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CETL uses badges to track professional development

08.20.2015 | By: Texas Wesleyan University

For the past few years the CETL has implemented a system of badges to better acknowledge, challenge and reward faculty and staff who engage in professional development activities. In the current iteration of the system, we have developed new badges, refined the badge levels, and tweaked the way badges are earned.

Understanding the Levels

Most of these badges have three distinct levels and the progression from one level to another is an example of a participant’s learning path.

badge explanation

Level 1:“Learn Stuff”

Level 1 is earned simply by attending any professional development activities. These activities can be CETL workshops, individual consultations with CETL staff, or even opportunities from other sources like a professional conference or webinar.

Level 2:  “Apply/Do stuff”

Those who wish to progress to the Level 2 badge can do so by completing a challenge.

Using personalized learning, learner-centered teaching, and competency based education strategies we encourage the participants to choose the challenges that they want to complete and they can complete them at their own pace. However, the completion of the self-assigned challenges become evidence of the participant’s learning.

Level 3: “Evaluate/Share stuff”

Participants can move on to level 3 by completing another very important challenge: sharing their knowledge with their professional community.

Participants that want to achieve this level of badge (therefore becoming "trailblazer" for the topic) are encouraged to share their experiences of learning about a topic (or tool) and the results of applying that knowledge in their professional lives/teaching via the CETL blog, a workshop, or any other formal/informal research and publication avenues.

Public Badges

credlyOur goal is to build a system that’s customizable by the participants, acknowledges professional development comes from many venues, and pushes participants to apply, reflect on and share what they’ve learned.

When you earn a badge, you will receive an email notification of your achievement (see illustration). If you want to save and share that badge you must click on “save & share” (if you don’t have a Credly account yet you will be prompted to create one after this step).

When you accept the badge you may view your badges via Credly. You can also share your badges publicly on your LinkedIn account. 

To learn more please visit our blog or contact us via email.

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At Texas Wesleyan, we have a rich history and a Texas-sized reputation. As stewards of the University, it is our responsibility to build a future as bright as our past.