The Awards tool enables instructors to provide merit-based awards to students. There are two types of awards: Badges, and Certificates.
Badges are awarded based on any criteria determined by the instructor. They are meant to provide digital markers that represent accomplishment throughout a course or program. Badges do not contribute to achieving a passing grade; however, badges are awarded for achievements that also can contribute to the type of work ethic that results in a passing grade. For example, an instructor might create a badge that is based on posting 15 discussion posts in the first month of a course, or on perfect attendance, or on academic excellence. These items are the types of trends that can help a learner to succeed in a course or program.
Certificates are also awarded based on criteria determined by the instructor. Certificates are similar to Badges, however, they include a PDF that users can print. Certificates typically indicate an official statement of certification or award at the end of a program, but can be awarded during the course for other criteria as well. Certificates can be awarded based on achieving a milestone that a learner can use for further academic or career success, such as passing a practical exam. Certificates also do not contribute to achieving a passing grade.
Note: To prevent plagiarism and protect an organization's intellectual and branding copyrights, all earned certificates downloaded from the Awards tool are password-protected from editing. Each certificate is generated with a random password that is not displayed to users, preventing anyone from editing the certificate in Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. This makes it unnecessary to manually add password-protection to uploaded certificates.
Badges and Certificates can be automatically awarded based on release condition criteria, or can be manually awarded.
To create a new award
- Within the course, do one of the following:
• On the navbar, click Awards.
• From the Assessments tab, select Awards.
• Click Course Admin and select Awards from within the Assessment section.
- Click Add Award to Course.
- Click Create Award.
- Enter a name and description for the new award.
- Select an award type from the drop-down list.
- Select the appropriate check boxes to indicate if you want the award to be available to other award managers, and where it is available within the org structure.
- Select the expiry options:
• If the award will not expire, select Never. Examples of awards that never expire are certificates of merit for passing a course, or badges for perfect attendance.
• If the award will expire on a specific date, select Fixed date. Examples of awards that will expire on a specific date are certifications for a skill that must be renewed, such as first aid training.
• If the award will expire on a day relative to the day the award was granted, select Relative Day of the Month. Examples of awards that expire on a relative date are badges for Learner of the Week or for having achieved 100% on a test or assignment.
- If you want to notify the award recipient before an award expires, select the check box and indicate the number of days of lead time.
- In the Choose Award Image area, do one of the following:
• If the image already exists in the image library, click From Existing Library.
• If you want to add a new icon to the image library, click Upload New Icon.
• To launch the OpenBadges website, click Create your own award image. OpenBadges is a free website that allows you to create custom icons.
- If you are creating a new certificate, in the Choose Certificate Template area, do one of the following:
• If the PDF template already exists in the image library, click From Existing Library.
• If you want to add a new template to the image library, click Upload New Template.
- Verify that the Issuer Information is correct.
- Ensure that the Associate this award to the <current course> on creation check box is correctly set.
- Click Save.