Digital Badge Program Standards
Updated 8/6/2022
The ICC incorporated in 2002 and has become a leader in innovation education for schools and professionals alike. A digital badge from the International Center for Creativity (ICC) indicates the successful completion of a non-accredited standardized course or topic. All courses and topics must meet pre-defined criteria outlined below.
ARTICLE 1: Overview of Badge Programs
Section 1.01
Purpose and Scope
This document has been developed and approved by the ICC define the rules under which the Digital Badge Program operates. These standards apply to both courses generated by the ICC and external courses certified by the ICC.
The goal of the digital badge program is to offer hyper-relevant and experiential education to individuals to either introduce industry concepts to new audiences or reach beyond basic preparation for students and professionals. Badge holders will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a world of every-changing information and technology. A uniformly applied program ensures that learners will experience a consistently high level of quality, proficiency, and knowledge among all ICC digital badge holders.
The mission of the program is to:
Provide students and professionals with opportunities to improve their creative skills by utilizing cutting edge and industry-standard technology;
Provide students and professionals with opportunities to explore and improve their craft;
Provide industry-specific skills and knowledge for niche markets;
Provide programs that strengthen and ensure the competence of its learners;
Provide programs to stimulate personal and professional career development.
Section 1.02
Authority
The ICC Digital Badge Program is established and administered under the authority of the ICC Digital Badge Committee. The operation of this committee is monitored and managed by ICC senior leadership. Any request for exemption from the policies outlined below must be addressed to committee and approved by senior leadership.
Section 1.03
Definition of Taxonomy, Badge Units (BU) and Course Levels (CL)
The ICC Digital Badge Program utilizes badge units (BU’s) and course levels (CL) to measure and document educational activities.
Badge Units
Badge Units are the standard unit of measure for attributing education and training activities, particularly as it applies to the personal and professional development of learners in a formalized, educational setting.
Badge Units are defined on contact hours of participation in an organized education experience under capable direction and qualified instruction. One contact hour is defined as 50 minutes of instructor-engaged activity either in person, online synchronously, online asynchronously or in a hybrid scenario. Therefore, learners will earn one BU for every 50 minutes of contact hours. Instructional hours do not include breaks, meals, registration time, etc.
The ICC strongly believes that different individuals learn differently, and therefore educational methods and techniques must be flexible. To that end, badge units may be issued through additional activities that have been preapproved by the ICC Digital Badge Committee.
Course Levels
In addition to Badge Units, the ICC utilizes Course Levels (CL) to denote the depth and complexity of the badge offering.
Exploration Level: Exploration Level Badges are issued for completing 1-9 badge units within a specified topic. These introductory-level courses are designed to provide a high-level overview of specific skills or information.
Foundation Level: Foundation Level Badges are issued for completing at least 10 badge units within a specified topic. These badges are designed to provide competence within a specific skill, technology, or industry.
Intermediate Level: Intermediate Level, or Professional, Badges are issued for completing at least 30 badge units within a specified topic. These badges are designed to demonstrate application of complex concepts within a specified industry.
Advanced Level: Advanced Level, or Mastery, badges are issues for completing at least 60 bade units within a specific topic. These badges may also include independent research and study. Advanced Level badges are only issued after mastery within a specified topic is accomplished.
Stacked Badges: Special programs may also be designed to combined badge units within a specific topic to achieve a higher-level badge. For example, if the program is designed to accommodate it, three foundation level badges may be stacked to create an intermediate level badge.
Section 1.04
Digital Credentialing
The ICC utilizes a third-party, hosted solution to create, manage and monitor the digital badge program. For more information, visit Credly at https://www.credly.com.
Section 1.15
Program Approval and Prequalification
The ICC provides a process by which organizations may obtain approval or prequalification of their education programs:
Approved events are live conventions, conferences, webinars, or workshops provided by credible organizations, associations and/or other third parties that have been fully reviewed. The event sponsor is required to track attendance and provide the attendance list electronically to the ICC for proper credentialing of attendees. Event attendance is due back to the ICC no later than 30 days after completion of the event to ensure proper and timely credentialing.
Pre-qualified programs may include live, online or hybrid programs. These programs are deemed by the ICC to meet the requirements for badge units, and those who utilize these programs are responsible for reporting their course completion to the ICC, incurring any costs themselves.
ARTICLE 2: Criteria for Badge Eligibility
In order to be eligible for Badge Units, an activity must meet ALL of the following criteria:
Section 2.01
Valid Educational Earning Criteria
The activity must include stated earning criteria.
Section 2.02
Primary Target Audience(s)
The activity must be designed for a target audience involved in, but not limited to, industrial design, architecture, art, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, fabrication, engineering or other applicable topic.
Section 2.03
Skills
The earning criteria of the activity must be associated with a least three skills identified in the digital credentialing system.
Section 2.04
Capable Instructor(s)
Each activity or session must be led by at least one instructor who is demonstrably and objectively capable to instruct participants on the topic(s) relevant to the stated earning criteria. Examples of such qualifications could be state or national certification in the topic being taught, professional licenses, tested-experience or advanced degrees in the topic area.
Section 2.05
Sponsor(s)
The activity may be sponsored by a third-party corporation or multiple entities. In the case of a sponsored activity, the following applicable criteria will be disclosed for all participants:
Intellectual Property Rights
Confidentiality Agreements
Section 2.06
Minimum Duration
In order to qualify for Badge Units, each portion of the activity must be at least 50 minutes in duration, excluding any breaks and non-eligible content.
Section 2.07
Attendance Verification for In-Person Activities
Attendance for all programs is required. For in-person activities, the exact method of attendance verification will be pre-determined.
If a participant does not fully complete a program, partial badge units will not be issued. Make-up sessions are at the discretion of the instructor.
Section 2.08
Attendance Verification for Distance Learning Activities
For distance learning activities (i.e., those that are delivered remotely, with the participant in a different physical location from the instructor), the instructor must verify participation by one or more of the following methods:
Video camera of participant is on and live
Random chat messages and responses from participants
Intermittent prompts that require input from the participant before the activity can continue
Mandatory quizzes or content summaries at the completion of the activity
Minute-by-minute tracking of how long the attendee participated in the activity
Asynchronous activities must prevent the user from bypassing attendance verification points or skipping ahead to complete the activity in less time.
If a participant does not fully complete a program, partial badge units will not be issued. Make-up sessions are at the discretion of the instructor.
Section 2.09
Evaluation Procedures
A course evaluation must be conducted for each program to determine participant satisfaction and the effectiveness of the educational offering. Digital badge credentials will be issued after evaluations are complete.
