Digital Credentials - Award and Manage Digital Badges
- About UWM Digital Badges
- Get Started with Parchment Digital Badges
- Access Parchment Digital Badges
- Award a Badge
- Manage Awarded Badges
- Best Practices
About UWM Digital Badges
UWM uses Parchment Digital Badges to issue digital credentials that recognize learner achievement through standards established by Open Badges through 1EdTech.
At UWM, digital credentials are approved for use in certificates, certifications, and microcredentials.
Digital badges contain metadata and unique identifiers that connect a specific badge to a specific recipient. This enables employers, educational institutions, and other audiences to verify:
- What a learner did to earn the badge
- Who issued it
- When it was awarded.
Important: At UWM, digital badges may only be created and awarded through approved issuers in Parchment Digital Badges. An issuer is a school, college, department, or administrative unit.
Get Started with Parchment Digital Badges
How to Become an Issuer
To be added as a new issuer or receive access to an existing issuer, contact the UWM Digital Badging Coordinator through the Center for Advancing Student Learning (CASL).
Request a New Badge
To add a new digital badge, contact your school, college, or unit digital credential contact.
Access Parchment Digital Badges
Access an Issuer
- Go to UWM Digital Badges.
- Sign in with your UWM account.
- Select Issuers.
- Select View Issuer to open the school, college, or department that contains the digital badge you want to award.
The issuer dashboard displays all badges available within that issuer. 
Switch to an Issuer Account
If you have both a personal Parchment account and issuer access, you may need to switch to your issuer account before awarding badges.
- Select Select Space.
- Under University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, select Organization.
Award a Badge
- Open the issuer that contains the badge you want to award.
- Select the badge.
- Select Award Badge.
Enter Recipient Information
- Recipient Name
- Recipient Email
- Issue Date (the date the badge was earned)
Best practice: Include a narrative and evidence whenever possible. This information helps others understand the recipient's achievement and the value of the credential.
- Expiration Date, if applicable
- Narrative, describing the recipient's achievement
- Evidence of Achievement, such as:
- A written description of the achievement
- A web link (URL) to supporting evidence
- Both a description and a URL
Complete the Award
- Review the information for accuracy.
- Select Award Badge.
The recipient receives an email notification with a link to their digital badge.
Manage Awarded Badges
To view previously awarded badges:
- Open the badge
- Select Awards.
From the Awards page, you can revoke badges and access sharing information.
Revoke a Badge
- Find the recipient whose badge you need to revoke.
- Select the three dots to the right of the recipient's award.
- Select Revoke.
- Select Revoke Badge to confirm.
Important: This action cannot be undone.
View a Recipient's Badge Link
- Locate the recipient.
- Select the three dots to the right of the recipient's award.
- Select Share.
- In the pop-up window, select Copy.
- Share the link and related information with the recipient.
Best Practices
To increase badge acceptance and engagement, consider sending recipients a follow-up email after awarding a badge. When recipients accept their badge, they can save it to their Parchment Digital Badges backpack, share it with employers and professional networks, and maintain access to the credential after leaving UWM.
- Send recipients instructions for accepting and managing their badge.
- Provide information about sharing badges online.
- Encourage recipients to add a secondary email address.
- Include a narrative and evidence whenever possible.