The promise of open digital badges extends beyond their potential to recognize informal learning and professional development. Open badges also provide data that can be mined and analyzed to benefit learners, educators, and learning organizations, both locally and globally across the ecosystem. What does the current universe of badges look like? What practical data can be conveyed through badges? How can usable data be extracted from digital badges that can be used by learners and institutions of learning?

The world of work and the workplace is changing rapidly, and your internal business strategy needs to include motivational elements such as gamification, badging, and incentives to support workplace engagement and interest.

The world of digital online credentials is changing, and IBM is a leading voice in the IT industry. In this session, using real program data and results and the IBM Open Badge Program as a case study, you will learn how to design a nano-credential program that quickly generates significant results. See how IBM merges credentials and recognition with social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The session explores Mozilla Open Badges, which are quickly emerging as an industry standard to recognize achievements and nurture and progress talent.

An intensive two-year study of 29 projects that were awarded funds to build digital badge systems in the 2012 Badges for Lifelong Learning competition revealed surprising results.

More than four years have passed since the inception of the Open Badges experiment, and in that time the concept of digital badges has moved steadily into the general consciousness. As this novel idea continues to evolve, so do its many opportunities and challenges.