What Are Digital Badges?
Digital badges are a form of micro-credentials which acknowledge that learning not only happens within the college classroom but also informally with campus lectures, workshops, and academic support programing. The digital badge program offered through Library Services at Delaware County Community College acknowledges the information literacy education students receive through our workshops whether online, in-person, or simulcast. Students are able to display the badges they earn online through popular social networking sites including Badgr, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. These badges allow those viewing your digital profile to know you have gain additional knowledge through these informal learning opportunities. Each badge includes information detailing the description of the workshop you attended along with the criteria used by Library Services to award the badge.
Digital Badge Offerings
The Research Fundamentals workshop series will cover the research process from start to finish, including moving from a topic to research question, finding relevant resources, and properly citing those sources. In order to qualify for the Research Fundamentals certificate and/or Research Fundamentals digital badge, you must complete the three required Research Fundamentals workshops in addition to one elective workshop from the Expanding Research Skills category. The three required Research Fundamentals workshops are:
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Getting Started With Research: Learn to interpret assignment requirements, identify a research topic, gather background information, develop a research question, determine the type of information you need, and develop a research strategy.
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Finding Relevant Sources: Learn to identify relevant sources to answer your research question, select useful search tools, search effectively, and evaluate your search results to select the best sources for your assignment.
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Organizing and Citing Your Research: Learn about tools and services for saving and citing your sources, integrating your sources into your assignment, and writing in-text and end-of-paper references and citations.
The Expanding Research Skills workshop series builds on the knowledge and skills learned as part of the research Fundamentals workshop series. To qualify for the Expanding Research Skills certificate and/or digital badge, you must complete four additional Expanding Research Skills workshops. You can find the times and locations for these workshops at: http://libguides.dccc.edu/workshops. Just limit your search to the Expanding Research Skills series.How Do I Receive A Digital Badge?
Each semester, Library Services offers a range of information literacy workshops designed to support the Information Literacy College Academic Learning Goal which ensures students are able to find, evaluate, and communicate information found in the course of their research. In addition to supporting this College Academic Learning Goal, Library Services workshops address additional topics to ensure students information literate.
To earn a digital badge students must meet the criteria describe for each badge. This includes registering, attending, actively participating, and completing the specified series of workshops for each badge or designing a specialized series of three workshops based on your specific goals and needs. Each workshop offers students the opportunity to learn through instructional material, PowerPoint presentations, individual and group exercises/activities, polls, quizzes, and culminating tests.
Once you complete the required workshop series you will be awarded your digital badge by Library Services. Information about obtaining your digital badge will be sent to the email address you used to register for the workshops.