Badges are special marks or tokens that are displayed as a sign of membership, allegiance, achievement, learning, or accomplishment. In out-of-school learning contexts, they are most well-known as “merit” badges that are used to motivate and recognize achievements in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. In many settings, earning a certain badge or a number of badges is associated with a promotion in rank or level, and that accomplishment itself may also result in a badge. This entry discusses the development of digital badges, concerns about the effect of badges on motivation, and efforts to use badges in a meaningful way and connect them to other systems of recognition for learning.

A digital badge is an online record of accomplishment. Digital badges have been widely used in ...