Why micro credentialing isn't new, but it's time to accept that badge.

I recently did a thing at work. I introduced "micro credentialing". Perhaps you recently joined us on a training course? Maybe it was ITIL, AWS or Azure, Veeam or VMware. If you did, you may be the lucky recipient of a “micro credential”. If you received an email from a company called Acclaim, suggesting you may want to accept your digital badge. Don’t panic. Acclaim is our digital badging partner. Wondering if you should accept? Here are three reasons and history lesson why you should.

The History lesson:

The idea of micro credentialing, including badging isn’t new. In fact, as a 53-year-old, I’m going to claim it as Generation X invention. Way back in 1982, computer game company Activision released "Patches". Back then, in my day, you took a picture of the screen, sent it to them and they sent you an iron on badge. I’m delighted to say, digital badges still reward for effort and recognize achievement but no longer require the use of an iron. All you need to do is look out for the email and accept your digital badge. Then, as now, one of the ideals behind badging was to both reward the individual and provide a direction for future learning (or gaming back then). Please do not attempt to iron on a digital badge. It will hurt and may void your laptop warranty 

Three Reasons Why you should accept your Digital Badge

Courses courses everywhere:

Digital course completion badges will replace paper certificates as evidence that you have completed the training. In addition to the paper saving environmental benefits, it will also provide you a single place to view your courses and certifications – I’ll be disappointed to have my draw full of certificates outdated. Amazingly I still have my 30-year-old Epson, Compaq and Novell certificates.

What you learnt, when and what next.

The traditional course certificate is a fairly nondescript thing. It has a course title, a date and a squiggle of a signature of a trainer. Impossible to validate and impossible to work out what was learnt and what to do next. A digital course completion badge, including those from DDLS, is issued by the institute that delivered the training, so by default, it is validated, it (typically) includes what was learnt during that course and makes a recommendation as to the learning direction you may want to consider as part of your learning plan. Imagine that. You can show the project manager of that huge cloud project, that you have attended learning on securing the platform. Do the certification as well and you’ll have a badge that validates that learning. By way of an example, you would have the course badge for ITIL Foundation from DDLS, and the certification badge from Axelos. All in the same place.

 Personal achievement and brand

There was a time I used to frame my favorite certificates and have them proudly displayed on the wall. Whilst that may have impressed the occasional friend who stopped by, it never really helped me get that project gig I really wanted. The benefit of digital badges I most like, is the ability to frame them on your own digital wall. Whist you can easily share them on Facebook, that’s bound to impress your Aunty Susan, that value is short lived. Add the digital badge to you LinkedIn profile and your peers in your own organization and around the world will see that you take your professional development seriously and the sort of skills you have based on that learning. Of course, selfishly in my world, sharing our digital badge also helps DDLS. We’ll happily reward you with an ice cream when you next train with us. Digital Badges and an ice cream, now that is Win: Win. Thanks.

Things to do list:

If you train with us and don’t get invited to accept a digital badge. Demand we add that course (we are rolling this out and have about two thirds of the courses covered)

If you receive an email from Acclaim that mentions digital badges, accept the badge. Once you have accepted your badge, share it to the world, and add it to your LinkedIn profile (if you have one)