Digital badges are an alternative method of credentialing that can identify specific skills a learner has mastered through the course of their own self-directed learning. Badges can be acquired in online, in-class, or apprenticeship learning settings. In spite of the great potential that digital badges offer for distinguishing an individual’s job-specific credentials, work must be done to make them more widely understood.

This week we're looking back at Jackie Shimshoni's 2015 publication, The Future of Micro-Credentialing: An Overview of Digital Badges for the Arts. This piece is meant to be a guide for hiring managers in the arts that: defines what digital badging is; explains suggested taxonomies of digital badges; reviews the acquisition process; introduces initiatives to standardize and create accreditation; compares viewpoints on strengths and weaknesses compared to the traditional learning accreditation model; and demonstrates the need for digital badges as a credential; suggests other considerations for using digital badges in the hiring of employees.