Badges for Learning: A Design Framework Design badges that enhance learning and empower your participants.

Why badges?Badges have the potential to radically shift how learning experiences are achieved, shared, and recognized. The Chicago-based Digital Youth Network (DYN) has developed a framework that connects badges to a set of learning experiences, with an end goal of better supporting interest-driven learning in a social community to create richer and more concrete paths to discovery.

Badges can:...allow individuals to receive recognition for skills and achievements gained ...signal mastery of specific skills or roles...provide bridges between informal learning opportunities and formal

environments ...increase the visibility of potential pathways for learning and exploring new

skills and interests...provide the motivation to explore with a new degree

of interest and confidence...become more meaningful over time, as learners combine badges to build

a portfolio that represent who they are and what they can do

Badge TypesAll badges are not created equal - the DYN framework builds on 3 types of badges.

SkillSkill badges provide the learners with

indicators of developing competencies and broaden their understanding of their capabilities and accomplishments.

CommunityCommunity badges recognize behaviors

and attributes that are valued by the community and reinforce social norms

and practices.

ShowcaseShowcase badges highlight a learner’s efforts

to share their progress and skills to valued audiences, promoting a sense of pride,

ownership and identity.

Skill• Relate directly to key skills aligned with

identified outcomes

• Should have clear connections to “doing”

• Require “evidence” in the form of artifacts

• Have predetermined expectations of levels of quality

• Are awarded by teacher or mentor

• May combine active creation and reflective components

Skill badge example:

Community• Recognize specific attributes or behaviors

that are valued by the community

• Reinforce social norms and practices

• Reflect or respond to growing norms in developing community over time

• Support mentor to learner as well as learner to learner recognition of specific attributes or behaviors

Community badge example:

Showcase• Based in situations or experiences where

concrete skills are demonstrated to an audience that is valued to the learner

• May include components of performance, exhibition or publication

• May have elements of competition

• May also reinforce social norms and practices

Showcase badge example:

Digital AuthoringA digital magazine badge might recognize people who have created media selected

by editors to appear in an online digital magazine featuring the best

work from a program’s participants.

i.e. Create & submit an article, video, podcast or info graphic + Submission selected for quality & alignment with magazine theme.

Other Examples of Showcase Badges:

• Digital Magazine Contributor

• Youth Film Festival Presenter

Digital MusicAn intro level digital music badge might be achieved by a learner completing multiple

music production & critique activities that demonstrate

knowledge of digital production software & basic understanding of song structure.

i.e. Write a blog critiquing the tone & tempo of a song + Create a 2 min instrumental with an intro and chorus that uses 3 types of sounds.

Other Examples of Skill Badges:

• Digital Photography• Scratch Game Design• Fashion Design

Critical FriendA ‘critical friend’ badge might recognize the practice of

providing ongoing feedback and encouragement to peers in

your class or workshop. It highlights the community values around feedback and support between learners.

i.e. Make at least 10 comments a week on the work of peers for 4 weeks in a row.

Other Examples of Community Badges:

• Workshop Participation• Project Collaborator• Resource Provider

A learning community facilitates the opportunities for learning and contributing together. Within any learning environment there are sets of behaviors and practices a group or community values and promotes amongst learners.

Cultivating environments where learners and mentors can model and practice a set of shared behaviors that the community values provides learners with essential tools for navigating and succeeding in new, broader learning experiences and opportunities.

Most learning does not occur in isolation. Highlighting the value of social interactions and exchanges that develop shared practices can sustain a vibrant learning community.  Community badges recognize behaviors and attributes that are valued by the community and reinforces social norms and practices.

We believe that badging learners habits and practices:• promotes and empowers the transference of essential behaviors and

characteristics• creates an understanding of what it means to be a part of a community.• inspires interest-based learning through peer and mentor interactions.• recognizes learner contributions to the community.

As an output of this process, you will identify and define behaviors and attributes valued by your community and design Community badges that recognizes these in learners.  

Decisions must be made about when and for what purposes Community badges should be applied to valued attributes and behaviors. Community badges may vary based on values established by the community for contexts such as face-to-face or online. These values should be derived from habits and practices that currently exist, as well as, new habits and practices that would benefit the learners in the community.

Online: • Adult-to-Youth Exchanges• Peer-to-Peer Exchanges (providing peers feedback on artifacts,

commenting consistently)• Sharing (sharing experiences, artifacts, tools, reflections, providing

resources)• Discussion of topics

Face-to-Face:• Peer-Adult Support (working with an adult on a project, documenting a

process)• Peer-to-Peer Support• Volunteer Opportunities • Leadership Opportunities

Guidelines for creating Community badges:• Identify existing attributes and behaviors your community values and wishes

to highlight and recognizes.• Have a clear sense of dispositions desired to be developed.• Determine the indicators of success for demonstrating behaviors and

attributes.• Have clear evidence that demonstrates deemed social habits and practices.• Consider multiple audiences.

CommunityCommunity badges recognize behaviors and attributes that are valued

by the community and reinforce social norms and practices.

Skill badges represent knowledge or skills gained from a set of experiences and recognizer mastery of those particular skills. Providing youth with tangible indicators of competency broadens their understanding of personal accomplishments and capabilities.

Skill  badges recognize that a learner has participated in activities and successfully demonstrated abilities by completing tasks, artifacts, or projects. They can also serve as a marker of skills developed across diverse learning environments and they can connect and leverage these various experiences, interests, communities, and contexts.

Skills badges:

• reinforce personal strengths and competencies• reveal opportunities for growth and areas for improvement• signal to a wider audience a learner’s qualifications, experiences, and

interests• provide opportunities to connect learning to outside audiences and

networks

Creating a set of skill badges begins by identifying the learning goals and then follows with a sequence of activities and skill-building benchmarks that build toward desired outcomes.  

A second step is to design assessments to inform the criteria-driven activities. Not every skill assessment within a learning trajectory will lead to a badge.

Activities and benchmarks should:

• relate directly to key skills aligned with identified outcomes• have clear connections to hands-on learning• require evidence of successful completion • have predetermined expectations of levels of quality• be awarded by teacher or mentor• combine active creation and reflective components

SkillSkill badges provide the learners with indicators of developing

competencies and broaden their understanding of their capabilities and accomplishments.

Showcasing a learner’s development strengthens interest-based learning by creating incentives for learners to create artifacts, develop skills, share creations, and identify with new roles.

Showcase badges recognize and indicate a specific level of excellence or performance based upon identified standards and expectations. By making work visible to outside, meaningful audiences, showcases and Showcase badges can promote a sense of pride, ownership, authorship and identity.

We believe that showcasing:

• develops a disposition and desire to share, receive feedback and iterate for the purposes of creating quality artifacts.

• creates an understanding of an audience’s role which informs the creative process.

• builds social, cultural, and academic capital.

As an output of this process, you will identify your existing showcase opportunities or create new sets of showcases for your learners. You will then design your showcase badges, determine expectations and modes of assessment, and finally map the badges to your module’s showcase opportunities.

Creating Showcase Opportunities Appropriate showcase opportunities will vary based on the context, the learner, and the artifact that is being created. Some examples include:

• Digital magazines (written, graphic and interactive media)• Film Festivals (videos)• Gallery • Performances• Maker Faire

In addition to larger, culminating showcases, smaller showcase opportunities throughout projects, classes, or workshops can enhance the production process.

Examples include:

• Peer critique• Student forums• Debates• Live streams

Decisions must be made about when and for what purposes showcase opportunities should be created for learners.

Consider a showcase opportunity to:

• Reward learners for having reached a milestone.• Provide feedback or reviews to encourage continued progress.• Bolster motivation. • Introduce the roles associated with public presentation.• Create a culture that rewards public display.

Creating Showcase BadgesDecisions must be made about when to badge a showcase opportunity. Not all showcase opportunities merit issuing a badge, and not every artifact presented in a showcase earns a Showcase badge.

Guidelines for creating showcase badges:

• Have clear evidence and specifications that the showcased artifact exceeds expectations and criteria.

• Limit the number of badges (e.g. the “best in show”).• Badges should reinforce the role-based aspects of the accomplishment  

(e.g. “The Young Author Badge”).

ShowcaseShowcase badges highlight a learner’s efforts

to share their progress and skills to valued audiences, promoting a sense of pride, ownership and identity.