What is an Issuer?

An issuer is an individual or institution that offers badges to ‘earners’ for successfully completed ‘learning experiences’. They handle all of ‘issuing’ of the badges, allowing ‘earners’ to push badges into their Backpack.

Who can be an Issuer?

Anyone or any entity can be an open badge ‘issuer’. Any type of institution can issue badges for ‘learning experiences’: such as colleges, elementary schools, Freeskools, museums, conferences, or meetup groups. Not only can institutions issue badges, but individuals or individual offices within an institution can issue badges. Individuals not connected to an institution who have earned the rank of an expert in their area can also issue badges for any ‘learning experiences’ they create.

>>Read more about who can issue badges.

What badges should or can be issued?

As with formal assessment, there are various types of badges that can be issued to credit ‘learning experiences’ and skill development. Here is a short list of badge ideas:

• participation,
• skills development,
• tasks accomplished.

It is worth bringing up the fact that badges shouldn’t be given away for everything that occurs in a ‘learning experience’. An institution or individual might start with the objectives of their ‘learning experience’ to pinpoint key learnings. They may wish to only give away one badge, or scaffold badges to lead to one final completion badge.

>>Wondering where to begin in developing badges for P2PU courses? Take P2PU’s Badge Maker course.

Why should you consider designing a badge system?

Designing a ‘learning experience’ is about programming an academic experience in an informal or formal setting, in-person or virtually. While some badges can imply credit the attendance of such an event or participation in such an event, most badges are awarded for completing a task or meeting a goal. However, with most formal assessment, there are usually different points or criteria to look at in a submission. Similarly, badges may only be awarded for quality, or high achievement, efforts.

>>Consider developing a rubric to set the expectations for learner submissions.

A ‘badge system’ allows an individual or institution to credit breadth and depth of ‘learning experiences’. The system would credit the completion of different levels within a ‘learning experience’ and connects all levels to create a complete learning experience.

It is also worth considering how one badge system interacts with the other badge systems present in the whole open badge ecosystem. Does your badge system rely on pre-requisite knowledge and, if so, would it be a good choice to point to another badge system/learning experience for someone who does not possess that knowledge to first complete? It is also worth considering the value of your badge system compared to other badge systems

>>Read more about badge systems.
>>Read more about an example badge system.
>>Read more about building trust networks through badge systems by Carla Casilli.

The issue of validity.

Issuers have little hoops or requirements to jump through in order to become an issuer so that open badges stay true to the open ecosystem they originated from. However, how can those in the open badges community vet learning experiences and badges to ensure quality and consistency across the wider badge ecosystem? Though many solutions have been proposed (such as a volunteer voting system), those involved in the open badges community are still discussing this topics and the ramifications of possible solutions.

>>Read more about validity and open badges from Carla Casilli.  

Discussion Prompt:
Take some time to go back to your answers from Task #1.

1. Show us your proposed badge system. You may want to create this virtually in Google Drawing and provide the link or sketch it out on paper and take a photo.
2. To show good faith, draft up a short paragraph about your commitment to quality badges and the measures you have put in place to ensure a quality learning experience.