Operating Instruction 3.36.2.1 Digital Badges

Chapter 3 - Educational Policies

for Board Policy 3.36

Part 1. Purpose
To define digital badges and establish a taxonomy and specific instructions for the development and issuance of digital badges that verify the skills learned in an approved micro-credential.

Part 2. Definitions

Digital Badge
A digital badge verifies, validates and attests that specific skills and/or competencies that have been achieved in a micro-credential and endorsed by the issuing institution.

Micro-credential
A small unit of credit or noncredit study that provides specific skills or competencies that contribute to the needs of students, communities, and industries.

Part 3. Categories of Badges
Minnesota State offers three types of badges and makes badge templates available for the colleges and universities.

  1. Association - Badge issued for achievement of a micro-credential offered with an industry partner or through an approved third-party learning experience. (usually co-branded)
  2. Industry Specific Technical Skill - Badge issued for credit-bearing or non-credit workforce training or professional development micro-credentials. Examples include, but are not limited to OSHA 10, Serve Safe Food Handler, and Comp TIA.
  3. Transferable Skill – Badge issued for a credit-bearing micro-credential or a non-credit workforce training, co-curricular, or professional development micro-credential. Examples include, but are not limited to Technical Writing, Workplace Communications, and Teamwork Essentials.

Part 4. Branding Requirements
All badges must include the official college or university logo with Minnesota State co-branding text identifier. Each college or university has a strong, recognized brand, and every badge issued extends that brand’s reach, increasing visibility and reinforcing its reputation. Centers, departments, divisions, and/or other partners’ logos and marks may be recognized on the badge or within the Metadata, if the parties agree.

Subpart A. Use of Enterprise Open Badge Technology Platform
Annually, each college and university that chooses to issue digital badges to learners is required to estimate the number of badges needed and use the system provided technology platform.

Subpart B. Quality Metadata
Metadata must clearly state what the earner can do after earning the badge, the requirements they met to achieve it, and why it matters to employers.

Required

  • Badge Graphic (600x600 dpi, png)
  • Badge Name
  • Badge Description
  • Skills (minimum of three)
  • Criteria

Recommended

  • Link for additional information
  • Link for information on how to earn badge
  • Attributes (type, level, time, cost)
  • Standards

Subpart C. Titles of Badges
The title or name of the digital badge should remain in the center of the template, be short, concise, and easy to read. The title should be carefully selected by the issuing institution with consultation from the Minnesota State system, considering the following:

  • The title should match as closely as possible the name of the micro-credential it is verifying and be different from academic award titles. If the micro-credential name is too long to fit into the digital badge, an abbreviated title may be needed, or the font size may be reduced, but avoid acronyms and abbreviations, unless absolutely necessary.
  • The title of a micro-credential and a badge should describe the level of learning, in the event that other badges are added or awarded in the same skill area at other institutions. Example: Project Management Foundations (level 1) Project Management Essentials (level 2) and Project Management Leadership (level 3) may be three stackable micro-credential titles. Levels can also be described in the meta-data if space is needed on the badge for co-branding or a long title.

Subpart D. Minnesota State Badge Templates
The Minnesota State Marketing and Communications Division has created templates for each college and university to utilize for micro-credentials. No other badge templates can be used unless system approval is obtained.

Each college or university shall apply their own campus branding guidelines (logos, font and font types, and color palette) to the Minnesota State badge templates.

  1. Industry-Specific Skills Badges-use primary campus color
  2. Transferrable Skills Badges-use secondary campus color
  3. Association Badges (Industry-specific or Transferrable Skills badges offered in partnership with a business or organization) may use both the campus and business/organization logos with campus color

Participation badges are not allowed. Colleges and universities are prohibited from issuing badges for anything but approved micro-credentials which assess learning and skills.

Tertiary campus colors may be used to issue different versions of existing badges when needed.

The Minnesota State banner icon should not be removed or altered in any way.

The badge with the point in the upper left corner indicates a credit-based micro-credential, and a badge with the point in the lower right corner indicates a micro-credential that does not offer any credits.

Subpart E. Association Badge Co-Branding Agreements
Colleges and universities may choose to partner with a third party to offer a micro-credential to learners. Avoid use of third-party trademarks unless you have explicit, written permission from that organization.

Colleges and universities are responsible for the content of the metadata in their credential templates, including the copyrights and trademarks. Colleges and universities must have the legal right to use any third-party copyrights or trademarks included in your credential templates.

Use a Minnesota State contract and establish a pricing model to share the costs with third parties.

Do not mislead students or the general public by issuing credentials that suggest connections between the college or university and another organization that does not exist. Be transparent about the college or university relationship with third parties referenced in your credential templates.

Part 5. Approval and Data Management of Digital Badges
Each Minnesota State college and university shall establish a process to approve a quality micro-credential (both credit-based and non-credit based) before a request is made to issue a digital badge to validate it.

Each college/university president shall designate a lead employee or small team to serve in the role of a digital badge coordinator to be responsible for:

  • intake of digital badge application forms
  • documentation of the metadata required to issue a badge for an approved micro-credential,
  • documentation of any partnership or third-party agreements/contracts needed
  • use of the digital badge templates, customization of approved badges (adding the title, level, versioning, etc.) and following branding requirements
  • overall administration of the system badging technology platform used to issue badges to learners
  • Serving as the liaison to the system office for reporting, marketing, and quality assurance.

Related Documents:

Operating Instruction History:

Date of Adoption: 5/29/26
Date of Implementation: 7/01/26
Date of Last Review:

Date & Subject of Amendments:

No additional HISTORY.

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