About Digital Badges

What is a digital badge?

Similar to physical badges, digital badges can be awarded to recognize an achievement, skill, award, or qualification. While physical badges are attached to a tangible object, digital badges are designed to be shared online — for example, with employers, on social media, or on your personal portfolio website.

Digital badges include an image, so the viewer can identify what achievement - such as a certification - is being presented. Your badge also contains metadata, providing more detailed information to anyone who wants to verify a badge or learn more about how, when and by whom it was earned.

An important aspect of digital badges is that they are directly linked to the issuing organization, providing official validation and confirming that the individual displaying the badge genuinely holds the associated credential.

What can I do with my digital badge?

Digital badges are designed to be easily shared online in a variety of ways. You can embed a digital badge on your social media profiles, personal portfolio website or anywhere else on the web where you want to share your achievements. Badges can also be included in emails, such as in your email signature or when communicating with potential employers.

Another option for people who want to manage and share multiple digital badges is to use a badge backpack - a repository for current and future achievements, which supports badges from multiple issuing organisations.

Digital badges issued by Certible follow Open Badges v2.0 ⤴, ensuring compliance and intercompatibility with all badges and backpacks that also adhere to the open standard.

Who is eligible to receive a digital badge?

Certible is proud to offer digital badges to all holders of a certificate issued by Certible, regardless of when your certificate was issued.

We are happy to provide this additional service free of charge to all customers, regardless of when your certificate was issued.

If you already held a certifications issued by Certible prior to 2023, you can contact us to retroactively request your digital badge.

Do I need a digital badge?

Not necessarily – digital badges are optional and complement your certificate.

People use digital badges to share certifications, credentials and other achievements online, in a convenient and secure way – for example on social media.

Why does my digital badge need to be claimed?

Your digital badge consists partly of the badge image which you can download during the claiming process. Another key component of the badge is hosted verification, provided by Certible on our website.

So that a viewer can confirm that you are a genuine certificate holder, your badge and credential page contain some of your personal information. For this reason, we require your explicit consent before issuing a badge.

How can I use and share my digital badge?

Digital badges offer a convenient and secure way to share your credentials online. Places to share your digital badge include:

• On your CV or personal portfolio website
• Social media profiles
• Embedded in emails, e.g. in your email signature, or to send to potential employers
• In a badge backpack – a repository to keep and display all your badges, from a variety of issuing organisations

How do I embed my digital badge in email or on the web?

Digital badges can be embedded anywhere online where you might otherwise use images.

Your personal badge contains metadata confirming your ownership of the badge and therefore your certification.

We encourage users to include a link to their credential page with their badge image, enabling viewers to click the badge and access the full credential details.

Prepare to embed your badge. You will need:

• The address of your badge’s web page (Credential URL)
  • We sent you a link to this page by email after you claimed your badge.
• Your badge image. There are two ways to share this:
  • You can download this from your badge’s web page by selecting Download Badge. If you do this, follow the instructions to embed a downloaded badge.
  • You can also embed the badge that is hosted on Certible’s website. In this case, follow the instructions further below for embedding a hosted badge.

Embedding a downloaded badge

In an email or your email signature

• Go to the point where you want to embed the badge

  • If you want to include the badge in a single email, compose a new email
  • If you want to add the badge to your email signature, open your email signature settings.

• Insert the image.

  • You can drag and drop it into the text window, or insert the image using Insert > Image from the menu.

• Make the image a link

  • Select the image in the body of your email or the signature
  • Add a link. How to do this varies between email clients and operating systems. Typically you can do so by selecting the image you want to make into a link, and pressing the appropriate keyboard shortcut:
    • Windows (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail): Ctrl + K
    • Mac OS (Apple Mail, Gmail): Cmd + K
  • Alternatively you can usually add a link to text or an image using the toolbar or a context menu (right click on the image).
  • Paste your Credential URL and save the link.

• Check the image and link were inserted correctly and that you are satisfied with the appearance of your email (or signature). You can still adjust the size and position of the badge.

Embedding a badge hosted on certible.com

Your badge image is hosted on certible.com on the credential page, from which you can download it if you choose.

Alternatively you can embed the image that is hosted on certible.com.

In emails, this means the image is displayed as a remotely hosted file rather than as an attachment. This has advantages such as reducing the email’s file size and saving inbox storage space.

You are also free to embed this hosted badge elsewhere on the web, such as on your business or personal portfolio website.

Too embed a hosted image, use the BADGE IMAGE ADDRESS as the source attribute (src) for the image.

We also recommend setting the image as a link to your credential page, so that viewers can click on the badge and view more details about your certificate.

Can my badge be deleted?

Yes.

After your badge has been claimed it can be deleted using the same password with which you initially accepted your badge.

If you delete your badge, it cannot be reclaimed - it is gone forever.

You can request a new badge at any time, free of charge. However if you have shared the badge anywhere, the shared badge will no longer be valid.

If your badge has not yet been claimed and you want to ensure it remains invisible, you don’t need to take any action. Your badge cannot be viewed or claimed without the password.