Key lessons for creating effective digital credential projects
I have played a role in the digital credentialing landscape since the early days, helping to lead and shape the Open Badges standard, and develop the concept and blueprints for Open Badge Pathways with the Open Badges team at Mozilla. Along the way I’ve learned that there are a few key things that will help a digital credentialing initiative succeed. I thought I would share some of these here.
Openness and control
It may seem somewhat counter-intuitive to suggest that taking an open approach to digital credentialing, provides greater control but ultimately I think it does. Using the Open Badges standard enables credentials to be taken out of institutional silos, and puts the control of the credential into the hands of the user, allowing them to choose how to share it and with whom. Credential issuers can control the information that is shared in an Open Badge and consumers can check details about the issuer, view evidence demonstrating the competency the badge recognises, and other data such as endorsements that are contained within it.
Value and trust
With the opportunities afforded by openness, however, also come challenges. Credentials or badges (I’ll use the terms interchangeably), can be used for a variety of purposes (some examples are provided below) but the key concerns I hear raised time and again by those looking to develop a new digital credential project, and those looking to engage with credentials, relate to value and trust.
Design
Having worked with a wide variety of clients to address these issues, I believe value and trust can be built in through careful design. In my experience, the following are particularly worth considering during the design and implementation process:
1. Relevance
Digital credentials, like traditional qualifications, can help unlock opportunities. These opportunities might be things like gaining a job, or helping someone to recognise and articulate their skills. Both of these opportunities have value in the right context and it is important to understand this value from the start to ensure that the credentials you create are relevant to your target audience.
Value therefore, will differ depending on your users. For this reason, it is important to have a clear understanding of your prospective users and their wants and needs. Who are the users of your credential (earners and consumers)? Why will they value this credential?
Both earners and consumers of digital credentials want to engage with ones that are relevent to their needs. My work with consumers of credentials, such as employers, has shown that they are wary of additional workload that might arise from being presented with lots of badges that have little relevance to a specific context. They believe well-chosen badges that clearly demonstrate attributes or skills they are seeking could aid the recruitment process but that relevance is key.
2. Awareness
For earners, this means there is a need to curate and choose badges carefully. For the designer of the digital credential intiative, this brings in an aspect that goes beyond the technical aspects of creating and issuing a badge, and relies on education of prospective users. From my experience, building up a network around an initiative can help with this and ensuring that various stakeholders have been part of the design process, will aid understanding of how the credential can be used most effectively.
I design shared understanding into my work with clients by starting every piece of work with a Discovery session. This brings a variety of stakeholders around the table to develop a clear understanding of what they want to achieve, the prospective users, and the best approach to take to achieve their goals. This might involve a radical re-think of whether or not credentials are the right approach at all, and results in a shared purpose, a common language and actionable next steps to develop a project that is relevant to their needs.
Beyond the immediate project team, a digital credential iniative will be helped through a wider awareness of what it is trying to achieve and how it is managed. This helps to build trust in the credentials, as both prospective earners and consumers will understand how the credential might be of use to them, and how it is being assessed and awarded.
Not all credentials require a highly rigorous assessment process to be considered of value but some will and to build trust in the credential, it is important that this aspect is known. Some consumers will want to be convinced that adequate quality assurance processes have been adhered to when awarding the badge. This information can all be built into the credential metadata and this aspect becomes particularly important if the issuer is an entity that is not traditionally associated with assessing skills.
3. Consistency
One of the major challenges for building trust into the awarding of badges is consistency. Nobody wants to feel that someone else has been issued the same credential as they have for less effort or ability. Both earners and consumers want to know that the assessments or evidence required for achieving a credential have been consistently judged and that the same credential is issued for comparable levels of achievement or ability. This requires consideration to be built in around how to support consistency of awarding, such as developing assessment guidelines or peer-based tools as a means of aiding and demonstrating fairness.
Credential consumers also often state they want to be able to quickly ascertain the weight or level of effort / knowledge / aptitude indicated by a credential. Building trust in credential brands can be aided through consistency of design to support familiarity.
