An academic institution’s digital badging initiative is getting off the ground and students are “earning” badges, or micro-credentials, but are they actually providing value to the student toward his or her future career? Many academic institutions are going through this evolution process in deciding to certify learning through credentialing, otherwise known as digital badging to help combat the ensuing skills gap and to provide the value of a degree to learners.  

Parth Detroja, bestselling author of Swipe to Unlock says,

There is a fundamental disconnect with what is being taught in the classroom and what one really needs to know to be a contributing member of the modern workforce–especially in the tech industry. Working at companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and IBM, I’ve learned that you don’t need to know how to code to succeed in tech. There is a big difference between being able to write code and being ‘technical.’ Being able to write good code is a valuable skill necessary to be a software engineer. Being ‘technical’ however is a vital skill for everyone which lets you make informed decisions—both personal and professional—by understanding how the technology you use every day actually works. Unfortunately, technologically informed graduates isn’t a metric considered by U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings.” 

According to a report by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), one in five institutions now offers digital badges, but as educators tinker with micro-credentialing, digital badging initiatives at educational institutions can prove worthless to students due to seven common mistakes.

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