Learning is a continuous experience where we attain new skills over a period of time. Experiences in a modern world are supported by small learning interventions, that help to build up and sustain a certain level of competency.

While the newly attained micro skills will be intrinsically rewarding, recognition by the outside world will only happen after accreditation via Macro Credentials. Macro credentials can be found in the form of diplomas, certifications, or other forms of accreditation.

Can we talk about continuous learning when learning is the journey towards accreditation?

To stimulate continuous learning, the recognition gap during Micro Learning will need  the support of Expiring Micro Credentials (dopamine). Badges can act as Micro Credentials and have been very popular to bridge this recognition gap. But in most cases these badges are locked behind the LMS or are represented by unverifiable images. Losing their value to the outside world.

In 2011 Mozilla released a solution in the form of open badges: An open technology that allows to enrich an image representation of a badge with a verifiable record of your learning. With a recent updated version of 2.0, it has become a solid technology. This technology is a json structure with cryptographic integrity that contains the following accreditation details:

• Recipient
• Issue Date
• Evidence
• Narrative
• Expiration date
• Badge Class

As a backbone for its portability an open badge json assertion is baked into an image. The two image formats supported are svg and png. Below you can find an example of an open badge:

Get a well-informed interest in Open Badges.

Clicking on the image will allow you to download the open badge. Looking inside the picture reveals the accreditation details:

{
  "@context": "https://w3id.org/openbadges/v2", 
  "type": "Assertion", 
  "id": "https://api.badgr.io/public/assertions/rT2kQ68sT5OUR48gNv7iDg", 
  "badge": "https://api.badgr.io/public/badges/N0U80_D_R4i8AXly1MBjnA", 
  "image": "https://api.badgr.io/public/assertions/rT2kQ68sT5OUR48gNv7iDg/image", 
  "verification": {
    "type": "HostedBadge"
  }, 
  "issuedOn": "2020-03-09T21:10:22.123331+00:00", 
  "recipient": {
    "salt": "75a7b447969042b59e2a8edd753f3ace", 
    "type": "email", 
    "hashed": true, 
    "identity": "sha256$3e89e82d60b63633453db607adeb3d4e0bba59301ac6ca8fc9cfc87f4bb7fa29"
  }
}

Open Badges are tamper proof thanks to the cryptographic integrity. After downloading the image, you can supply the open badge image to a badge check service to verify it’s claim: https://badgecheck.io/. The recepient used in this badge is t+badgr[at]thuiz.com. Inside the badge the recipient is not visible as it is hashed for privacy protection.

You can also go to the public assertion page: https://badgr.com/public/assertions/rT2kQ68sT5OUR48gNv7iDg

Now that you are aware about the existence of open badges, it is time to collect your first badge:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=4C72i9zIM02_1Hq5zSnY72Gd1CQD18dBrUBe-pJl26BUMlpMWFg0Tk5USlJLVjZRUkFZSE81NEtPSCQlQCN0PWcu

Open badges are non-proprietary, and do not require an account on the receivers end. Making them truly open.