The CircleREdu Badge: a mark of educational quality

Badges are a symbolic representation of achievement, often expressed with a symbol, which can be applied or shared physically or digitally. In the context of higher education, the need for badges and micro credentials has emerged from the need to recognise acquired skills and knowledge of innovative skills, and for validating the learning outcomes beyond the conventional grading systems.

Badges and certifications serve as powerful symbols of achievement, authority, and affiliation. Traditionally, badges have represented individual accomplishments or status, while logos have focused on brand identity. In higher education, digital badges validate learning outcomes beyond traditional grades, recognizing specific skills and competencies. (Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu 2023; OPH 2024.)

This article addresses the harmonisation of skills recognition under the CircleREdu project, aligning with the European Digital Competence Framework (EU s.a.) and TIEKE (a) methodologies. By establishing a unified identifier for attained skills, we aim to bridge the gap between academic credits (ECTS) and industry needs. This insight is essential for organisations within the manufacturing, circular economy, reverse engineering and educational sectors seeking to standardise talent validation. The CircleREdu badge is proof of skills and knowledge in circular economy and reverse engineering.

Open badge use in higher educational institutions

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) naturally use credentials and study certificates to prove the knowledge and skills that their students have achieved in their courses. However, non-degree students often appreciate digital badges in addition to study certificates. Digital badges are easily linked to social media posts, and digital portfolios, and digital passports are a practical way of organising and showcasing one’s learning. As an example, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences issues a Social Media Pro and a Digital Marketing badge to the students of the open university of applied sciences who have completed 15 ECTS or 30 ECTS, respectively, in the topic.

Badges are typically issued in self-paced online courses, MOOCs (Massive open online course) and courses that are offered to students as electives or to a wider audience through open universities. For instance, several courses in the Ulyssues European University offering of online courses award a badge. Each module is worth 0.5 ECTS and awards a digital badge upon completion. Students who complete all six modules receive 3 ECTS credits and six badges in total. Alternatively, students can choose to complete individual modules (one, two, or more) and earn the corresponding badges without receiving ECTS credits.

Universities award digital badges for other reasons than providing a practical way for their students to showcase learning in digital environments. Universities use digital badges for pedagogical reasons, such as a means for motivating students, and making them achieve better (Law et al. 2024).

Digital badges and study credits

Sometimes digital badges and micro credentials have different names for the same small entity of learning. Though micro credentials are acknowledged by official institutions holding public authority, such as higher education institutions (Fantarelli & McDaniel 2019). Micro credentials, as the concept indicates, are a small unit of learning opportunities, often in the form of a course. There is no consensus about the amount of learning hours or credits, which could be called micro credential (EU 2022).

Though, often it refers to 1-5 cr or ECTS, which can vary depending on the organisational policy or national common rules by the hourly amount. In Finland, 1 study credit is typically considered as around 27 hours of work. But further, usually this hourly number is a statistical indicator, and the study hours spent are considered based on individual differences. It is also known that at the European level, the hours spent on learning may have other criteria, such as the hours spent in the classroom.

Digital badges are informal proof of competence and can be applied to acknowledge achieved learning objectives or even existing expertise. Educational institutions may use badges as proof of competence, for example when students fulfill a certain level of learning objectives set. In both previously mentioned cases, it is essential to define the learning or expertise objectives which are required to earn the badge. Often in formal education, learning objectives are created by analysing the topic or theme to reveal skills or knowledge needed to be considered essential for certain levels of expertise.

In Finland, higher educational institutions are responsible for defining the learning objectives for their curricula. In a comprehensive level of school system, vocational training and high school the learning objectives are set at a national level, and therefore they follow the same criteria. Considering the different systems to create learning objectives, on local or national levels, digital badges do not have an official role in the Finnish educational system. Further, it is widely accepted that if some visual indicator for successful learning is provided, it can be used for pedagogical purposes.

The use of badges needs systematisation

Digital badges are also used for pedagogical purpose. In Finnish school tradition, the teachers have been utilising informal badges for decades without necessarily naming them badges. For small children, the teacher may have provided a sticker or a stamp if a child has succeeded in some learning tasks. It is a motivating and positive atmosphere creating act even for youngsters, for example in senior high schools, if a student can solve some tricky mathematical problem and the teacher provides a nice sticker as a trophy. So, digital badges may be used as motivators or proof of achieving a certain level of expertise for the student.

The idea of indicating success with visual articles has been used widely in different fields, such as military or sports since the old days. Nowadays, digital badges can do the same thing in organisations. A person can market the knowledge by visual badge in the professional community in social media or in an organisational network. When a suitable expert is recruited for a certain position, visual badges may play a role in indicating possible candidates (Tieke s.a.b).

In the scenario above, the badges should have a well-established meaning. This is a challenge, since there are numerous badges available from various grantors. Despite the challenges in digital badging systems, they do have clear advantages in terms of recruitment and organisational data about the training or knowledge (Tieke s.a.c).

In many organisations, training is required for the staff. For example, information security is a basic knowledge for all employees in many organisations. Therefore, organisational training regarding this topic may be mandatory for employees. A visual easily recognisable digital badge in employee records may be proof of having participated in the training. Sometimes the awarness about an organisation’s knowledge or skills is in the interest of the organisation’s customers. Visual proofs may be effective tools to market the knowledge or ongoing learning to customers, and that way increase the trust or attractiveness towards the company.

To utilise digital badges effectively in different ways, there is a need to create badging systems to support knowledge introduction (Fanfarelli & McDaniel 2019). The ideal badging system would support the knowledgeable nature of badges and provide the badge users with a clear understanding of their meaning. Until now, this noble aim is not within view, since badges are granted with wild rules.

How to design and produce micro credentials and badges

Badges and micro credentials are physical signs that identify the achieved skill or knowledge. They inform competences and achievements often distributed in digital format. A badge can contain metadata that informs who has issued the badge to whom and on what basis. Started by Mozilla and now led by the non-profit 1EdTech, Open badges is a global standard designed to make educational technology accessible to every learner.

Examples of areas where badges have already been introduced are game-industry, associations and NGO´s, educational institutions and universities. One of the pioneers in the industry is a company named Open Badge Factory that also offers a platform for creating badges needed.

In higher educational institutes the creation is related to the content of the specific courses and will be accredited by the offering institution in the same way as other recognitions. Building badges starts with the planning of the curriculum, what skills are required and how they are taught to those that want to achieve recognition.

Earning digital badges upon completing CircleREdu course modules

The CircleREdu-project will develop study contents and a pedagogical model for teaching circular economy and reverse engineering knowledge and skills especially tailored for the needs of the manufacturing industry. The course materials and the model will be piloted in universities in four European countries: Abeș-Bolyai University (Romania), Bialystok University of Technology (Poland), Haaga-Helia UAS (Finland) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany).

The course is divided into four modules, and upon completion of a module, the student will be awarded a digital badge in addition to receiving credentials awarded by the educational institution. The student may complete all four modules or just some, depending on his study goals. The modules are offered as micro credentials to enable the flexible completion of small learning units.

Digital badges of recognition in circular economy and reverse engineering (CircleREdu) are awarded because they offer an easy and practical way of proving the specific competences gained not only for university students, but also for other types of learners.

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