Office of Online Services and Educational Outreach

Alternative Digital Credentialing Resources

Alternative digital credentials (ADCs), also known as digital badges or microcredentials, demonstrate great promise as a strategy for closing the skills gap and supporting the alignment of industry skills with traditional and nontraditional higher education programs. Recognizing this potential, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) has made a significant investment in ADCs at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as through a workforce training pilot seeking to rapidly upskill displaced workers through a series of stackable, non-credit ADCs leading to industry-aligned credentials.

SIUE Alternative Digital Credential Offerings

The following resources are intended to support conceptualization, implementation, and sustainability of faculty ADC development at SIUE. Current ADC offerings at SIUE have been developed by academic units and research centers including the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Applied Communication Studies, STEM Center, and Small Business Development Center. For more information on ADC development, resources, or to request employment data to explore curricular alignment, contact us at: altcredentials@siue.edu

General SIUE ADC Guidelines

• Digital credentials may be earned for activities performed inside and outside of classrooms, but the assessment of skill/competency mastery maintains the rigor and integrity of digital credential for SIUE
• Digital credentials are expected to make the earners more employable or to highlight a set of skills valued in the workplace or in the broader society by allowing those skills and competencies to be defined and assessed so that the earner, future employers and others understand and expect the earner to possess the described skills
• Digital credentials are expected to be offered over a significant period of time.  Thus, there must be commitment on behalf of the unit offering the digital credential to regularly offer and assess the activities that lead to the digital credential

Launching a New ADC

1. Fill out an ADC Request Form.
2. Work with the ADC Team (contact at altcredentials@siue.edu) to engage with industry partners about how the badge would be received and utilized.
3. ADC Request Form and supporting documentation are then reviewed by the ADC Steering Committee.

ADC Development Resources

• Education Design Lab Microcredentialing Resources and Toolkit
• Education Design Lab 21st Century Skills Badge Overview
• ADC Course Design Rubric Standards
• Witchita State University Badge Catalog

Academic Literature

• Carey, Kimberly & Stefaniak, Jill. (2018). An exploration of the utility of digital badging in higher
• education settings. Educational Technology Research and Development. 66. 10.1007/s11423-018-9602-1. 
• Cheng, Z., Richardson, J. C., & Newby, T. J. (2020). Using Digital Badges as Goal-Setting Facilitators: A Multiple Case Study. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 32(2), 406–428.
• Eaton, A., & Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. (2020). Elevating Real-World Learning: Two Cities’ Efforts to Credential Real World Skills through Digital Badges. In Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy. Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy.
• Fanfarelli, J. R. (2018). Designing Digital Badges to Improve Learning in Virtual Worlds. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 11(3), 1–10.
• Higashi, R., & Schunn, C. D. (2020). Perceived Relevance of Digital Badges Predicts Longitudinal Change in Program Engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(5), 1020–1041.
• Martin, W., Gutierrez, J., & Muldoon, M. (2020). Digital Badges Forging Connections between Informal and Higher Education. Afterschool Matters, 33, 16–24. 
• Micro-credentials and Digital Badges. (2019). Library Technology Reports, 55(3), 1–34.
• Pike, R. E., Brown, B., West, T., & Zentner, A. (2020). Digital Badges and E-Portfolios in Cybersecurity Education. Information Systems Education Journal, 18(5), 16–24.
• Stefaniak, J., Carey, K. Instilling purpose and value in the implementation of digital badges in higher education. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 16, 44 (2019).