UCF Digital Badging

Digital Badges at UCF

Recognizing skills. Verifying achievements.

What Is a Digital Badge?

Sample UCF digital badge

A digital badge is a verified record of an accomplishment, skill, competency, or learning experience. Unlike a traditional certificate, a digital badge contains information about what the earner accomplished, the criteria required to earn it, the organization that issued it, and evidence supporting the achievement.

Earners can share their badges on LinkedIn and other social media profiles, digital résumés, email signatures, personal websites, and online portfolios.

View examples of badges issued by the University of Central Florida in the UCF Parchment badge catalog (opens in new window).

Why Digital Badges Are Valuable

For earners, digital badges provide a portable and shareable way to demonstrate achievements that may not appear on an academic transcript or traditional résumé. They can highlight skills developed through academic coursework, professional development, co-curricular activities, training, or other assessed learning experiences.

Faculty can use digital badges to:

  • Recognize demonstrated competencies
  • Motivate learner engagement
  • Document co-curricular participation
  • Build stackable credential pathways
  • Support career readiness initiatives
  • Align learning outcomes with workforce needs

For employers and other viewers, digital badges provide more than an image or claim. By selecting the badge, viewers can review information about:

  • The organization that issued the badge
  • The skills or competencies represented
  • The requirements for earning the badge
  • The date the badge was issued
  • Evidence or verification associated with the achievement

This information helps employers understand and verify what the earner knows or can do.

Issuing Digital Badges at UCF

UCF faculty and staff who would like to issue a digital badge must submit a request before developing or offering the badge. The review process helps ensure that badges have a clearly defined purpose, meaningful criteria, an appropriate assessment method, and a consistent visual identity.

A badge proposal should identify:

  • The purpose and intended audience
  • The demonstrated skill, competency, or accomplishment the badge will represent
  • The requirements and assessment criteria
  • Who will be eligible to earn the badge
  • Who will review and approve badge completion
  • How and when the badge will be issued

The Center for Distributed Learning partners with faculty and staff throughout the badge development process—from defining earning criteria and assessments to designing the badge and implementing it in Webcourses@UCF. CDL also manages the digital badging platform and provides guidance to help faculty and staff issue badges to eligible earners.

Digital badges are issued at no cost to currently enrolled UCF students. A fee applies when badges are issued to community members or other earners who are not enrolled as UCF students. Any applicable fees should be considered when developing a badge opportunity for an external audience.

Questions?

Email digitalbadges@ucf.edu for more information about UCF Digital Badges.