max size: 256KB)

How do I award a Badge?

Badges are awarded based on the Criteria designated when the Badge is set-up. After all of the information for a new Badge has been entered correctly, “Enable Access” so the Badge becomes available to be earned by students. To enable access, click on the grey button “Enable Access” button near to the top right corner of the screen.

Criteria options:

Manual issue by role – if the Badge is to be manually awarded, the instructor must award the Badge. Click on the Badges icon in the left menu, click on “Manage badges”, click on the trophy icon (see diagram below), highlight the students in the course that have earned the Badge (to select more than one student: hold the Shift key and click on each student)’ click on “Award badge”.
Course completion/Activity completion/Awarded badges – if awarding of the Badge has been linked to one or more activities needing to be completed during the course, e.g., quiz, forum, interactive module, the course being completed or other awarded badges the Badge will be automatically awarded once the parameters have been met by the student.

How do I revoke a Badge?

Only badges which were awarded manually may be revoked. Click on the Badges icon in the left menu, click on “Manage badges”, click on the trophy icon (see diagram below), under the column “Existing badge recipients” highlight the student in the course whose Badge needs to be revoked (to select more than one student: hold the Shift key and click on each student)’ click on “Revoke badge”.

How do I know how many students have earned the Badge?

Two options for tracking Badge awarding:

In eLearn
- Enter your course
- Click on the Badge icon in the menu on the left side of the screen
- Click on Manage Badges – the number of recipients will be displayed
- Click on the number to display the names and the dates/times the badge was awarded
Report via email
- When setting up the Badge, under the Message tab, next to “Notify badge creator”, use the pulldown menu to choose how frequently a report should be sent to the Badge creator.

Where is the student’s Badge displayed?

Once the student has earned the Badge, the badge will be displayed in the student’s eLearn Profile. Students can view their profile by clicking on their picture or icon in the top right corner of the eLearn page.

An instructor can add the “Latest Badges” block to their course page. This block will display the Badges that the student has most recently earned.

My students say they cannot see their Badge/s in their eLearn profiles.

It may be worth confirming that they have completed the requirements for earning the Badge. If they still cannot see their Badge, the student may need to adjust the settings on their eLearn profile so the badge is displayed.

What’s the difference between a Site-level and a Course-level Badge?

The key difference between Site-level and Course-level badges is who the Badge can be awarded to:

Course-level badges can only be awarded to students enrolled in the course that the Badge is related to.
Site-level Badges can be awarded to any student enrolled at Capilano University.

Site-level badges are appropriate for Departments such as Library Services, Writing Center, Career Center and for Programs that would like to use Badges to motivate extra-curricular activities such as volunteering, career-building activities, etc.

The differences between Course- and Site-Level Badges are summarized below.

	Site-level badges	Course-level badges
Awardees	Can be awarded to any student enrolled at CapU	Can only be awarded to a student enrolled in the course
Set-up	By the site administrator	By the instructor
Criteria for awarding	Manually by role Completing a set of courses Awarded badges Profile completion Cohort membership Competencies	Manually by instructor Course completion Awarded badges Activity competition within the course Competencies
Responsibility for awarding	Automatically depending on the criteria Manually by the “Badging Awarder” role assigned by IT	Automatically depending on the criteria Manually by the instructor of the course

How do I set-up a Site-level Badge?

The Site-level Badge can only be set-up by an Administrator. Please download and complete this and submit it to edtech@capilanou.ca. The Badge set-up will be completed within 5 business days. You will receive a notification when the Badge is set-up and ready to be awarded.

What does it mean to “Add a related badge”?

You have the option to link your Badge to existing Site-level Badges and any Course-level Badges that you’ve already created (scroll to the bottom of the list). If a Badge is related to other Badges, a link to the other Badges will be displayed in the information shown in the Student’s Profile.

How do students export their Badge to an external website site such as LinkedIn?

