What is a digital badge?
A digital badge is a verifiable, portable credential that recognizes specific skills and competencies. With ACTS, these badges support flexible, personalized learning, provide stackable credentials for diverse career paths, and enhance professional visibility through seamless sharing on platforms like LinkedIn and ORCiD.
What are the benefits of a badge?
Digital badges provide a portable, shareable, and verifiable recognition of skills obtained. Standards for obtaining the badge can be easily verified by employers, institutions, and peers through detailed metadata that is embedded in the badge, including issuing organization, validity period, and criteria met.
Who can earn a digital badge from ACTS?
ACTS digital badges are currently exclusive to our members. We’re exploring ways to make badges available to non-members in the near future.
I already have my degree. Why should I pursue a digital badge?
Digital badges highlight training and learning achievements relevant to your field of work that are sometimes not covered by an undergraduate or graduate degree. Think of your digital badge as a mark that shows you have skills to offer beyond the ones you obtained in pursuit of your degree!
How do I earn a digital badge?
Each digital badge offered by ACTS will have a unique set of requirements you must complete to demonstrate the skills and competencies listed under the badge. These requirements mostly involve online trainings that have been vetted by experts in the field. Once you’ve completed the requirements, simply follow the submission instructions we’ve provided for the badge, and a member of our team will review your application.
Which badges are currently available?
ACTS currently offers three digital badging pathways: the Team Science Pathway, the Community-Engaged Research Pathway, and the Quantitative Team Science Pathway. These pathways are still in their early stages, and new badge offerings will be added to each of them in the coming months. We’re also continuously exploring new pathways to recognize learning achievements in other areas of translational science.
I previously took a qualifying training. Can I get an ACTS digital badge?
Yes! If you’ve already completed the qualifying training requirements, you are eligible to apply for the corresponding digital badge. You can simply follow the instructions provided and submit your application by providing the required documentation. We’re excited to recognize your learning—no need to retake the training.
How does my certification get displayed as a badge?
We have partnered with Credly to translate the learning outcomes you’ve demonstrated into a badge, issued and managed through the company digital badging platform. The technology Credly uses is based on the Open Badge Standards maintained by 1EdTech (formerly IMS Global). This enables you to manage, share and verify your competencies digitally.
Who is Credly?
Credly is the end-to-end solution for issuing and managing digital credentials. Credly works with credible organizations to provide digital credentials to individuals, worldwide.
How will I know if I’ve earned a badge?
You will receive an email notification from Credly (admin@credly.com) with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account.
What if I don’t want my badge to be public?
You can easily configure your privacy settings in Credly. You’re in complete control of the information about yourself that is made public.
Is there a fee to use Credly?
No. This is a service we provide to you, at no cost.
What’s to keep someone else from copying my badge and using it?
While badges are simply digital image files, they are uniquely linked to data hosted on Credly. This link to verified data makes them more reliable and secure than a paper-based certificate. It also eliminates the possibility of anyone claiming your credential and your associated identity.
Where and how can I share my badge through Credly?
You can share your badge directly from Credly to LinkedIn, X, and Facebook; over email; embedded in a website or in your email signature.
Can I export badges issued through Credly to other badge-storing platforms?
Yes, you can download your badge from the Share Badge page. Your downloaded badge contains Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) compliant metadata embedded into the image. This allows you to store your badge on other OBI-compliant badge sites, such as the Badgr Backpack.
Can I import badges issued from other platforms into Credly?
Yes. If you have earned a badge on another platform, such as Accredible, you can add it to your Credly profile (as long as it meets the necessary criteria). Please review this article for detailed requirements and instructions on adding an outside badge.
I have a question about Credly. Where can I find support?
You can find tutorials and answers to additional questions here: support.credly.com