Badges

Introduction to Badges

Badges are a form of digital credential, awarded to learners for the achievement or demonstration of certain skills, knowledge, or behaviours.

After earning a badge, learners can choose to display it publicly across a variety of social and professional networking platforms. When a badge is shared and displayed, details of the badge, such as the criteria for earning the badge and the organisation who awarded the badge, are shown. 

Badges can be added and awarded at either the site or the course level, which offer different award criteria. 

 

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Adding a Site Badge

To create a site badge:

1.  Go to Site Administration > Badges to access the Badges page. 

2.  Click the Add a New Badge button.

3.  Expand the Badge Details section. 

Enter an appropriate Name and Description for your badge. The description can include the purpose or reason for the badge, and how an individual can earn it. 

Upload a File: To upload a corresponding badge image, select the Upload File option and upload your desired file. The file must be a JPG or PNG file, and will be cropped and resized into a square to fit the image requirements.

4.  Expand the Issuer Details section, and enter the Name of the individual, group, or organisation issuing the badge in the corresponding field.

5.  Expand the Badge Expiry section, and select an appropriate option for your badge's expiry date.

Never: The badge will always remain valid.

Fixed Date: The badge will expire on the date that you have entered.

Relative Date: The badge will expire a set number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks after it has been issued.

6.  Once you are complete, click Create Badge at the bottom of the page. This will redirect you to the Criteria tab of the Badge Management page.

  Configuring Badge Criteria

1.  Select an appropriate criteria option from the Add Badge Criteria drop-down menu.

Manual Issue by Role: Allows you to select which system-level roles can manually award the badge to specific learners. You can select from Any or All of the selected roles.

Completing a Set of Courses: Allows you to select one or several courses which must be completed to earn the badge.

Profile Completion: Allows you to select which profile field(s) must be populated for the badge to be awarded.

Audience Membership: Allows you to select which audience(s) a learner must belong to for the badge to be awarded.

Program Completion: Allows you to select which programs or certifications a learner must complete for the badge to be awarded.

2.  Complete the corresponding settings, and click Save at the bottom of the page.

3.  Once all the settings have been configured, you can click the Enable Access button to begin awarding the badge to learners. Enabling the badge will update its status.

Available: The badge can be earned by learners. While a badge is available, its criteria cannot be modified.

Not Available: The badge is not available to learners and cannot be earned or manually issued. If the badge has never been issued, its criteria can be changed.

4.  After clicking the Enable Access button, you will be prompted to confirm the new status of your badge. Once you have clicked Continue, your badge will now be available to be awarded.

 

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Adding a Course Badge

To create a course badge:

1.  Navigate to Course Administration > Badges > Add a New Badge to access the Add a New Badge page.

2.  Expand the Badge Details section.

Enter an appropriate Name and Description for your badge. The description can include the purpose or reason for the badge, and how a learner can earn it.

Upload a File: To upload a corresponding badge image, select the Upload File option and upload your desired file. The file must be a JPG or PNG file, and will be cropped and resized into a square to fit the image requirements.

3.  Expand the Issuer Details section, and enter the Name of the individual, group, or organisation issuing the badge in the corresponding field.

4.  Expand the Badge Expiry section, and select an appropriate option for your badge's expiry date.

Never: The badge will always remain valid.

Fixed Date: The badge will expire on the date that you have entered.

Relative Date: The badge will expire a set number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks after it has been issued.

5.  Once you are complete, click Create Badge at the bottom of the page. This will redirect you to the Criteria tab of the Badge Management page.

 

  Configuring Badge Criteria

1.  Select an appropriate criteria option from the Add Badge Criteria drop-down menu.

Manual Issue by Role: Allows you to select which course level roles can manually award the badge to specific learners. You can select from Any or All of the selected roles.

Course Completion: Allows you to enter a minimum grade or complete by date which must be met by a learner for the badge to be awarded.

Activity Completion: Allows you to select which activities must be complete for the badge to be awarded.

2.  Complete the corresponding settings, and click Save at the bottom of the page.

3.  Once all the settings have been configured, you can click the Enable Access button to begin awarding the badge to learners. Enabling the badge will update its status.

Available: The badge can be earned by learners. While a badge is available, its criteria cannot be modified.

Not Available: The badge is not available to learners and cannot be earned or manually issued. If the badge has never been issued, its criteria can be changed.

4.  After clicking the Enable Access button, you will be prompted to confirm the new status of your badge. Once you have clicked Continue, your badge will now be available to be awarded.

 

 

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Managing Badges

Once badges have been added at the site or course level, they can be viewed, updated, issued, and deleted in the Manage Badges page. 

To manage your badges:

Site Badge: Go to Site Administration > Badges to access the 'Badges' page, find your desired badge, and click the corresponding Edit icon under the Actions column.

Course Badge: Go to Course Administration > Badges > Manage Badges to access the 'Manage Badges' page, find your desired badge, and click the corresponding Edit icon under the Actions column. 

 

  Badge Messages

When adding a badge at the site or course level, the notification sent to all learners who earn the badge can be customised using the HTML editor.

To edit the default notification:

1.  Open the Messages tab.

2.  Edit the default Message Subject and Message Body fields. The following variables can be included in the message subject:

%badgename%: This will be replaced by the badge's full name.

%username%: This will be replaced by the recipient's full name.

%badgelink%: This will be replaced by the public URL with information about the issued badge.

3.  Enable the 'Attach Badge to Message' option if you would like to attach the badge to the recipient's email for download.

4.  Select Notify Badge Creator and select the frequency of the notification to generate an alert every time the badge is earned.

5.  Once you are complete, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

  Manually Awarding Badges

Site and course badges that have Manual Issue by Role enabled can be awarded manually through the Recipients tab in the Manage Badges page.

1.  Open the Recipients tab.

2.  Click on the Award Badge button.

3.  Search for and select your desired user from the right-hand side column and click Award Badge. The selected user will now appear on the left-hand side column and be awarded the badge.

4.  If you would like to revoke a badge, select your desired user from the left-hand side column and click Revoke Badge. The selected user will now appear on the right-hand side column and have the badge removed from their profile.

 

  Deleting Badges

To delete a badge:

1.  Navigate to the Badges page (for site badges) or Manage Badges page (for course badges).

2.  Find your desired badge, and click the corresponding Delete icon  to remove it. 

3.  Select an appropriate option, and click on the corresponding Delete button to remove your badge. 

Delete, But Keep Existing Issued Badges: If this option is selected, the badge will no longer be available and learners will not be able to earn this badge. Existing badge recipients will still be able to display this badge on their profile page. The badge will be marked as Retired and will no longer appear in the list of badges on the Manage Badges page.

 

Delete and Remove All Existing Issued Badges: If this option is selected, then the badge will no longer be available and any users who have earned this badge will not be able to access it and display it on their profile pages. Fully deleting a badge means that all its information and criteria records will be permanently removed.