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Digital Badges

We are committed to providing you with the tools necessary to achieve your personal and professional goals, and we understand that communicating your credentials in an ever-expanding online marketplace can be challenging. That is why we have partnered with Credly to provide you with a digital version of your credentials. Digital badges can be used in email signatures or digital resumes, and on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). This digital image contains verified metadata that describes your qualifications, and the process required to earn them.

What is a Digital Badge?

This digital image contains verified metadata describing your qualifications and the process required to earn them. Potential employers can view and learn more about your credentials with a single click.

Upon successful completion of eligible courses and programs, you will receive a Digital Badge to validate your acquired skills across all online platforms:

LinkedIn, Facebook & X
Email signatures
Digital résumés
Online portfolios
Personal and business websites

A Digital Badge lets you:

Instantly let employers know what you have to offer
Share your personal and professional achievements
Explore labor market insights to search for and apply for job opportunities

What Does a Digital Badge Look Like?

Here is an example of Howard Community College’s Health Care Interpreter Training Badge:

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What Badges Are Available and How Do You Earn Them?

Howard Community College offers a growing collection of digital badges that recognize your skills and achievements. Visit our Credly page to see the badges currently available—new badges are added regularly! Each badge includes specific earning criteria so you know exactly what’s required to qualify.

Who Is Eligible?

Anyone who successfully completes an eligible course or programs based on the specified earning criteria.

How / When Badges Are Issued

Within two weeks of successfully completing an eligible course or program, you will receive an email notification from Credly with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is an open badge?

A: Open badges are web-enabled versions of a credential, certification or learning outcome which can be verified in real-time, online.

Q: How does my certification get displayed as a badge?

A: 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 IMS Global. This enables you to manage, share, and verify your competencies digitally.

Q: What are the benefits of a badge?

A: Representing your skills as a badge gives you a way to share your abilities online in a way that is simple, trusted and can be easily verified in real time. Badges provide employers and peers concrete evidence of what you had to do to earn your credential and what you’re now capable of. Credly also offers labor market insights, based on your skills. You can search and apply for job opportunities right through Credly.

Q: Who is Credly?

A: Credly by Pearson hosts the largest and most-connected digital credential network and is the end-to-end solution for issuing and managing digital credentials. Credly works with credible organizations to provide digital credentials to individuals worldwide.

Q: How will I know if I’ve earned a badge?

A: You will receive an email notification from Credly (admin@credly.com) with instructions for claiming your badge and setting up your account.

Q: What if I don’t want my badge to be public?

A: You can easily configure your privacy settings in Credly. You’re in complete control of the information about yourself that is made public.

Q: Is my data secure?

A: Credly employs robust security measures to protect student data, including encryption and secure authentication protocols, ensuring that personal information and achievements remain safe. Students have full control over who can view and share their badges, providing privacy and transparency. Additionally, Credly complies with privacy regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring that all data is handled responsibly and securely.

Q: What’s to keep someone else from copying my badge and using it?

A: 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.

Q: Where and how can I share my badge through Credly?

A: You can share your badge directly from Credly to LinkedIn, X, and Facebook; over email; embedded in a website or in your email signature.

Q: What does someone see when they click on my badge if I share it?

A: When someone, like an employer for example, clicks on a digital badge that has been shared on a social media account, they are taken to a Credly verification webpage which includes the following information: name of the person the badge was issued to, date the badge was issued, including an expiration date if applicable, and the issuer (Howard Community College).

Q: What are labor market insights and how can I access them through Credly?

A: Labor market insights are pulled from live job requisitions. Based on your skills you can learn which employers are hiring, what job titles you might be qualified for, salary ranges and more. Search active job listings and even apply for them with just a few clicks through Credly. Access the labor market insights from your badge details page by clicking on Related Jobs, or by clicking on the skill tags assigned to your badge.

Q: Can I export badges issued through Credly to other badge-storing platforms?

A: 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.

Q: I have a question about Credly. Where can I find support?

A: You can find tutorials and answers to additional questions here: support.credly.com