Creating Badges

Introduction

Badges are an excellent way of acknowledging achievement in Moodle, whether it is the completion of a course or activity, or maybe a high mark on a quiz; you can decide what the criteria for awarding the badge should be.  Once issued, a badge becomes part of the recipient’s profile; they are also compatible with Mozilla Open Badges. In Moodle, there are two levels on which badges can be created and awarded: site level and course level.

The objective of this article is to provide the information needed to successfully create badges in Moodle. Using this information, you will be able to provide your learners with a visual representation of their achievement, skills, and progress.

Note: Badges are a feature available in Moodle 2.5+.

Sections/Summary of the Steps

Before getting into the details of creating badges, please note the following sections/steps.

Before getting into the details of creating badges, please note the following sections/steps.

• Section 1: Adding course badges
• Step 1: Creating the badge
• Step 2: Defining the issuing criteria
• Section 2: Adding site badges
• Step 1: Creating the badge
• Step 2: Defining the issuing criteria

This article will also expand upon the following.

• Tip: Issuing criteria

Section 1: Adding course badges

Course badges are available to be earned by the users enrolled in the course they have been created in.  At the course level, you could, for example, award a badge for completing that specific course, or an activity (e.g. Quiz, Assignment, etc.) within the course. Administrators, managers, course creators, and teachers have permission to add new course badges.

Step 1: Creating the badge

To add a course badge,

Enter the course in which the badge will be created.

Navigate to the ‘Add a new badge’ page from the Administration block > Course administration > Badges > Add a new badge

On the page that loads...

1. Fill in the name and description for the badge.
2. Add an image to be used for the badge.
3. Provide the name of the badge issuer.
4. Optional: Set an expiry date. If this is not set, the badge, once issued will be part of the user’s profile permanently.
5. Click the ‘Create badge’ button at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Defining the issuing criteria

After creating the badge, you will be immediately directed to a page where you can set up the criteria for awarding the badge.

For course badges, there are three options as to how the badge is awarded:

A.  Manual issue by role: Using this criteria, you select which roles have the ability to award the badge manually. This is a good option if you are awarding a badge for extremely specific criteria that you can/want to monitor yourself.

B.  Course completion: This enables the badge to be issued to those users who have completed the course.Optionally, you can set additional parameters so that the user also needs to have completed the course by a certain date and/or achieved a minimum grade to be awarded the badge.

C.  Activity completion: With this criteria, you can choose which assignment(s) need to be completed to earn the badge. (Note: you are also able to set the additional parameter of the activity being completed by a certain date if you so choose. To award the badge based on the grade received for the activity, see the Tip: Issuing criteria section near the end of this article.)

To start awarding the badge to users, click the ‘Enable access’ button.

Note: Once a badge has been awarded to a user, you are unable to edit its details or issuing criteria. You are also unable to rescind a badge once it has been issued.

Section 2: Adding site badges

Administrators have the ability to add site badges. At the site level, you might choose to add a badge for completing multiple courses, for example.

Step 1: Creating the badge

To create a site badge,

Navigate to Administration block > Site administration > Badges > Add a new badge

On the page that loads...

1. Fill in the name and description of the badge.
2. Add an image that will be used for the badge.
3. Provide the name of the badge issuer.
4. Optional: Set an expiry date. If this is not set, the badge, once issued, will be part of the user’s profile permanently.
5. Click the ‘Create badge’ button at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Defining the issuing criteria

After creating the badge, you will be immediately directed to a page where you can set up the criteria for awarding the badge.

For site badges, there are three different issuing criteria to choose from:

A.  Manual issue by role: Using this criteria, you select which roles have the ability to award the badge manually. This is a good option if you are awarding a badge for extremely specific criteria that can be monitored.

B.  Completing a set of courses: This allows you to choose multiple courses (and set minimum grades, or completion dates if you choose to) which must be completed in order to be awarded the badge.

C.  Profile completion: Using this criteria, you can set certain profile fields (e.g. address, city/town, country, etc.) which must be completed by the user to be awarded the badge.

To start awarding the badge to users, click the ‘Enable access’ button.

Note: Once a badge has been awarded to a user, you are unable to edit its details or issuing criteria. You are also unable to rescind a badge once it has been issued.

Tip: Issuing criteria

How to award a badge based on a grade achieved in an activity

Note: Completion tracking must be enabled for the course in order to use this tip (see Conditional Activities and Completion Tracking).

A common criterion that is not obviously available in awarding course level badges is achieving a minimum grade on a specific activity (e.g. receiving 80%+ on a quiz).

Currently, there is no option to do so directly through the criteria settings. However, there is an alternative way:

1.  Create a badge, following Steps 1-5 (see Course level badges). Do not set up the issuing criteria yet.

2.  In the same course, add a Page resource, preferably just after the activity the badge is being awarded for. Title it using the name of the badge you are creating, so your users will know what the page entails. In the page content, consider putting a message congratulating the learner on their new badge.

3.  While configuring the settings for the Page, under the ‘Restrict Access’ section, set the grade condition for the activity/grade the badge is being awarded for. For example, we want our badge to be awarded to those users who have received 80% or higher on the Macbeth Essay. Setting this grade condition will not allow users to view the page until they have fulfilled the requirements.

4.  Also in the Page settings, under ‘Activity completion’ select ‘Show activity as complete when conditions are met’ from the drop down menu for completion tracking, and check the box beside ‘Require view’.

5.  Once you have finished creating the Page module, return to the badge you created in Step 1 by navigating to Administration block > Course administration > Badges > Manage badges and clicking the edit icon (gear icon) for the badge.

6.  Click the ‘Criteria’ tab, and choose ‘Activity completion’ from the drop down menu.

7.  On the page that loads, check the box beside the Page module you just created. Click ‘Save’.

Click ‘Enable access’ to allow the badge to be issued. (Learners will receive the badge once the have visited the restricted Page).