.. _About Badges:

About Badges
############

.. tags:: educator, concept

The Badges feature allows learners to earn achievements (badges) for their learning activities.

Badges provide employers and peers concrete evidence of what learners have
accomplished in order to earn their credential and what they are now capable of.
Digital badges are a great way to motivate learning and display a learner's
subsequent achievements.

Badges are typically finer-grained than a traditional course certificate. They
are meant to introduce game mechanics to have more frequent sources of
motivation athan one would get from a cumulative certificate.

Currently, the Open edX Credentials service is highly integrated with the `Credly (by
Pearson)`_ and `Accredible`_ services.

What is Credly?
***************

**Credly** is a end-to-end solution for creating, issuing, and managing digital
Credentials. Organizations use **Credly** to recognize their learners'
achievements. Users use Credly as a professional board to store badges to
visualize their professional success - which courses were completed and when.
Credly also offers labor market insights based on users' skills. Learners can
store badges in their Credly profile to visualize their professional success -
which courses were completed and when.

What is Accredible?
********************

**Accredible** allows for the design and issuance of verifiable digital badges and
certificates that showcase acquired skills, earning criteria, and evidence of
learning. Learn more about Accredible on the `Accredible features page`_.

.. seealso::

   :ref:`Setting Up Badges`

   :ref:`Enable Badges`


**Maintenance chart**

+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
| Review Date  | Working Group Reviewer        |   Release      |Test situation                  |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
| 2025-05-20   | Sarina                        | Teak           |  Pass                          |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+

.. _Credly (by Pearson): https://info.credly.com/
.. _Accredible: https://www.accredible.com/
.. _Accredible features page: https://www.accredible.com/features