In some cases, Badges may only be relevant to the class or the university community, e.g., a Badge for completing Student Orientation. Other Badges may be relevant for an external audience such as a potential employer, e.g. a Badge for Excel skills. For the latter case, the student may wish to display the Badge on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. This capability is not built-in to eLearn.

Badgr.com provides this functionality. Students must save their Badge/s to this location (which they will have access to after they’ve graduated and will therefore continue to have access to their Badges). Each Badgr.com user has a “backpack”. Students can export their eLearn Badges to their Backpack and can then export Badges to social media, embed in a job application or on a website.

1	Create the Backpack account	https://ca.badgr.com/auth/signup (please note: the student must use the Canadian site. Accounts set up in other locations will not link to eLearn).
2	Link the Backpack to their eLearn profile	Login into eLearn and under User Menu (top right corner) go to Preferences > Badges > Backpack settings Enter the email address and password used to create the badgr account created in Step 1 Click on the button Connect to backpack Open email and click on the verification link sent from badgr.com Return to eLearn Backpack settings
3	Export the relevant Badges to their Backpack	Log-in to eLearn Go to Preferences > Manage Badges For the Badge to be exported, click the “briefcase” icon located below the Badge icon
4	Export the Badge to LinkedIn	Instructions from badgr.com are available here: https://info.badgr.com/resources/sharing-digital-badges-on-social-media.html

If you would like to share these instructions with students (on your course page or in the Message students receive when they earn the Badge) you can refer them to the Student Help page in eLearn available here: https://elearn.capu.ca/mod/book/view.php?id=538564&chapterid=12551

Can I see the Badges that other instructors have created?

It is not possible to see a list of the Course-level Badges that other instructors have created.

How can I make sure that my Badge works the way that I want it to?

The success of a Badge or Badging program is dependent on:

Careful design – e.g., the activities are meaningful, the criteria is challenging but achievable
Clear communication – students are aware of the existence of the Badge and what’s required to earn the Badge and other relevant instructors are aware the Badge; employers are aware (e.g., the Description of the Badge is clear)
Perceived value by the intended participants
Efficient execution – badges are awarded as expected
Expected benefits are received – the Badge is recognized

Are Badges related to the Co-Curricular Report?

The Co-Curricular Report and the Badges capability in eLearn serve a similar function – motivating and recognizing student achievement but are not related. A few key differences:

Badges can be awarded automatically (no need to for students to apply or instructors to award)
Badges are displayed in a public environment (student’s eLearn profile) – increasing motivation, sense of accomplishment, inspiration for others.
Badges are displayed digitally.

Unfortunately, Badges cannot be added to the Co-Curricular Report at this time.

What’s the difference between CanCred badges and Badges in eLearn?

Several groups at CapU are using CanCred badges rather than the Badges function in eLearn (e.g. Continuing Education, Career Centre). A comparison of the two options:

Both options allow users to create and award smart digital credentials
Both use the Open Badges platform, i.e. structured information or metadata that’s standardized and can be evaluated and authenticated via embedded links
Both allow users to take their certifications with them after program completion
Both allow users to export their badges to social media such as LinkedIn
CanCred is a paid service; Badges in eLearn is included in CapU’s Moodle set-up
CanCred offers badge verification for their Premium users

If I have questions, who should I ask?

The Centre for Teaching Excellence can answer questions about Badges in eLearn, work with you to plan your Badge and/or help you to set up your Badge in eLearn. Please email: edtech@capilano.ca
IT Services can answer questions about Badges in eLearn and/or help you to set up your Badge in eLearn. Please email askit@capilanou.ca.

Additional resources for Badges are available online:

Faculty Help page in eLearn: https://elearn.capu.ca/mod/book/view.php?id=538559&chapterid=3681
Moodle docs: https://docs.moodle.org/39/en/Badges

Capilano University is named after Chief Joe Capilano, an important leader of the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) Nation of the Coast Salish people. We respectfully acknowledge that our campuses are located on the unceded sovereign Indigenous Nations of Lil’wat, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm(Musqueam), Shíshálh (Sechelt), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh(Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh).