Starting with edubadges

Do you want to get started with edubadges in your educational context? Do you already have a concrete idea for edu badges within a subject, faculty, department or institution-wide? This step-by-step plan is intended for staff at MBO, HBO or WO institutions who would like to start awarding edu badges to students.

Twee studenten in een open hal met een laptop

Step 4. Set up the edubadges platform

You are now ready to finalise the edubadges. How do you set up everything in the edubadges platform so that you can issue edubadges? Follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Create a new issuer

kasten met computers

Go to the edubadges platform. After logging in, create a new issuer under the institution and issuer group, for example, 'Department of Psychology'. Watch the 'Create new issuer groups and issuers' tutorial.

Please note: this is only possible if you have been assigned the right roles and privileges; see step 3. Decide who you need.

Create a badge class

In the previous step, you worked together with your educational experts on the metadata fields of your edubadges. You are now ready to create a new badge class in the edubadges platform. A good badge class will be consistent with other edubadges issued by your institution so it fits into the broader framework of edubadges. Bear in mind that a badge class must have a long 'shelf life'.

Also watch the 'Create badge class' tutorial (will follow soon).

Fill in the fields

Run through the mandatory and optional fields in the platform and decide on the appropriate content. You might want to consult with colleagues about this. Important: the metadata you enter will form an integral part of the edubadge and cannot be changed once the edubadge has been issued. These fields will therefore be visible when an external party or institution verifies the edubadge. When completing the metadata, exactly what you need to fill in for each field is explained to you.

Also see the 3 example documents containing  badge class metadata:

Upload visual of the edubadge

Creating the badge class includes uploading its visual representation. The image must be a .png file, larger than 90 by 90 pixels, but no larger than 256 kB.

Testing the badge class

After creating the badge class, it is important to test it because, once edubadages of a certain class have been issued, the badge class cannot be changed. You can create a test badge class, issue a test edubadge and then update or delete the badge class.

Assigning privileges

Use the management tab of the badge class to indicate who is entitled to issue edubadges of this badge class. Where appropriate, you should therefore link teachers or other colleagues to the badge class and check with them that everything works as intended. See the 'Invite new users and grant permissions' tutorial to do so.

You can also withdraw rights. To do so, see the 'Edit permissions' tutorial.

You're ready for the next step if:

  • you have set up an issuer and have already created your first badge class, and
  • you have made all the preparations to start issuing edubadges to your students.